All Infected…

“Whatever it is, we’re all infected.” I guess all the Waking Dead fans will get this. These chilling words were relayed by Rick Grimes to a group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Grimes first heard them from a Center for Disease Control worker named Dr. Edward Jenner. The most distressing element for these words, at least for the characters in the story, is that it brought them to realize that would eventually become a zombie walkers, save a fatal wound to the head. So the story goes... Human sinfulness in many ways is just that ominous.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:9-20, 23). Whether it is missing the mark in failing to do what is right or acting upon what is wrong, each one of us has incurred a debt of transgressions, and none can deny their own sinfulness. “Whatever it is, we’re all infected.” Death, the unnatural tearing apart of body and soul, is end to sinful humanity (Rom. 5:12; cf. Gen. 3). Far from being part of some positive “circle of life,” death is the last enemy that extinguishes the life force of each person.  

Beyond death, there is also a final judgment wherein each person will give an account for their lives.

Daniel anticipated a day when “many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). Jesus Christ likewise said, “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28-29).

The Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24-25 begins with The Lord’s near future prediction of the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple, which came to pass in AD 70. It signified the end of things related to temple, priest, and sacrifices. Yet, Christ also spoke of far future things as well, namely the day of judgment. The Lord’s parable on the sheep and the goats describes the final resurrection, when nations will be gathered, and the unrighteous will be separated as a shepherd separates the sheep and goats. Here too, the righteous sheep receive eternal life whereas the unrighteous goats eternal condemnation (Matt. 25:46).

All people enter this world fallen in sin, broken, the walking dead. Yet, a Light has come into the world to show the way to life. God the Father sent His Son to be incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ, who died upon the cross for sinners, and rose again the third day that those who believe can born again into a new life. This is the Good News that those who are dead can be made alive. The Lord said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”

The blessed hope of the Christian is that the Lord will return, the dead will be raised, the righteous will be resurrected to eternal life, and the problem of sin will be fully and finally dealt with. God will wipe every tear from their eyes. The very cosmos itself will also be restored to perfection, and paradise lost will become paradise restored.

We all must come to grips with the sin that infects us all. But one need not simply concede, “Life sucks, then we all die.” There is another way.

~ WGN