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We welcomed a new life into our family this week. I’ve been blessed to become a grandfather for the third time. Reflecting on the calendar, I realized it was exactly one hundred years ago that her great grandmother and namesake was born, the last of ten children! Sadly our littlest one will never meet her (on earth that is). I never met my own great-grandparents. The same can be said for some of us about our grandparents. Some have even lost our parents too soon to the grave. You lucky readers who still have your parents may be prone to irrationally assume they’ll always be here with you, and in fact, assume your own life appears it will go on forever. Sorry to break it to you…

All those who came before us lived their lives experiencing a mixture of joy and pain, heartfelt times and heartbreak times, raised their children, worked their jobs, paid their taxes, and then expired. Few of them lived past 90 and even fewer past 100. So common is this duration of existence, you may wonder if this limitation is by cosmic design?

Some interpret this passage from Genesis to mean it is God Himself who limits our earthly lifespan to not more than 120 years; “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.” Early Biblical characters like Adam, Noah, and others lived well past this milestone, but for most of humanity since then, this seems to be the consecrated upper limit.

In what reads like a scientific confirmation, studies pin maximum human longevity at around 120 years. One study factored in the loss of regenerative capacity (the Hayflick Limit, a finite amount of cell divisions after which life-threatening tumors develop) and another considered what they termed DOSI (dynamic organism state indicator). That study concluded “criticality resulting in the end of life is an intrinsic biological property of an organism that is independent of stress factors and signifies a fundamental or absolute limit of human lifespan.” In other words, you ain’t getting older than about 120 no matter your diet or lifestyle.

This was not always the case. Death was first introduced to humanity only after God’s perfect creation was induced to embrace the knowledge of (good and) evil. When man was first created, he was declared “very good” by his creator (Genesis 1:31). His thoughts and actions did not fall short of those of his maker and he was therefore, by definition, sinless. Only upon disobeying the Creator’s one and only rule did he fall short, gain knowledge of evil, and in doing so earn the ticking of the mortal time clock which eventually leads to cessation of bodily function aka death.

Thankfully, God still loved his creation despite their sin. He patiently provided a path back to reunion by first laying out relational and behavioral rules that if kept, would afford mankind a blessed existence – not eternal, but blessed. Man was required to demonstrate his agreement and commitment to the deal by giving back to the Creator a prime portion of what the Creator had given man – in the form of sacrifices. This system survived for generations but since man’s compliance with the law was always imperfect, each generation still ended with death. The “bad news” was the Law merely showed man how imperfect he would always be.

To overcome death and resume what was intended to be everlasting life in the presence of and in harmony with the Creator, a perfect sacrifice was needed; one only the Creator himself could make.

God the Father, one in three persons in a blessed Trinity, dispatched Jesus to infiltrate humanity, live with them, teach them about the Father, and provide them (finally!) with a path which would not only liberate them from bondage, pain, and suffering but deliver them into reunion with the Creator. Jesus, born miraculously of a virgin, and thus bypassing inheritance of man’s original sin, lived a sinless life. After a brief 30-something years, He sacrificed himself for the benefit of all mankind. He accepted the punishment for man’s sin and for His efforts received death and separation from God.

Yes, the Lord Jesus, for the first and only time since creation, voluntarily separated from the Father, severing the connection of love that for so long had united them as one being. As the Father turned away, Jesus absorbed all the sin of the world, past and future, unto Himself, and in doing so, paid the debt incurred by man who had in the Garden dared to aspire to be god himself. Then Jesus shared in the ultimate human experience; He died.

But then the Holy Spirit took up His appointed role in the salvation play and by His power rescued the Son from the grave, breathing sacred breath back into the body of Jesus. His broken and battered body was transformed into a glorified body that remains to this day seated at the place of honor in the Kingdom of Heaven. When believers rejoin the Son in Heaven, they will see for themselves the nail and spear holes that will forever serve as a remembrance of His crucifixion. Until then, believers enjoy the gift of grace, and by that gift the blessings of faith, hope, love, and the strength to persevere.

Here is what I know to be the Gospel: The Creator of all that is seen and unseen, of the heavens and the earth and all that is living, knew that the gulf between His undeniable purity, his unbounded holiness, and our feeble, distorted, and broken image was so vast, that no work of man could ever reconnect across this endless void. No work, not even perfectly keeping God’s Commandments could repair the rift between us and a Holy, Holy, Holy, God.

Only the Creator Himself would suffice as a fitting sacrifice. God the Son took all the world’s injustice, imperfection, unholiness, shortcomings, selfishness, lies, and hate and give His life to the Father to settle mankind’s debt. Through God’s gift of Grace I have been reborn in the spirit enabling me to have faith, believe the truth of Jesus, and by doing so escape the fate of death. I instead enjoy a lifetime of confident hope, assured peace, and live with eager anticipation of an eternity with my Creator.

A baby joining us for our earthly journey is certainly joyful news, but my prayer is that she, and all of us, join with Him in our eternal life. While our little one is a source of great joy and hope, it’s the Gospel that is the (really really) Good News!

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Writers Block