7 Day Devotional Responding to a Global PandemicНамуна

For God so loved the world… 

John 3:16 is probably one of the most well-known and quoted verses in the bible. Growing up in the church I have heard this passage over and over again, yet the meaning and power behind the words have slipped my memory countless times. 

Death 

One of the reasons why people are so frightened during this season is simply that people are afraid of death. Nobody wants to die. The response to death is sheer panic and utter chaos. On hearing of the rise in coronavirus related deaths in the UK, many people flooded the supermarkets in a frenzy, buying in bulk products that they did not need or ever use! This is because many people believe that physical death is the worst thing that can happen to a person, but as Christians we know that this simply isn’t true. For Christians, death is merely the gateway to eternity with Christ, and Jesus reiterates this in John 3:16, stating that “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The worst thing to happen to a person

So what is the worst thing that can happen to a person? The bible makes it clear that the worst thing that can happen to a person is spiritual death, as the individual is forever separated from God. The premise is simple: God is the source of eternal life; therefore, separation from God will lead to eternal death. It is similar to a life support machine keeping a person alive. The moment the machine (the source of life) is unplugged; the person begins to slowly die. In Genesis 3, we see that Adam and Eve chose to be separated from God, through their disobedience. From that point on, human nature has always been inclined to distance itself away from God rather than to draw closer to him. One of the consequences of Adam and Eve’s disobedience was that they could no longer eat from the tree that gave eternal life. Two people, who were once near to the Creator, were now so far away from him that they were slowly dying. When we read onwards, we see the continued history of how humanity has strayed further and further away from God because of disobedience. 

Mind the gap

The instant Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, sin crept into our world and separated us from God. Sin is the deadly virus that kills even after death because it is the one thing our righteous and holy God cannot stand. Sin is evil and a good judge (God) will not let evil go unpunished. Therefore it is only fitting, that eternal death (total disconnection from God) is the punishment for sin. Sin became the enormous gap that separated man from God. For humanity to be redeemed back to God, we needed something or someone to bridge the gap.

 Life– the reason for Jesus’s death

What an oxymoron indeed! Jesus’s mission was to take on the punishment of sin—death—so that we can live with God, again. Hence, for God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jesus died so we may have eternal life. His death and resurrection means that anyone who puts their trust in him will never die but will have eternal life with him. God’s sacrifice came from a place of immeasurable and unfathomable love for us.  

This is what will get us through the pandemic. Do not be afraid of death because Jesus has defeated death on the cross. Even though our bodies may perish, our souls will live on with Jesus Christ. This is the hope we have as Christians, echoed in words of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.”