By Brett Crump
We live in a divided culture. People are divided over their views on the best ways to address all things related to COVID-19, the extent and solutions to racism and climate change, abortion, immigration reform and countless other things.
The divisions rob some of hope. And while I too have opinions about these topics, each of which I aim to be shaped by God’s Word, He tells us of an even greater, more significant divide.
The greatest and longest-lasting divide, that separates people now and will for eternity, is their relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:34-37).
He also said, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:31-32).
Jesus came the first time and became a man, while remaining divine, to bridge the divide between a holy God and sinful human beings, who live as if they were the gods of their lives. We remember and celebrate His atoning death on the cross and His resurrection on their respective anniversaries this coming week.
In these events, Jesus purchased our pardon so that we can be forgiven and set free from the power and curse of sin that separated us from God. We who agree with Him and turn from our waywardness of living as if we were the ultimate authorities of our lives and acknowledge that He is, and believe that His atoning death and resurrection is the source of our forgiveness and new life, are brought near to God, no more divide. Greatest problem ever solved!
Jesus’s work not only unites those who trust in Him to God, but to one another. Jesus prayed to the Father in the presence of the disciples the night before the cross and included these words, “The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.”
Thus, the greatest divider is also the greatest unifier. People from every nation, background, skin color, and earthly opinions are — and will forever be — united in the Lord. Now, that’s hope for living!
Brett Crump is senior pastor of New Palestine Bible Church (newpalestinebiblechurch.com). This weekly column is written by local clergy members.
