If you get in a car accident, you’ll be glad to have insurance. Automotive repairs aren’t cheap! Sometimes, the damage is so extensive that insurance companies won’t pay to fix the vehicle. They regard it as a total loss, good for little more than a salvage yard.
But if mechanics can fix your car, wonderful! And after the body shop pulls out the dents and repaints the car, it will look almost new!
Yet it might not drive right. After taking a few trips around town, you might notice the car pulling to the right or the left. It refuses to stay straight.
Or you may have trouble opening and closing a door. Or you hear some clanging noises that weren’t there before the accident.
The repairmen did their best to fix the damage, but some of it is out of their reach. Even though they tried, they can only do so much.
The vehicle’s damaged and you learn to live with it.
We’re like that car. In this world, we’ve been in many accidents. We’ve caused quite a few, too. People crash into us and we collide with them. In light of all this damage, it’s amazing that we can function at all!
We pressed on because we had to. But when the gospel of Jesus Christ caught our attention, we finally heard the truth about our condition. Like accidents wrecking a car, sins have ruined our lives. In the world of transportation, some automobiles are fixable. Others get sent to the junkyard. In view of the spiritual world, we had to ask ourselves some questions. Where were we headed? Could someone fix us or were we destined for the junk heap?
The gospel points out the extent of our sinfulness, but it reveals a greater solution. Through Jesus, God became one of us. He lived among us, showing us what righteousness and goodness look like. He taught us what to do and what to avoid. He worked miracles of restoration the way a master mechanic reclaims a ruined vehicle.
You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him. – Acts 10:36-38
And in an act of unimaginable grace, Christ takes on our sin.
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21
It’s like a repairman transferring the damages to a vehicle to himself! Who would do that? Who could do such a thing? Only Jesus!
And the results are amazing.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17
Righteous and new–that’s who we are by the sacrifice of Jesus.
We’re not special; we’re saved. God rescued and restored us because He loves us. We have good news to share with others who’ve suffered the wounds and wreckage of this life.
All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. – 2 Corinthians 5:18-20
The church can take the toughest cases because we’re confident of the Master Mechanic. He can do wonders!
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