Thursday

Tomorrow represents a very important day in our history. Some millennia ago, there was a man. But he was no ordinary man. He was God himself. This God was trinitarian (meaning three personas in one essence, or three-in-one). There was a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit. These three persons worked together so cohesively, so harmoniously, so unlike any example or metaphor in the natural world. They loved perfectly. There was never any strife, or jealousy, or inequality. They were all equal, but they all served each other. 

Out of this perfect love, they created. Not because they needed anything apart from their own relationship, but because they loved so purely, so abundantly, they wanted to share it. So they hand crafted a beautiful world, full of wonders. A world that could only answer to Him, only could serve Him. It was a beautiful world. But it needed something to maintain itself, a caretaker if you will. So this God created a race called man. And man was to glorify his Creator by serving Him. Then this Godhead decided that man needed a partner, someone to more fully serve God, but also someone that could, when bonded to the man, represent God's own perfect relationship and union with Himself. A union that generate more love, would "create" more by filling this world, that would glorify the God. 

God knew what was good for man and woman. He knew what they needed, and He was overly and abundantly willing to provide for what they needed. But they wanted more. They wanted to be their own gods. And with that, sin entered the world. It would infect the race of man in every person, in every generation to come. Every human would be stained by it from birth. And it would separate God from His creation, which He so loved. But He couldn't just will sin away, because He was above it. His perfection couldn't be near it. And in this new fallen world, terrible things would happen, not just from an individual sin, but because with sin brought death. It wasn't God's fault that these terrible things would happen, it was the result of this death that man was both born into and guilty of as a whole race. God was life, and He wanted life for His creation; this wasn't how it was supposed to be. 

But God had a plan. He would start off by choosing a people from within this race. A small, powerless, clumsy, and imperfect people. He told them what life was like, and His standard for what it looked like. But He knew they could never live up to those rules; that was the whole point. Man couldn't fix himself. God wanted the nations to know what He wanted though. So with this group of sinners, He stayed with them. They left him, scorned him, hated him, did every imaginable thing to get away from him, even after He saved them time and time again. They would never listen. In this, however, He was brought glory. How, you ask? He remained loyal to them; He never gave up on them. Sometimes He would let them have their way, even though He knew it would end terribly. And after they realized it, they would blame Him, and beg for Him to save them. And He would. 

In this messy story, however, he sewed a plan within it. He chose men to warn His people. But He also hinted at a final rescuer; someone who would once and for all defeat sin and death. Then He was silent for several hundred years, He didn't leave them, He was just silent. And they waited. Little did they know it would be God himself who would save them.

The Son, part of the Godhead, was sent by the Father. He lessened Himself to take the form of man. He wasn't any less God, or any less man than any other man. It was a mysterious combination. Nevertheless, it took extreme humility for a creator to become creation, to come off His throne as king and become a peasant. But the Father loved His creation so much, He had to save them. The Son loved the Father so much, He obeyed. The Son became like the very sinners who hated Him, to relate to them. His original people didn't believe that He was really the man who would ultimately save them. The nations didn't believe they needed to be saved. They hated this man.

This man was human in every way. He lived the life of a man, was confronted with every type of sin any man would face. The only difference? He didn't give in. He lived the life that fulfilled every one of those standards from long ago, that no other man could have ever done. He did it for them. And what did they do? Kill Him.

Now we arrive at tomorrow, or have you, Thursday. This day some millennia ago. This man had one day left to live. He had a small group of followers. Friends that spent every day with him, knew him as well as anyone could have. But they wouldn't remain loyal to him, even after seeing everything he could do, after all the love he showed them. For in that time, they were considered the worst sorts of people; the ones everyone acknowledged as sinners (even though every man is a sinner in their heart). They knew they weren't perfect, and this man loved them anyways. 

On this last day, one of these close friends would betray him. And for all of the things, money. Not even a large sum of it either. As unwarranted and disgusting as this may seem, there is something more astounding. This God-man would humble himself yet again, and wash this filthy betrayer's feet; he even knew what he was going to do. And he washed all of their feet. All would abandon him, and he did it anyways. 

