Great Big Life

A jacuzzi gospel

In this article I want to share with you an account of something that happened to me recently. As Christians we believe that God can speak to us anywhere, at anytime, that His communication to us is not limited to a couple of hours in a set location once a week but can be anytime and anywhere.

As I have walked with God over the years I have seen that there is actually nowhere that God can’t speak to you, if your heart is open to hear Him.

A few months ago I was ministering in the north of England and, due to a bit of confusion with the itinerary, I had some free time on the Saturday afternoon. The pastor, Derek, who is a good friend of mine, asked me what I would like to do and gave me a few options. One was to go to a leisure centre and have a soak and a chat in a jacuzzi. I did not need too much persuading so, armed with towels, off we went.

After sitting in the bubbles for a while and chatting, I casually looked around the swimming area and my eyes were drawn to a young boy playing with his family. What was different about this boy was that he had no hair and, as I looked some more, I became aware of the dark circles under his eyes and other symptoms that told me this poor kid had cancer or leukaemia, and was obviously undergoing treatment to beat it.

As I watched this young kid playing in the pool with his family my heart really began to go out to him. I don’t know if that was the dad in me or the minister – probably a mixture of both. My friend Derek was still talking in the background but my attention and thoughts were very much on this lad. In my heart I began to say the things we all probably have said, like “that’s not fair, he should not be sick” and “he is too cute to have that awful sickness”. I began to further think, he just should not have it at all, and I wish someone could do something for him.

It was then that it happened. Derek was still talking and I was busy thinking these thoughts when God spoke right in the middle of it all to my heart and posed a question. The question shocked me, awoke me and challenged me above any other. The question was this: “How much do you care? Do you care enough to do something?” What God was asking me was full on. It was this: did I care enough to get out of the jacuzzi, cross the pool to where the young man was, lean down and take the sickness off of him and put it on myself, then find all the other kids that had the same and take theirs too, then go to a corner of the pool and let the sickness do to me what it had intended to do to them? The result would be they would be free and I would die a terrible death.

At this point I turned to Derek and said, “Mate, you know I am not a spooky Christian but God is challenging me right here, right now and I need space to think for a moment.”

I thought God’s challenge through and came up with my honest answer. Feeling pretty cheap, I replied to His challenge. Maybe it was because I love life, maybe it was imagining the faces of my children missing me. Maybe the thought of the torturous pain it would involve or a mixture of all of them. But my answer was simple: “No, Lord, I could not do that.”

God spoke back something so profound it reframed the Gospel to me in a fresh and powerful way. He said, “That’s exactly what I did for you and all humanity. I cared enough.”

It was then that I saw it – the ‘Jacuzzi Gospel’ that Jesus started in heaven. Heaven was a place where He was a king; in fact, King of kings, surrounded by angels worshipping and adoring Him in all His majesty. It was a bit like my jacuzzi, a place of comfort where everything was OK. Then He looked over the edge, across the pool of the universe, to some children (us) who were being eaten away by this cancer-like sickness called ‘sin’. Like that sickness it was eating away destroying, rotting each and every one of us. Then something powerful happened. Love motivated Him to step out of the jacuzzi (heaven) and come poolside (to Earth) and do what I couldn’t. He took our sickness (sin) off us and placed it upon Himself, freeing us of it, healing us by His ultimate sacrifice. The Gospels record that then He took that sin to a dark corner of the pool (the cross) and let it fully do to Him what it had intended to do to us. That moment on the cross must have been so painful as the sin of the world was placed upon one man, God’s Son.

I believe that the graphic portrayal of this in the recent film ‘The Passion of the Christ’, by Mel Gibson, gave a true picture of what this payment looked like.

The good news is that, because He took it from us, it no longer had a right to us. The power of sin was broken by the sacrificial love of another. Jesus cared enough for you to leave heaven to save you. What an incredible thought!

I wish I could tell you a better ending to the account, like the little kid was healed and went home well but, sadly, I can’t. What I can tell you is, as well as being drawn to pray for this kid, I saw what Jesus did for us in a new way, a way that filled my heart with fresh appreciation and made these timeless verses from God’s Word come alive again.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18 (NKJV)

He left heaven with one purpose to save us and, through His sacrificial death, He did. He never came to condemn but to save. Being saved is just one step of belief away for any person. Just believe that He stepped out of heaven and went to the cross for you and instantly you partake in what He did and sin stops eating you!

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

God demonstrated that ‘greater’ love to each of us through laying down His life for us. Don’t ask God if He loves you. He has proved it beyond anything that words could say. It’s time to accept it now. He never just said He loved you, but demonstrated it in stretching out His arms and dying for you.

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)

The Gospel is a message of divine exchange: He became what we were so we could become what He is. He took what we had so that we could know and have what He has.

Remember, the story does not end with Jesus’ death. After taking our sin upon Himself and making payment for it, He rose from the dead to return to heaven. Nothing could hold Him down because the full price had been paid for sin so sin could no longer hold Him. He returned to heaven opening again the gates of heaven for each of us.

When believers pass through the doorway of death, which we all will do, we will straight away pass through the open gates of heaven because of what Jesus did. Those gates are not locked to us any longer. The padlock that once caused them to be closed to man was sin placed there by the disobedience of Adam. But through the obedience of what Jesus did the lock of sin was ripped from the gates of heaven and they were opened wide for anyone who believes to pass through.

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” Romans 1:16

Just believe

All a person needs to do to see the destroying grip of sin broken from their life, to become a friend of God, to know that the gates of eternity will be open to them is to believe in Jesus and that what He did was for you as well.

The message of the Gospel is not one of self-achievement or works. The language of the Old Testament was ‘do, do, do!’, but the language of the New Testament is ‘it’s done, it’s done, its done!’ All you need to do is believe in what Jesus achieved for you. Nothing that you can do can make you ‘righteous’, or right with God, because only Jesus could do that, and He did.

“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:21-24

All we can do is freely receive and enjoy the free gift of salvation that cost us nothing but cost God the best He had. How could we not worship Him?

Maybe you have read this and have been challenged that you are not right with God. If you have never received the gift of salvation, why not do so now? Turn to the back of this book and pray the prayer you find there. For us who have received the gift, let us never lose our awe of what Jesus did for us.

A jacuzzi gospel

Just believe

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