Do I Hate Who I Was and Love Who I Am Now?

[Jesus] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.  Titus 2:14

I was not created to love evil.  Quite the opposite.  If Adam and Eve never sinned, I wouldn’t even know what evil was.  I’d be walking in Paradise, communing with God in the evening after an enjoyable day at work.  Instead of pondering my regrets of the past 24 hours, I’d be savoring the beautiful moments on God’s perfect earth.  Instead of brainstorming how to keep my soul safe from unsafe people, I’d be soaking in the beauty of perfect intimacy, one without any reservations whatsoever. 

But that’s not how the storyline unfolded.  A knowledge of good and bad opened.  Acquaintance with a thing called evil came into view, and with it, an incapacity to understand the breadth of wickedness.  It was too shocking for the human mind.  Too horrific to grasp.  Yet, there was also an appetite for what it might be like to explore the edges of the canyon of evil desires.  One taste after another put us deeper into the pit with an enemy who never intended to let us go back to paradise.  Once in his web, he lured, tormented, condemned, and maligned the only Savior who could rescue us.

That’s not the end of the story.  Nothing could stop God’s plan of redemption and restoration.  Jesus came to snatch us from the fire, to give us a new nature, one that would no longer want to sin.  Wickedness would repel us.  Dressed in the robes of the Garden, once more perfect in Christ, we would dance in our new identity.  We would forever stand in awe of the power of Jesus’ shed blood, for it was His sacrifice that made a way for us to be purified.  All things became new.  Old things of the canyon-of-evil passed away. 

I am part of the people that are Christ’s very own.  So are you if you trusted Christ to redeem you from the curse of the Garden.  We are sin-haters, often engaging with it anyway, but quick to repent as we remember who we are now, and whose we are forever!

There is Paradise in my soul now.  But Paradise for my body – coming later – is still a sure thing.  Even so come Lord Jesus.  Amen