Sunday, December 9, 2018

BAIL OUT

Part of a Series "Prepare the Way"

by Steve Dunn

Reading: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: 
The old has gone, the new is here!" - 2 Corinthians 5:17

Bailout has become a bit of a dirty word in our language.  It implies charitable initiatives intended to help some get back on their feet or stimulus packages to turn under-achievers and failed performers into fruitful workers or industries.  Our recent political and economic experience has generally resulted in failed expectations, some times out and out abuse of our generosity, and more often than not increased cynicism and even despair as we spiral deeper and deeper into economic and national chaos.

The problem with mere bailouts is that they assume by a timely addition of resources (like an infusion of capital) that essentially flawed industries can turn themselves around. They assume that the only flaw in those recipients is faulty judgment or bad breaks instead something embedded in the group's DNA.

The Fall has embedded something relentlessly destructive and deadly into humanity.  It's called sin - and the wages (the returns) of sin is death.  And death always collects its due.  Although we are created in the image of God, sin corrupts our spiritual hard drive even more relentlessly and completely than the most insidious computer virus.  Those of us who experienced such an infection know that at some point the only choice is to completely clean the hard drive or start over with a new hard drive.

When Christ came into the world it was not for a bailout or simple repair.  It was for a transformation, an entirely new creation.  Only when the image of God is   re-embedded through his work of atonement and grace do we have any hope of breaking free from both the power and penalty of sin.

Thank God He provided us more than an incentive or more than a bailout.


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