So this man was betrayed, and eventually sent to die arguably the most excruciating (which is actually where the term "excruciate" originated) death on a cross. To be crucified. This God-man was beaten to a pulp, unrecognizable, taunted, spat on, despised, held at the same level of true sinners, on either side of him. And as awful as it was, something worse would come. You see, the night before he spoke with his Father, and he begged him to not let this thing that would happen, happen. God himself knew how terrible it would be. But this man wanted the Father's desires over his own self-preservation. He wanted it more than his life. So after a few hours of this unbearable pain, he looked up toward his Father and said "It is finished", and died. And the terrible act that would happen occurred. The Father poured out every ounce of wrath he could ever accumulate on this man. From the very first man and woman, to the  very last far in the future. Every moment, every thought, every action. All the death. All of it. And the Father emptied Himself of all this betrayal onto His Son. Every last bit of it. And once it was over (three days worth of it), just to prove that he was better, that he had overcome it, this man rose from the dead. God defeated it Himself. Not only did He defeat sin, but He gave us the very righteousness, the perfection, the status that He had earned. The perfection we could never attain by any means or degree. The Father looks at His people, and see His Son. And He did it for us. But not ultimately for us. He filled in the wide gap that sin left between Himself and His creation. And the way He had intended for His creation to be would happen someday. But not yet. You see, death was dead, but it wasn't over yet. This God-man would come back one day for his people, for His wayward Bride and complete this story. 

"His people" were no longer just one nation. It was open to all people groups; every tribe, in every language would one day return to their Husband and praise Him. The love that God had created with would one day come back to Him and ultimately glorify Him. The point of creating in the first place. 

So today, we are still waiting. The war was won, but the battles still rage on. Already, but not yet. He made His people clean, but they still live in bodies that would die, until He returned to give them new bodies that would never die. Their spirits were clean, their status of "sinner" had changed to "righteous", but those natural bodies were still infected with the sin. The world still was filled with death. But the world would see His Bride, and praise God for the work He had done. Because the third person of the Godhead would enter in to the souls of His people, never to leave them. They could endure the death and sin, because God Himself was within them, guiding them. His people could now overcome the sin that remained in their bodies. He never would leave them. 

His people are the sinners, undeserving of forgiveness, of grace. They didn't earn anything (no matter how "good" they seemed by worldly standards). It was solely God who did all of it, so that only God cold be glorified. None of His people could boast of any achievement, because that achieved nothing, earned nothing. So because of that free gift, from it, His people were intended to be so thankful for being forgiven that they would WANT to serve Him. Nothing would be forced, because their status couldn't be changed or made better (cause what's better than a "perfect" status?). They can't earn God's love, it was just given. This gift is sufficient for all of the sins of mankind, but it wouldn't cover all of them (Remember, God can't just will away sin, and people can't earn perfection). And some may say, "Well that's malicious." But it really isn't. The fact that God would come down to spare any of us is beyond me. 

I am a daughter of this King. Every sin I have ever thought or done, or ever will was COMPLETELY poured out on the Son. I have the status of "Daughter" to the Father. I am a part of His Bride. I did nothing to earn this. In fact, I have a long list that would suggest other wise. I was born evil, a sinner. I have nothing in me that would warrant grace or mercy. But I don't have to live like that any longer. I have the Son's inheritance from the Father. God Himself is within me, in the form of His Spirit. Daily, I can look sin in its ugly face and say "No". But my body is weak. The war was won, but the battles within rage on. So I fall. I forget what was given to me. And the beautiful thing is, I'm picked back up, brushed off each time, and reminded by the Father "I love you, you are made good enough." by the Son, "I died for that thought you just had, so that you would be good enough." and by the Spirit, "I'm in this for the long haul, there's nothing you could do to make me leave you. You were made good enough." I have this hope. I have a future. I shall not despair. I will fight. I was placed on the winning side. Will you join me?

Soli Deo Gloria,
Mackenzie Thies