One of my favorite phrases is “the finished work of Christ.” When Jesus died on the cross, he did not say, “My part is done, now your turn.”

In the beginning was the Word, and in the end, there he will be too,

In Ryle’s book, he wrote about “the many ways in which the faith of Christ may be marred and spoiled, without being positively denied…the very reason that so much religion called Christian, is not…” He then laid out four ways the gospel may be spoiled.

Colossians 1:15-20 is one of the most magnificent descriptions of Jesus in all of the Bible.

Hope in an increasingly hopeless world is shrouded in mystery. But it is there. It is real. It is available. It is a gift—and that is the thing we must all remember.

We cannot bear very much reality. So we go into virtual reality. Strapping on our headsets, we depart from this world to another. We fight fake battles and climb mountains of pixels. We bowl alone, our eyes wrapped in technology takings us far, far away without leaving our chair. The day behind us falls like a blanket to the floor and the day ahead floats out front but we can’t see it. We don’t want to see it. We want an escape. The darkness is too much, so we blind it with light from a thousand sources.

The Bible warned us about this. Putting our faith in someone other than Jesus will inevitably lead to disappointment. And we do it anyway. That’s why it hurts so bad when our heroes fall.

It’s in the Christ where once upon a time becomes happily ever after. Maybe not in this life, but surely in the life to come. The good King wins, not by his might but by his weakness, not by his circumstance but in spite of it, not by his force but by his love.

The play of a child when no one is watching is beautiful. It is who we all want to be: lost in a world of our own making, where it’s all ours. I left that place long ago, but my children still live there. They haven’t faced the real terrors yet that rob us of make-believe.

Let’s beware of missing Jesus. Let’s beware of standing in the presence of God and missing the hope of the gospel. Let’s beware of our knowledge and agreement shielding us from repentance and belief. Let’s not merely discuss matters with Jesus but fall down in worship before him, crying out for rescue. There is only one way to enter the kingdom of God, and the Bible is clear from cover to cover that the one way is faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone.