By Ord Benson Amanya
The beginning
In the beginning, God created a perfect Earthly environment. All the necessary elements were provided to sustain life indefinitely.
God, the Creator went on to create man and woman to live in perfect harmony within that environment.
God established a perfect government and put Adam in charge of Earthly affairs.
Right from the beginning of His creation, God held mankind in high esteem and regard.
His plan was that man would not only remain in a relationship with Him, but also have a personal fellowship, wherein man would submit to God’s personal direction all through.
Our God is relational. Adam, as the first man, was in a healthy relationship with his Creator; a relationship founded on trust.
The duty that mankind had before God was to obey by maintaining the intended relationship of harmony and oneness with Him respecting His authority as Lord and in accordance with His will.
God in His infinite wisdom, created mankind with a free moral conscience with the precision to decide between right and wrong.
The responsibility to make the right choices fell squarely on the heart, mind and conscience of man.
To cut the story short, Adam and Eve chose to exercise freedom of choice and went their own way, separating themselves from the fellowship with their Creator.
Fall of man
Man chose the opposite. He rebelled against the Lordship of God, hence yielding to sin.
Sin is regarded as missing the mark of God’s personal expectations, plans, and pleasures in a man-God relationship.
Adam represented the entire human race. His rebellion cost us eternal bliss in the company of God.
It is important to note that laws are good for a universe. Without law and order, the universe will become out of control.
Mankind remained helpless and was unable to reverse the consequences of his own rebellion against God.
Only God could bridge the gap. Due to sin (the fall of man), man’s relationship with God was disconnected.
Man was living a life “without God in the world” and was excluded from the life of God.
There was an enmity between the Creator and His favorite creation to the extent that man was viewed as an enemy of God (Romans 5:10). Fallen man was alienated and hostile towards God.
Reconciliation & restoration
But God is not yet done with man. He has not given up on His favorite creation.
The only way God’s anger against man can be settled is for man to suffer his wrath in death.
Jesus comes as a substitute on which God vents and expresses His personal wrath against man and his sin that broke their relationship.
Through the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God is pleased with Jesus’ substitution as a Perfect Sacrifice for man’s sin.
The sacrifice of Jesus creates reconciliation between God and Man. God was in Christ, reconciling the World to Himself.
He reconciled all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His Son (Colossians 1:20).
Praise the Lord! We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son and we are now saved by His life.
Christianity would be meaningless and incomplete without the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Through His resurrection from the dead, the long-standing curse of sin and death upon humanity was reversed.
Sin and death were stripped of their grip and power over mankind. Death died at the Cross.
It is uniquely interesting to note that in the history of the world, no man had ever lived and died a sinless life. Only Jesus Christ (God in flesh) did.
Jesus’ resurrection was evidence that indeed He was who He always said He was.
I like how Saint John ends his account of the life of Jesus by saying: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).
Sin that originally made man a stranger and an enemy of God, was stripped of its power and the broken relationship between man and God was restored. Henceforth, humanity got to their position as sons and daughters of God.
Apostle Paul explains this better by saying: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.
“More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:10-11).
The writer is the Chaplain at Rukungiri Technical Institute-Kyamakanda, North Kigezi Diocese.
Email: bentamanya@gmail.com
