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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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Some questions you may have:Q: Why do Christians talk about 'sin' all the time? A: When we use the word 'sin' we are talking about those things in ourselves that are against the life of God. This word is often misused - but it's a good one to use to describe our predicament, our separation from God. If you have a question that we can answer then contact us and we'll put our answer up in this space. Stories:Christian people are real people. Click here
to read their stories and hear about their experiences. Links:Want to know more about the way Christian think about
things? Have a look at these places
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Jesus - What good did he do?Jesus of Nazareth did many things during his life. It is, however, how he died and what happened next that puts it all into perspective. During his life, Jesus himself looked towards his impending death and hinted at it's significance: He began to teach them that [he] must undergo great suffering and be rejected...and be killed...[1] The significance of Christ's death lies in how it provides the answer to the deepest of all human issues: our failure to be the people we are meant to be. When we consider the ugly things of the world we are aware of how much humanity has failed in its responsibility. A world that is true to itself as God's creation will be a beautiful place. We recognise that humanity has become untrue to God and itself. The result is the violence, selfishness, and destruction that we so readily see. Each of us, to some extent, is part of a 'rebellion,' if you like, a 'turning away' from God—as one of the spiritual seers of ancient Israel describes: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way.[2] When people, who have rejected the life of God, encountered Jesus, in whom God is specially present, they also ended up rejecting him. The accounts of Jesus' life tell us that eventually people were either after Jesus' blood, or betraying him or denying him (even his friends), or totally unable to help him. We are told how Jesus was killed by a raging mob by being nailed to a wooden cross (a terrible means of execution used by the Roman Empire). The recent movie The Passion of the Christ depicts this in graphic detail with some accuracy. But how can someone who is so full of life die like this? Unlike anyone else in history Jesus had simply obeyed God throughout his time on earth. Beyond what anyone else could have done, he brought God's life wherever he went—and this lead to a completely undeserved and cruel death. Surely this greatest of all injustices could not go without response? Jesus' friend Peter makes it clear that God did respond to it. Peter speaks to his people after the event: 'You killed the author of life, whom God
raised from the dead.' God would not, and did not abandon Jesus in death. He not only restored him to life, but to a new sort of life - a life that is so close to himself that it can never be taken away. It's the life of heaven itself. And so Jesus presides over a new age, he is in charge of a new way of living in harmony with God and creation. The excellent thing for us is that Jesus desires to share this new life with others. For those who turn from their destructive life, and simply trust Jesus to direct their lives - these people find this life as a gift to them. Their destructive behaviour and attitude, even as it lies in the very depths of who they are, has been dealt with as if it reached its end in causing Jesus' death. And they are caught up in the new life of Jesus in which God is at work in them, just as he was at work in Jesus himself. They find themselves forgiven of the faults and made new from the inside out. They find themselves caught up in Jesus' death and rising again - their old life dies and a new life begins. The worst actions of a violent and godless humanity—the killing of someone filled with the life of God himself—could not prevent this new life. Death itself could not prevent this new life. And so no person is so bad or so broken that they cannot find life in Jesus of Nazareth. It is a free, and effective gift. Jesus once told a dear friend of his, a woman named Martha: 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?'[4] Through his sacrifice of himself - his death and rising to new life - Jesus provided God's answer to the greatest of all human problems. This is the good that he did. 'For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things' by making peace through the blood of the cross.'[5] And this action by Jesus has impacted all of history, including today. [1] From the
Gospel of Mark, chapter 8, verse 31, NRSV
Jesus... |
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