1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
You made your bed; now lie in it. You’re probably familiar with that cynical expression. Akin to “we get what we deserve,” it describes the human condition of meeting consequences for our actions.
However, we live in a culture that tends to ignore negative effects of questionable behavior. We give pornography and criminals a pass and wonder why sexual abuse and injustice are on the rise. We adhere to the philosophy of follow your heart, and don’t understand why instability and chaos ensue. Or as C.S. Lewis so eloquently puts it, “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”
I am a firm believer in consequences. But I also believe in a deeper truth. A truth that exists because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus laid in the bed we made. When he died on the cross, he took all our sins—every last stinking one—on himself (1 Cor. 15:3). And those who embrace this “great mercy,” as the Apostle Peter writes, find new birth into a life of hope. So whatever consequence we face from our sin, redemption surpasses it.
Although our sins created Calvary’s bed, that grave could not restrain the Lord of life. He rose from its grip and forged a way out for us. In fact, the only way out. It took the power of his perfect sacrifice to overcome the final consequence of all sin…death.
Friend, you don’t have to lie in that bed you made another minute. No matter how unkempt, how disheveled, how much your tossing and turning in rebellion’s wake has separated you from his redemptive love. I can’t think of a better time than this season to cry out to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Embrace the deeper truth.
Embrace Easter’s hope.