In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).
Prior to this nothing had existed except the Triune God. He made - out of nothing - all that is. It was good. It had order.
But sin made its way into humanity’s existence; death reordered everything. Prior to death - prior to sin - God’s order was the norm. Beyond just being the norm, order was all there was.
You and I live in the reordered world marked by sin and death. Men and women from my childhood pass away. The frequency of these announcements seems to be increasing; three in the last few days. We live without them. We even live without some of the kids from our school years. Even some of our own children are gone.
Each time someone who has an imprint on our lives, our lifestyles, or even our memories dies, life is reordered. That’s what death does: it reorders. First, death reordered the perfect order. Now death reorders how we’ve grown accustomed to the previous reordering.
And the cycle repeats itself again and again. Will it ever end?
Yes.
The order broken by sin and the resulting death will be restored. Jesus Christ came from heaven and was born into this world just as you and I were. He lived in this disordered life experiencing all that you and I do. However, as the experiences of this life result in sin, suffering, and death for us, it was not so for Jesus.
He lived, he experienced, but he did not sin. Yet he still suffered and died. He suffered because the world has been reordered. So when his close friend died, Jesus wept. When he saw people wrongly treated, he agonized. When he was beaten and crucified, he suffered.
His suffering was quite real and personal, but his suffering was not because of anything he had done. Likewise, his death.
His death was real and it was personal. But where death is part of the reordering brought about by sin, Jesus did not sin yet still experienced death - the death we should experience.
Why? So the cycle of reordering would end and all things could be restored as God intended his creation to be.
My family, my friends’ family members, my friends, and I will all experience the reordering of God’s good creation. We will die. But something waits beyond death.
Jesus lived and died so that any and all who trust him for salvation from the penalty of sin (which is death/separation) can live again. This time we’ll live in a place of restored order. A place where sin can no longer bring death. A place where chaos is not known.
A place where any and all who trusted Jesus for salvation will reunite.
Heaven.
I have many family and friends and heroes already there. I’m looking forward to being there, too.
But the greatest thing about heaven is being forever in the order our Creator intended and being with our Creator: the Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
