encountering love

Great news

Slow down… read that verse again. Did you catch that? “…so that we might become the righteousness of God!”

Hm. That’s a very different message than the one I heard my whole life saying, “you’re really sinful and God had to come because, well, you’re bad” or, “you’re just a sinner saved by grace.” To a degree this is true, we have fallen… but do you know the glory in which you have fallen from? And yes, my best attempt to please God is considered filthy rags, but it for sure is not the full story… that’s what makes the cross absolutely insane. I’ll give you a hint: God really loves to restore things back to their intended design.

(And I know, you’re probably thinking, “Lyndon, are you crazy?” Well, yes… crazy free)

Seriously. Listen to this.

In the beginning God creates man by breathing His own life into him. In other words, He gave His essence to mankind and we were united with Him, “created in His own image” (Genesis 1). Mankind lived in perfect union with God in the Garden. We walked together, talked face to face, and partnered in running the earth. There was no thought nor design from God for shame, condemnation, nor sin. All of it was perfect, and this has always been the intended design! So, our story cannot begin with sin; we must start (and finish) at the glory we were made for! However, man chose independence from God, and that marriage union between Creator and creation was divorced. From this point forward, all of mankind is desperately trying by any means possible to work their way back to their original design - being united in relationship with God. Whether it is trying to find hope, joy, peace, etc. through different religions, doing what feels right to you, or trying a “good” person, all of it is ultimately a desperate cry from your heart for what you were truly made for: Him! He is the pure and complete answer to everything to everything we ever need. But, since we were full of sin, and since God is righteous, we only made the problem worse the harder we tried.

BUT GOD, being rich in mercy and full of jealousy for us, His bride (who had chosen other lovers), sent His son and our Bridegroom-King, Jesus, as a man in order to rescue us and to restore this lost union. Hold on. GOD… became MAN! And He didn’t skip any steps. Jesus crock-potted inside of a virgin woman for 9 months, went through puberty, worked a job, and lived a perfect life in my place on earth for 33 years. He knows how to identify with us, and since He was around before the fall of man, Jesus knew the glory and union we fell from. He even was homeless while on earth (so that I could have a home in Him), beaten beyond recognition (so that I could be recognized by God the Father), and was brutally murdered for all of my sin (he actually became it). Oh, and it get’s wayyy better: He rose from the dead to permanently defeat this sin, shame, and condemnation from my legal record forever. That’s right… while every other religious leader died and stayed dead, the God I serve died and literally rose from the dead. All this in order that I, a man who was dead in sin, could unite with Him by joining His resurrection up into His eternal life and now become like him: restored, redeemed, righteous.

But Lyndon what must I to do experience and have this? Well, in the same way that Jesus received my sin to pay it’s consequence of death, He has offered that I receive His righteousness made available by the work of the cross through faith. In other words, you trade your sin/death for His righteousness/life. It’s the best deal I’ve ever heard in my entire life. It’s this crazy gift called grace and it is offered to all people, at all times, in all places, and the only way to receive it is by FAITH in Jesus.

And consider this: There was not one complaint in Jesus at all. Not even one, “man, this Lyndon guy is really making this whole becoming-a-man-and-dying-on-a-cross thing a real inconvenience and annoyance for me.” No. He came because He loved. Not because I did anything or had anything to offer, but because He loved me… and likes me. The Bible says that it was actually his joy to come (Hebrews 12:2). And what were His last words to me on the cross I hung Him on?

“My bride, it is finished.”

Think about that! He came to get married. To me. To you. He was so lovesick for shared union with you that He literally poured out His blood and was crushed so that He could marry you and restore all that was lost in the Garden.

The cosmic purpose of all of creation is to serve as a romantic backdrop for a marriage between God and man.

Two becoming one.

It’s right there in Romans 6, “you have been united with God” in death, burial, resurrection, and in sitting with Him on His throne in the heavenly places. If this is true, which it is, sin is the absolute last thing that should even enter my mind. If I believe the lie that the cross didn’t actually set me free from sin, what do you think I’m going to do? Sin! But what if I really believed what the Bible says? That through the blood of Jesus I have now “become the righteousness of God!” This sounds pretty familiar to how things were in the Garden - God and man in perfect union with absolutely no room for shame, condemnation, nor sin to contaminate their love. And don’t worry, this invitation will never expire and is available right now. This freedom was paid for in blood, and secured by a bridegroom-King who rose from the dead and has now made His home inside of you. Christ alone truly is enough! The blood is enough; it is enough to restore and heal sickness, decades worth of mistakes, sadness, addiction, confusion, trauma, etc etc etc.

This is GREAT news.

Let’s just take a shot of Colossians 1:27 while we are at it:

”Christ living in [insert your name] is the hope of glory.”

So again, am I crazy? Yeah. Crazy free.