If you’re a chess player you know it’s a complicated game. If you want to be good at the game, you have to be able to look at the entire board, recognize a variety of possibilities, and see several moves ahead. An excellent chess player has to see all sixty-four squares and all the pieces on the board. Life on the other hand is infinitely more complicated.
Sometimes when we consider world history it resembles a similar situation. A contest between the forces of good and evil, moves and countermoves that have determined the destiny of humanity. Maybe more than any other event in history the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ illustrate this ancient spiritual battle and the high stakes it represents.
Throughout the accounts of the Old Testament, through prophets and judges, kings and nations this battle carries on. God has already announced Satan’s defeat in Genesis 3:15, but that doesn’t stop the Enemy from trying to destroy God’s work and His people. Move, countermove, move. Then we encounter a break of 400 years between the Old and New Testaments, and as the New Testament opens Matthew begins with the lineage of Jesus and his entrance into human history. It’s a story we are all familiar with, but we often fail to consider what it means for us today. Why does the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ matter anyway? Undoubtedly many of us would passionately defend the story but do we live as if it really matters? The story of the gospel clearly illustrates one thing, that God thought it was Worth It. Throughout the next several weeks we will explore these questions and others as we walk with Jesus toward the cross.
