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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Jesus
Was Born To Die Unlike you and I who were born to live until the day
we die, not so with Jesus. He
was born for one reason, and that was to die.
Genesis 2:17 might suggest a reason for the birth of Jesus.
"... but you must
not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you
eat from it you will certainly die." God issued one simple
command to humanity which we chose to disregard, resulting in the most
invasive pandemic ever to overwhelm creation.
It's called entropy. All
of creation, nothing excluded, was plunged into an all-encompassing
catastrophic environment of decay that eventually ends in death.
It cannot be avoided. It
inflicts the very essence of created life, whether animals, plants,
people, human relationships, national and international affairs,
climate, or whatever else comes to mind.
As depressing as this is, it is our present reality until such
time when our entropic infected existence vanishes and is replaced with
a new creation, as recorded in Revelation 21.
It was inevitable, then,
that the precise moment creation collapsed into a life of deadly decay,
Jesus, the mastermind of creation, would be
born into a human form for one specific reason.
He was born to die. The baby Jesus, while in the manger, had already
been sentenced to death. His conception and
subsequent birth began the process whereby God, in His
own good time, would eventually put an end to our present reality.
Until that day comes, nothing, not even our faith in Jesus, will
remove us from a life of decay that leads to death.
To believe otherwise is unbiblical, a mistake leading to a
discouraged defeatism that often ends in a loss of faith.
Until the new creation
of Revelation 21 becomes a reality, I accept my present life of decay
that leads to death as being God's will.
I do so with a godly hope, an assurance of a future certain reality that
guides me through the minefield of this present age.
I believe, then, that to the degree I can accept my present
reality with an assurance of a better future, will be the degree to
which I can productively live my life without being overwhelmed by what
age brings my way.
Yes, we celebrate the birth of Jesus into humanity each Christmas, but this year I am reminded of the reason He was born, and for that, I am eternally thankful.
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