It’s pretty easy to give words to Jesus. It’s way to simple to twist the words of the Bible to make them say just about anything we want. Over the past few weeks we’ve touched on just a couple of these statements that Jesus never said but we kind of think he said. The goal of the series was to show that we should be glad Jesus never actually said them! This week we wrapped up the series with the realization that life isn’t fair and that’s probably a good thing!

Growing up it was hard to watch people around me have things that I wanted but couldn’t have. It was difficult to think I deserved one thing only to get something totally different. In the moment it was devastating! But now that I look back on it, really it was the best thing for me. Life just isn’t fair sometimes and if we truly look at things objectively we’ll agree that it’s ok! If life would be fair for everyone, we would still have a problem with that too! Let me explain.

In the Bible, which we believe is the true and inspired Word of God, we read that everyone sins. Now in the Bible’s explanation, sin is anything other than perfect and every sin is the same in God’s eyes. It’s hard for us to imagine all sins being equal but that’s what the Bible teaches. I think of it like a wedding dress. The bride is all perfectly dressed in her crisp, white wedding gown. Then someone comes up and draws a nice small black dot in the center of the belly of her dress with a Sharpie. It’s not a big circle just a dot. I’m pretty sure the bride would be upset no matter the size of the dot. It’s crazy to think a smaller dot would be more acceptable than a larger one. Both are noticeable. Both will ruin the dress. Both will be a massive distraction to the bride.

The same is true for sin. It can be a small, seemingly insignificant dot to us, but to God it’s the same as that dot on the white wedding dress. It ruined it! It’s no longer the perfect, white garment it used to be. Sin, no matter the size in the eyes of the world, ruins the canvas of the image of God that we were created in. So since everyone sins and sin ruins things. We can admit sin is bad! But how bad exactly?

The Bible goes on to say that the penalty for sin is death, which in context means complete separation from God. I know! Sounds harsh doesn’t it! But think of it this way, there are no surprises here. All sin has the same consequence – death. No ifs, ands, or buts about it! Enter the unfair part.

Now imagine someone coming in and volunteering to take your punishment for you. While it would be good news for you, it surely doesn’t seem very fair to the one who will be punished does it? That’s exactly what happened. In Luke 23, we read how Jesus went to the cross and died the very death we should have died even though he didn’t do anything wrong. The criminals murdered with Jesus got the punishment they deserved. But Jesus got the punishment we deserved.

Below you’ll find the link to this week’s message. I hope the idea of God punishing his innocent Son challenges you a little. I hope the idea that someone else is being held accountable for something you have done wrong wrecks your heart a little bit. Then realize that it’s really the best thing ever that life is unfair! It’s the greatest news in the world that you don’t get what you deserve!