A new reality
John 3.16 —16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him

shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus tells a parable about a young son who leaves home, hits rock bottom, and returns in shame. His father sees him from far off, runs to him, embraces him, and announces a party in honour of his return. In this story, God is the God who stands
in the driveway, waiting for his kids to come home. So the party starts and everybody is celebrating, and the older
brother comes in from the field mad. He wants to know why his brother gets a party and he doesn’t. The parable ends

with the father telling the older son, “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”

The father wants the older son to know that everything he wants he has always had; there is nothing he could ever do to earn it. The elder son’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t have anything; it’s that he has had it all along but refused to trust that it was really true. We cannot earn what we have always had. What we can do is trust that what God keeps insisting is true about us is actually true.

Let’s take this further.

As one writer puts it, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were unable to do anything about our condition, while we were helpless, while we were unaware of just how bad the situation was, Jesus died. And when Jesus died on the cross, he died for everybody. Everybody. Everywhere. Every tribe, every nation, every tongue, every people group.

Jesus said that when he was lifted up, he would draw all people to himself. All people. Everywhere. Everybody’s sins on the cross with Jesus. So this reality, this forgiveness, this reconciliation, is true for everybody. Paul insisted that when Jesus died on the cross, he was reconciling “all things, in heaven and on earth, to God.” All things, everywhere. This reality then isn’t something we make true about ourselves by doing something. It is already true. Our choice is to live in this new reality or cling to a reality of our own making.

Stop and breathe.
Loving Father, your arms are open wide, ready to rec+eive us, ready to embrace us, ready to forgive and renew us. May we live in this new reality.