Everything Changed

This morning, I was struck by the utter everything that is Jesus.  If you have been a Christian for awhile, maybe you have taken him for granted as I often have.  Maybe you have given all sorts of correct spiritual answers to questions about Jesus, but experientially, Jesus has seemed very far away and difficult to know.  Who is this Jesus we speak of and what difference does He make for our lives now???  This is the question I have been asking for the last several months.  

Today, I have been contemplating just one of the things Jesus accomplished that changes EVERYTHING for us.  

Before Jesus came and lived and died and rose again, God created a world in which we could walk with Him in intimate and sin free union.  It did not take long for us to mar that perfection by believing Satan's lies and our relationship with God became severed by sin.  We as a human race continually chose wickedness, selfishness, and every other thing that broke God's heart.  In the midst, God pursued his people, Israel, establishing agreements called covenants with them. They had endless years on a roller coaster of obedience followed by disobedience and repentance in sack cloth and ashes followed by celebration of forgiveness.  In modern terms, they were in and out of God's good graces.  Inside the camp or outside it.  Clean or unclean.  Jew or Gentile.  Exhausting and burdensome pretty much sum this up.  

Enter Jesus.  

Because of him and his sacrifice, no more separation.  We can jump off the roller coaster.  God the Father is permanently pleased with us.  Nothing can separate me or you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  Our yoke has become easy and our burden is light.  He loves us equally in the moment we are sharing the gospel with our neighbor and the moment we are thinking lustful or prideful thoughts.  His conditions have been met in Christ so that we can know His unconditional love. And this unconditional love is what leads us to want to do every single thing He asks because-  well, we have never known someone to love us like this before and as a result, we love him furiously in return!  

Wherever you are today, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are not separated. Jesus was forsaken so that you would never have to know what it is to be forsaken.  Get off the roller coaster of performance before you get nauseous and celebrate the game changer that is Jesus.