“What do you think the answer is?” someone asked me last summer as we watched the riots and chaos unfold on the evening news.

My immediate answer was “Jesus.” The world needs Jesus. My second thought was “love.”

The songwriter had it right – “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” The problem is, God’s definition of love is diametrically opposed to the world’s definition.

The Bible says that “God is love.” It also teaches that Jesus was God incarnate when He walked this earth. If God is love and Jesus is God, then Jesus is love, hence, the world needs Jesus!

The word “panacea” means – “a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases.” (www.dictionary.com/panacea)

We are told in the Bible that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) And when Jesus walked this earth, He told His disciples, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

Last summer, while amid the difficulties of a pandemic brought on by the disease of the coronavirus, we watched riots and chaos unfold on the evening news as activists protested about racial injustice. Make no mistake about it – racism is wrong, but it is just one symptom of a more deadly disease – the disease of sin.

The Apostle Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

Paul was not saying that those differences did not exist; they certainly did and still do. What he was saying was that all people are equal in God’s eyes. Hence, they should be equal in ours.

The world indeed needs Jesus, God’s perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world, in order to be reconciled to God the Father and receive eternal life, first and foremost. But the world needs Jesus – here and now!

Many people misunderstand what the Bible means by “eternal life.” Most people think that “eternal life” is something you receive when you die if you are a born-again Christian. And according to the Bible, that is true.

But wait, there is more! So much more …

The Bible teaches that eternal life is a gift of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. “God saved you by His grace when you believed (in Jesus). And you cannot take credit for this; it is a gift from God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

When a person hears the gospel, the good news about Jesus; and they believe in Him, repent of their sins, and ask Him to come into their life, the Bible says that very moment, God the Father, by His grace, through that person’s faith in Jesus, gives them the gift of eternal life.

But wait, there is more!

Jesus said, “… I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) He did not just come to ensure that our souls would spend eternity in heaven with Him, which is essential, to be sure. He came to give us eternal life now. He came to live His life through us now, so that through His love in us, we might point others to Him.

We are told in the Bible that God created every human being in His image. (Genesis 1:26-28) “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight” – as the song goes.

God defines love this way in the Bible: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy; it does not boast; it is not proud. It does not dishonor others; it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (2 Corinthians 13:4-8)

“Love never fails.” The love of God brings people together; it heals broken hearts. It heals all wounds and it reconciles rather than divides.

The panacea for racism, for hate, for pride, and all sin, is Jesus Christ.

 

Lisa Hannan lives in Valdosta with her husband, attorney Miles Hannan, who has been practicing law in Valdosta for more than 30 years. She has a B.S. in psychology from Valdosta State University.