One of my favorite books is a poorly written fiction by Harold Myra titled “Escape from the twisted planet.” It’s a fascinating picture of life on a twisted planet and what it might be like on planets where sin never happened. The reason I love the book is the visions it paints of what life might be like without sin’s pervasive influence and destroying impact. All around us, like fish in water, sin pervades all we know, all we experience. It would be difficult to imagine life without the destructive nature of sin in us and in the world around us.
If we eliminated all the jobs that deal with sin and its impact on the culture most of us would be out of work! We are used to it all, but just imagine what it would be like without all that sin has done- no prisons, no police, no hospitals, no doctors, no nurses, no congress to make laws, no courts to enforce them, no traffic signs, no fear, no anger, no jealousy, no hurts emotionally or physically, and on goes the list. If we were to make a complete list of what sin has done to us it would be much longer than you could possibly imagine! Living on a twisted planet is difficult, but it’s all we know.
Go with me for moment to a place where sin has not touched its inhabitants. It’s hard because we can’t imagine such a place, but let’s take a moment and travel to a planet that sin has not affected. The people there have no worries, no one is there to hurt them, steal from them, or reject them. There’s no fear, no pain, no jealousy, no peer pressure, none of the things that are woven into our very natures on this world. It’s hard to imagine because, like those fish, we can’t conceive of a place without water, or a world without sin’s pervasive influence.
Sin has been much more destructive to us as humans than we could possibly imagine. Even as a Christian the pull of sin in my life is still strong. I constantly battle with sin’s influence and invitation.
Paul tells us that we, as Christians, are citizens of another kingdom. A kingdom sin has not touched, a world as God designed it in the beginning…..perfect. When I use the word perfect what I mean is a place that has not been twisted by the work on sin. It’s a kingdom coming soon, a country on the horizon that promises and provides joy, peace, happiness, compassion, kindness, caring, community like you have never known. It’s a kingdom we all long for, a place apart from the twisted planet that has left us bankrupt because of sin’s work on our little broken world. It’s a kingdom I’m thrilled to be a citizen of and can’t wait to see. Soon we will escape from this twisted planet and discover what life was meant to be. I look forward to the day when this twisted planet is set right by God’s return to claim his people and his planet. As John writes at the end of the book of Revelation, “Come, Lord Jesus, Come!”
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