Hating God

I watched The Passion of the Christ recently. It struck me how intensely and passionately the human race hates God. As Jesus is being flogged by the Romans, they are laughing and joking, even as they brush his spattered blood from their faces. As He struggles to carry His cross towards the hill, people are jeering, cursing, spitting on Him. It is a very graphic portrayal of Isaiah 53:3: “He was despised and rejected by mankind.” It’s appalling how much vitriol is in the human heart towards our Creator, the One who deemed us worthy to form rather than just call us into being like He did the rest of creation.

He created this world for us. We were to be His stewards, care for it, love it, nurture His kingdom. But then the enemy tempted us with becoming our own god. God was keeping things from us, he said, He didn't want us to be like Him. The sad thing is, we were already like God, He created us in His image. But we believed the enemy and submitted ourselves to him rather than God. In effect, we turned the world over to satan. God had put us in charge of the world, told us to " have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26. We think the reason God cast us away from Him after the fall was because He hates us. No, it was because His presence, His holiness, His all-powerful love would destroy us. It is we who cannot be in His presence, not the other way around. Once we sinned, we were now the servants of satan. That's who we had submitted to. We sold ourselves to satan so that we too would be gods; gods in charge of our own lives, our own destiny.

Jesus was about making a way for God’s precious humans to be able to be bought back from satan. But even as Jesus paid this debt, voluntarily becoming our sin and being separated from God, humans cursed Him, mocked Him, thinking He brought this on Himself. Watching The Passion and what Christ went through, I just can’t comprehend God’s love. That He would purchase us back even as we curse Him. Why? Why would the Creator of the universe subject Himself to this? The only answer is Love. The debt has been paid. We no longer owe God for our rebellion and sin. You can believe He did this for you, say thank you, and live accordingly or you can continue being in charge of your own life and pay for your own sin. It's a choice. Just like God is a choice. We either choose to allow God to be God of our life or we continue to be our own god. You have already been redeemed—bought back—but believing you needed to be redeemed and accepting that redemption is a choice.