Ever wonder what this world is coming to? Pastor Adrian Rogers said, “It’s all coming to Jesus.” He is what life in general, and your life in particular, is all about. He is the great hero of the human story and of your story too!
Humans have always been held spellbound by hero stories. From the earliest cave drawings to the protagonists of great literature to the comic strips of yesteryear, and the blockbuster movie superheroes of the present, the human spirit has always craved the story of a good and hopeful outcome won by a hero of great character. Man craves the story because he knows he’s broken and in need of restoration—lost and desiring to be found.
In every great story, we look for conflict and resolution, a deceitful villain, and an epic hero.
In the overarching story of Mankind, the human story, the conflict started with the fall of Man and continues with every man’s temptation and sin.
Satan, the villain enslaves us to sin. We may think we are liberating ourselves from authority and embracing the freedom of self-determination, but we find ourselves enslaved to sin and Satan.
When Adam and Eve succumbed to Satan’s deception in the Garden of Eden, they lost their intimacy with God. They lost the authority God had given them to rule the Earth. They died spiritually. They became physically vulnerable to injury, sickness, and eventual death. Emotionally, they felt the sting of shame and the dread of death for the first time. They hid in fear. But God spilled the blood of an animal to clothe their nakedness—a foreshadowing of God’s plan to sacrifice His own Son to atone for Man’s sin. You can find this story in Genesis 3.
Jesus, fully God and fully Man, is the only one qualified to save men and women from certain destruction. In another garden, Gethsemane, He tasted the terror-filled cup of God’s judgment for Man’s sin and was obedient unto death on Calvary for our redemption—bringing back the intimacy with God that was lost in Eden.
He is our Champion, our Mediator, our Refuge, our Friend, and our Savior.
As Pastor Rogers said, “Everybody needs a hero. Jesus is mine.”
Let’s look at some of the details of the greatest story ever told by considering its protagonist, Jesus Christ. We’ll look at Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments because the story of the Gospel is one narrative from Genesis through Revelation.
God created man and woman to have dominion and rule over this Earth. Once we understand this, we can claim what was lost by Adam and restored by Jesus, the conquering Christ, the Second Adam.
According to Genesis 1:26, God gave dominion on Earth to Adam. When Adam and Eve sinned, they turned dominion over to him and became his slaves. God was dethroned in their hearts, and Satan began to reign.
But this dominion, legally lost by Adam, was righteously regained by Jesus Christ.
Dominion was lost by a man, and it was legally restored by a man:
For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
When Jesus was fasting in the wilderness, Satan tried to tempt Him to sin as he had tempted Adam (see Luke 4), but Jesus defeated Him by the Word of God.
Jesus again battled Satan at Calvary. When Jesus died and was buried, the devil believed he had won. But three days later, Jesus walked out of the grave and brought back dominion that had been lost.
This dominion has been gloriously given to those who believe in Jesus Christ.
And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:22-23).
When God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, He raised us up as well.
The first Adam lost it all in a garden; the last Adam won it all back in the wilderness. He became a son of man that we might become sons of God. He took our sins that we might be innocent. He became guilty that we might be acquitted. He was filled with despair that we might be filled with joy. He took our shame that we might take His glory. He endured the pains of Hell that we might have the blessings of Heaven.—Pastor Adrian Rogers
Spend time regularly in Scripture. Dwell on the Word of God, exercising your dominion, rightfully restored by Jesus Christ. Read more about Jesus, the conquering Christ in the article, “Jesus Is God’s Plan For The Body of Christ.”
When you start reading the Book of Job, it’s easy to question why bad things happen to good people. But the real question is: How can good things happen to bad people?
If we’re all sinners—and we all are, by birth and by practice—how can any good come to us?
How can a man be righteous before God? (Job 9:2).
After experiencing disaster and loss, three of Job’s three friends came to him with the wrong answers. They brought satanic revelations, humanism, sophisticated reason, and legalistic adherence to rules without relationship.
But Job recognized his real need for a mediator. He saw his need for Jesus before he even knew His name.
The only way a holy God and sinful men can come together is through Jesus, the God-man, our Mediator.
