Absorbing the Avalanche of Feculence

Imagine with me for a few minutes, an enormous funnel—as large as the earth. In that funnel has been poured all the awful human experiences since mankind’s beginning: the murders, the dark hatreds in word and deed, the betrayals of trust, the cheating, the conspiracies, the lies, the corruptions, the thefts; the sexual abominations—rapes, adulteries, prostitutions, bondages, homosexuality, and the sexual abuse and soul-damaging violations of women and children; all the unjust wars, the greed, the prideful nationalistic invasions and lusts for power, the gulags, the suffering of civilians, the miseries of the wounded, the tortures of prisoners and those innocent, the genocides, the slaveries; the diseases and sicknesses, the cancers, the blindness and deafness, the slaughters of innocent children and unborn babies, and human experimentations: billions and billions of agonizing cries, heard and unheard, lifted up to heaven for relief. All of this in one terrifying, horrific avalanche of human feculence, rushing toward the narrowing neck.

At the end of that opening, is one small, seemingly, individual, waiting; waiting for the impact of all the effluent. He has been waiting there for thousands of years. It will impact Him, and He knows full well what is to occur. However, the individual offered for this horrendous task is most unanticipated and almost incomprehensible: God Himself.

God’s answer for the flood of atrocity is not to thrust out His chest, resist it, and cause it to bounce off like a Superman; no, it is to absorb it, including the required punishment it brings. He is unable to even lift His hands in front of Himself for protection. He is weak, helpless, and unable to move, or move away.

When it hits Him, He dies.

He must die.

However, a vital truth resides here which is unknown to the onlookers and very many today. His life was not taken; He gave up His life because He is the God who lives forever. He cannot die. Thus, after the gargantuan onslaught of evil refuse and resulting justice kills Him, He rises. And with that rising comes the exact opposite of misery-filled refuse: beauty, cleanness, joy, life, and light.

But more accompanies that astounding reversal. Cleanness, yes, but holiness, purity—a holiness that in its essence is God’s. No darkness. No hidden sins. No lie. No betrayal of trust. All good. All pure. That holiness is given to believers because of the individual who hung helpless that day—the very holiness of God Himself.

And more. Righteousness. The ability given to stand before God without any intervening or interfering obstacles and sins. All given. All free. Undeserving. Nothing you can do but rejoice in it, in faith, and love Him in it.

And more. A relationship with the Creator of all things. A relationship with the One who thought up and brought into being all that is living and bright and majestic and beautiful, those things not of man’s creation, that you see and cannot see daily.

If you are a believer, you are His son. I write “son” rather than “son or daughter” because, biblically, sonship entails inheritance. So, believers in this redeeming God receive, almost impossible to comprehend, an inheritance that is shared with the first-born Son, Jesus. Yes. Whatever that inheritance is, you, as a believer, share it with Immanuel. All given. All free. Undeserving. Nothing you can do but rejoice in it, in faith, and love Him in it.

Is there work for you to do? Of course. He created you to do good work, those things that He actually prepared beforehand. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).¹ We may chew on that for a while, but not too long. He will attend to that prepared work as you seek, follow, and obey Him.

And why wouldn’t you want to do that?

 

¹All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Gif courtesy giphy.com