Love Wins – The Story Includes All of Creation, Not Just Humans

(Post 10 of the current book selection “Love Wins” by Rob Bell, Chapter 5)

The insistence that Jesus was the last sacrifice ever needed was a revolutionary idea at the time.  This was because, for thousands of years, people believed that sacrificing was how you maintained a peaceful relationship with the gods, forces or deities that controlled your fate.  This in turn would make you more likely to get what you wanted.  It was costly, time-consuming and stressful.  But, they believed it was worth it.  So, you can imagine just how shocking yet relieving it must have been to hear that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice that thoroughly pleased the only God who ever mattered.

To talk about what happened on the cross in this way made sense to and had an effect on those people.  That’s why the writers of the New Testament explained it in this way. In fact, they brilliantly used many different metaphors to explain what happened on the cross in ways their audiences could relate to.  We should takes notes and do the same by not using metaphors that don’t make sense to the people we talk to.  For example, Americans don’t understand the importance behind the blood of a living thing.  So, use something else.

Also, without joining the cross with the resurrection, you may fall into a popular misconception about the breadth of what happened.  It’s the misconception that humans are at the center of the story all by themselves. That Jesus died on the cross ONLY so that we can have a relationship with God.  But that’s not the whole story.

You see, resurrection has always happened throughout all of creation, not just in human bodies.  Jesus death and resurrection was God’s inauguration of renewing, restoring and reconciling everything “on earth or in heaven” (Colossians 1:19-20) to just as God originally intended. It’s bigger than where each individual human spends all of eternity.  The story includes all of creation, not just humans.

But, when it comes to people, Paul tells us that just as humanity died through the first humans, so “in Christ all will be made alive.” (I Corinthians 15:20-28)  That single truth is all over the New Testament.  But, there’s a process.  Everyone must first die to live by letting go of their lives. That’s the way the world and the human soul work.

Note: The next post is available on Chapter 7 called “Jesus is Saving Everything and Everyone”

(Disclaimer:  The content of this post is the post author’s perspective on the book selection’s content and not the opinion of the post author.  To purchase the book, click on the link below)

Love Wins by Rob Bell