1 Timothy 2:5-6 says, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time…”
Both God and Man, Jesus was the only qualified mediator. As Pastor Rogers said, Jesus is “as much a man as if not God at all… as much God as if not a man at all. Not half-God and half-Man, but all God and all Man, never another like Him, the God-Man.”
Have you accepted Jesus, the God-man, our mediator? Do you see your need for Him, and seek Him first in times of need?
Read more about what the Old Testament Book of Job teaches us about Jesus in the article, “Jesus is the Mediator between God and Man.”
In the Book of Joshua, we see Jesus in God’s designation of the “Cities of Refuge”. People fled to these cities to escape “the avenger of blood”—the near relative of someone who had been killed.
“Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Appoint for yourselves cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the slayer who kills a person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there; and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood’” (Joshua 20:2-3).
God wanted people to have safety and refuge, so He strategically placed the six cities throughout Israel. The roads were clear and level with signage that pointed travelers in the right direction.
Likewise, Jesus has made a way to Himself. Our City of Refuge is always near. He is closer than our next breath, for everyone who believes in Him and confesses Him as Lord can be saved. (See Romans 10:13.)
In speaking of Christ our Refuge, Hebrews 6:18 says, “...we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us…”
It is not enough to be near the City of Refuge: we must enter in and begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. Adrian Rogers said, “To be almost saved is to be altogether lost.”
For specific details about the six cities of Refuge, and their highly symbolic names that point to Jesus, read the article, “Jesus is Our City of Refuge.”
Jesus died for all of Mankind—those who know they’re sinners and those who think of sinners as some other group or class. The rich, the poor, the clean, the dirty, could all be friends of Jesus. He demonstrated this in death by receiving the friendship of the thief on the cross next to Him, and He demonstrated it in life with the diverse group of disciples who walked with Him and the tax collectors and prostitutes who ate with Him.
He even demonstrated His call to friendship with the stories He told. When criticized by the Pharisees for the company He kept, Jesus told three parables recorded in Luke 15. In the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, we see how much God loves us, and why Jesus is a friend of sinners.
These parables not only explain the sinful nature of Man, but they also reveal the saving nature of God. They are earthly stories with heavenly meaning. Jesus Christ is the shepherd who rescues the lost sheep. The woman searching for her lost coin represents the Holy Spirit. God our Father is the father running to receive his prodigal son.
God loves us; He is the Good Shepherd seeking us. He is the Holy Spirit shining light upon us. And He is the Father with arms open wide, welcoming us home.
Read more about these parables in the article, “Jesus is Love and a Friend to Sinners”.
In the Old Testament, King Solomon was the apex of all greatness, wealth, and wonder. By all appearances of class, wealth, and status, Jesus did not compare to Solomon.
But when criticized and judged by the Pharisees, Jesus said:
“The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42).
This one quotation in the Story of Jesus can tell us much about Jesus as the true hero of the human story.
Solomon was venerated for his wisdom, his works, and his wealth. His workers praised him. The world wondered at his splendor, as evidenced by the great trek the queen of the South made to see his glory.
In all of history—religious and secular—it is hard to find one so admired as Solomon. Yet Jesus exceeds Solomon in every category. His wisdom is perfect. The Earth is His and everything in it. He accomplished the greatest work of all time, the restoration of the human soul. He has been praised and worshipped by millions across more than two millennia. And His glory and splendor are eternal and infinite.
Read more about the contrast between Solomon and Jesus in the article, “Jesus Is The Son of God, Our Savior and King."
Do you worship our great Savior, who reigns for all eternity? Do you know Him as your Friend? The Conquering Christ shed His blood on Calvary to bring you into the City of Refuge. He is your Champion. Your Hero.
He is also a Gentleman. He will not force His love on you. But when you invite Him in, He will restore to you the spiritual life lost through sin. In place of the sting of death, you will have victory over death and eternal life!
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3).
One day, maybe soon, Jesus will return to claim His bride, the Church. Those who are found in Him will experience the glorious culmination of the story of God and Man.
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready (Revelation 19:7).
C. S. Lewis, Christian theologian and author of “The Chronicles of Narnia,” referred to the move from life on Earth as we know it to life in Heaven with Jesus as the beginning of the “Great Story.”
All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.—C.S. Lewis
Life is all about living for Jesus. Don’t miss the adventure.
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