The Beauty Of The Story

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”

            John 5:24

Recently, I had a conversation with my husband about the Old Testament. He is reading the Bible cover to cover again and is smack dab in the middle of the Old Testament. Over dinner last night, he commented on how difficult it was to read this portion of the Bible. He feels like he is just wading through, anticipating the end so he can get to the other side and move on to the New Testament. He struggles with the constant harshness of the Old Testament, getting lost in the lineage, laws, and punishments. After listening for several minutes, I asked him to think how different our lives would look if things were still the same.

Imagine for a moment that the New Testament never happened. We would have little to no hope of spending our eternal lives with our Father. The laws laid out, the expectations given, asked for sheer perfection and not a single one of us is perfect.

Fortunately, that is not a world we have to imagine. We know the Good News. Christ offered himself as our sacrifice so we would have the opportunity for eternity with God. We do not have to be perfect; He was perfect for us. We simply have to acknowledge the sacrifice Jesus made for us and accept His role in our lives.

This is the beauty of the story. We can continue to live our lives as imperfect humans, knowing that because of our faith and our personal relationship with Christ, we have the ability to serve God forever. Our futures are uncertain and we certainly know we cannot control what will happen. But, we can control our acceptance of the Good News and allow it to consume our lives.