Have you ever seen inside yourself the very thing that most upsets you in other people? I’m sure you have. Even if we’d rather not face it, we all know that we are (or have the potential to be) just like the things we hate. Inside my own heart, I find desires and longings that are pure and filled with the Spirit of the Lord living right alongside the kind of selfishness, fear, unkindness and petty jealousies that broke the world. This incongruity is disturbing. How can we be two things at once? We are all like a hotel manager who rents a room to the city’s very best and worst characters on the same night, and then has to sleep in that room. The thing is, when you look around at the mess and cruelty of this world, you want to see justice done. You want to see the monsters done away with and the sufferings of the innocent made right, but there is a problem. When you are honest, you realize that the monsters aren’t just out there - the monster is within us all. In Galatians 1, Paul says Jesus came to rescue us from this present evil age, which is exactly what we most want and need. We want to be rid of the darkness of this place, but can we be? If the rescue mission involves getting us out of this evil world, does my messed up heart have to stay behind? We’re not just the victims of this story, but the villains as well. The amazing thing is that Paul says Jesus came to rescue us from this present evil age by giving Himself for our sins. He pays, forgives and then delivers us.
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