Jesus came to defeat our loneliness and isolation
I have a deep conviction. What church-folk call “sin” is easily identified as any attitude, action or tendency destructive to healthy, interpersonal relationships. In his classic book, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis (through the devil Screwtape) gives a portrait of the diabolical mind:
[God] really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures, whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.
Jesus’s death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice, a satisfaction for sin. But astounding as it was, the cross is only the means to an end. To understand why the Eternal Son was sent we turn to Titus 3:3-7. In verse 3, Paul offers a bleak assessment of the human experience apart from God:
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Westerners suffer from extreme individualism, even developing phrases and taglines supporting a self-focused view of life. If we wonder why we are drowning in depression, loneliness, and a crisis of identity, it’s because humans were never meant to be alone. We were never intended to define our identity apart from our Source and our fellow image-bearers. Turning from God to define life on our own terms we come up short. Inevitably we fit the description Paul gives:
Foolish: we will not go to the one who can help us. We can make it on our own. We just need to try harder.
Disobedient: unwilling to be persuaded by God’s generous care.
Led astray: turning from Him, we cling desperately to any snake-oil sales job that crosses our path.
Slaves to various passions and pleasures: driven and controlled by our emotional pain toward the pleasures we hope can distract us.
Passing our days in malice and envy: life becomes an endurance race, with bitter resentment toward others who seem to have a better life
Hated by others and hating one another: In our misery we are isolated, cut off from life-giving relationship.
Why is interpersonal relationship central to the Christian message? Because reality itself flows from the interpersonal life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Interpersonal community is more primary than creation, or sovereignty, or even holiness. In the Trinitarian family, Interpersonal love has always existed and therefore relationship is centrally important. There is no life apart from love and there is no source of love apart from the Triune God who is love. As seen in Genesis 3 turning from God results in death of relationship, even before physical death. Happily, the Father did not leave this state of affairs remedied. Paul continues:
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Paul’s initial diagnosis of relationship pathology is transformed by the actions of the Trinitarian family. The loving Father restores the human heart through giving his Son and Spirit so that together, we become beloved children in God’s family. In Christ the Father demonstrates the ultimate expression of his love, addressing every obstacle in order to restore relationship:
Christ perfectly kept the law一removing the burden of failure
Christ bore our sin on the cross一removing the obstacle of our guilt and shame
Christ showed us God’s Fatherly heart 一removing our fearful distrust
Christ and the Father sent the Holy Spirit into our lives 一 removing fear of abandonment and anxiety of the future
In Christ, the Father pours his love into our hearts reminding us we are beloved children 一removing our loneliness
In Christ we are co-heirs, possessing every spiritual blessing一removing our envy
Through the Spirit, we come to experience the emotional life of God一removing our anxiety, hatred, and sadness.
United to Christ, all tensions are nullified一dissolving hatred and hostility toward others
In the cross, the Father did not wipe our slate clean and send us on our way. Instead he has drawn us near, giving comfort to the lonely, friendship to the isolated, acceptance to the failures, rest to the weary. Ultimately, he gives us relationship in a vibrant, outgoing eternal family and makes us part of the family business.