Fandom: Owl City, “Always”
Verses: John 1:1-2, Isaiah 7:14, Hebrews 4:15, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:17
Nugget: Jesus loved us so much that He gave His life to fill the gap between us.
This is the most important of all the fandom nuggets we will ever discuss here. It sums up the entirety about what I believe about Jesus, God, the universe — everything — and it is immensely important for everyone to hear it! If you have never heard the Gospel before, I’m so happy you’re here, and hope you’ll keep reading. If you’ve heard the Gospel before, but don’t believe yet for any reason, please don’t leave! At the very least, this could change the way you view Christianity, even if it doesn’t convince you to change your mind. And if you’ve heard the Gospel and have trusted Jesus as your Savior, I am so grateful for you. Please, please, please share this post 🙂
This episode of the Gospel according to Owl city will focus on the next part of the epic story that is the Bible: the part where the hero comes and rescues us from certain doom, at great personal cost. I bet you can guess who the hero is! Click here for part one 🙂
Jesus is the son of God
One of the most fundamental truths of our faith as Christians is that of Jesus as the Son of God, Son of Man, and Savior of the world. John 1 says it this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning” (John 1:1-2). There are multiple instances in the Old Testament of the Bible in which Jesus appears, showing that He existed before time, equally eternal with God.
Here is a link that explains the idea of the Trinity and Jesus’ part in it in more detail, plus another one that talks about the importance of Jesus as the Son of God as compared to other religious figures.
Jesus came to earth as a human
If you’ve ever seen the Charlie Brown Christmas special, then you know this part too: an angel came to a virgin named Mary, probably a young girl (people got married really early back then) and was like, “Hey, Mary, you’re gonna have a baby, and He’s gonna be the Son of God and the Savior of the world,” and Mary was like, “wait what?…Oh okay cool, God said it so it’s all good.” Major paraphrasing, but you get the idea. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, basically a miracle from God, and was born from a virgin (more detail in this video). He fulfilled a prophecy in Isaiah 7, plus a whole bunch of other prophecies that we can talk about some other time. Here’s a video that talks about Jesus as the Son of Man.
Most importantly, though, Jesus was fully God AND fully human—and He proved it. He showed emotions (John 11:35), He got tired and hungry(John 4:6), He built genuine friendships (also John) and felt pain and suffering (Luke 22:44). Hebrews 4:15 says that He was subject to all the same temptations we are, but never sinned. Which brings me to my next point…
Jesus never sinned–not even a little
You know that saying, “it takes three weeks to start a new habit, but no time at all to break one?” I know from experience that trying to be consistent in something, even something as basic as brushing my teeth, can be difficult. It’s much easier to just say, “meh, I’ll do it tomorrow, my teeth won’t disintegrate overnight.” But then imagine doing that same thing, but instead of brushing my teeth, I have to be literally perfect– no lying, no cheating, no stealing, no self-indulgence, no selfishness, always loving and caring and putting others before myself and having compassion on them and praising God even when I’ve been at work for five hours and my feet hurt and all I want to do is take a nap, or never thinking anything bad, even for a second. Not about myself, not about my friends or family, not even about the rude driver who almost ran me over.
I’d fail at that so fast, it wouldn’t really even be worth trying. In my own strength, I can’t do it. It’d just be too much.
But this is exactly what Jesus did. His feet hurt. He got tired and hungry and had emotions that tempted Him to do things that wouldn’t please God, but He chose not to do those things, every. single. time. Whaaaaaaaa? That’s impossible to imagine on human terms, but it’s what God requires, and it’s what Jesus did. This also means that Jesus can empathize with us when we feel all those things that humans feel, since He went through them Himself.
This God isn’t someone who stays up in the clouds, looking down on us and wondering why we can’t get our act together. This God is with us in it all, and He went through it all first.
Jesus died for us, even though He didn’t have to
We’re getting to the heart of the matter here, the climax of the story. This is the part where the hero of the world, this man who claims to be God in the flesh, has to prove Himself not only to us, but also to God. How does He do this? Does He ride into Rome, the seat of power in those days, and stage a coup? Does He mobilize the Jews, His people, to set out on their own and establish a new nation, independent of Roman rule?
Nope. This hero does what no hero has done before: He dies. Not because He deserved it or because He was overcome by superior forces, but because God needed a sacrifice for our sins. Jesus was in tune with God the Father, so the desire to be in fellowship with us was in Him too. He wanted to be with us, but knew that could only be possible if the scales were even, if all our wrongs were righted, if the one human who never broke God’s ultimate standard of right and wrong chose to take our place.
But…why? Why would this perfect human who’s also God choose to give up His life for the sake of a human race who have done nothing to deserve Him? Because He loves us. Because He knows our hearts, and the gap that can only be filled by a relationship with our Creator, and He wanted desperately to fill that gap, so He did, without regard for the personal cost (Romans 5:8). Here’s another video about Jesus as our Messiah.
Jesus conquered death and was raised after three days
Okay so this still isn’t looking good. After three years of ministry, traveling around Jerusalem and the surrounding area, healing people and preaching the truth about God in a way they’ve never heard before, Jesus is arrested, put on trial, and sentenced to death under false pretenses. He is brutally beaten, mocked, and forced to carry a cross, the worst form of Roman execution, to the top of a hill outside Jerusalem, where He slowly bleeds to death. Here’s a famous re-creation of the sacrifice of Jesus in the Chronicles of Narnia.
I could go on and on about the beauty of Jesus’ sacrifice and how much evidence there is for the fact that He did, in fact, rise from the dead after three days, but that would take all day, so we’ll save it for another time. Instead, here’s the second part of the Aslan scene, and for further research, this article that shows evidence for the resurrection and another which examines some objections. Finally, here’s another video explaining the details of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus enables us to conquer death and sin when we put our faith in Him
Almost done! This is the part where the story takes a turn for the better. Because Jesus died and was raised, He claimed victory over the separation between us and God. He righted the wrongs and settled the score, and we get to enjoy the benefits of a relationship with Him, both here on earth now and forever when we die.
But the “freedom of choice” aspect of this story is still in play. We have to choose the God-life, accepting the salvation of Christ as a gift that we can never earn (Romans 5:8, 6:23), and professing Him as the Lord of our life (Romans 10:9-10). We can choose this life, or choose to keep following our own path, and there will still be consequences either way. That’s the just way to do things– God will never force you to do something you don’t want to do, even if He knows that’s what’s best. He wants you to choose Him, as He chose you.
Jesus is with us through the Holy Spirit
Okay, last bit for now. Jesus went back to Heaven, because a physical human body couldn’t possibly be with everyone all at once, but He promises to be “with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
How is this possible? This is where the third member of the Trinity comes in, the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit comes into each individual believer, and even speaks to us before we’re saved, calling us to repentance and salvation. Here’s a video about the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first disciples, and an article about the Holy Spirit’s role in our life as Christians.
Conclusion
In short, Jesus, the Son of God who was also 100% human, came to Earth, conquered death, and was raised from the dead, bringing “peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:17). He made our wrongs right so that we can be fulfilled by relationship with Him, then sent the Holy Spirit to guide, comfort, and compel us to follow Him. He is with us, Always.
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