Christian, Our Biggest Problem Has Been Solved

I don’t know what burdens you’re carrying as you read this. I don’t know how heavy they are. Or how helpless you feel. Hopeless, even. Or maybe it’s more of an annoyance. An irritation. 

You’re probably carrying both. We usually do. We often hold at least a few very weighty, life-and-death concerns in our hearts, along with the more superficial or temporary cares of the world. 

When the morning dawns, so do our remembrances of a deep sorrow or concern or fear. A fractured marriage. A terminal diagnosis. A relentless addiction. A deep regret. A still gaping wound.

We rub our eyes and wonder if we can care for our sick loved one. If we can we come back from financial ruin. If it’s possible to heal from the abuse we endured. If we can reconcile what’s broken. If we can we make it through the weight of another day. In this broken world you and I never wake up unscathed. 

Add to our heavy troubles, our daily toil. The weather’s bad. The boss is grumpy. The printer’s out of ink. The kids are fighting. The date is late. The car is dented. Our friend disappoints. Our spouse complains. Our kid sasses. Our patience wanes.  

Our problems can feel cruel, oppressive. 

But Christian, our biggest problem has been solved. 

Our Father “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13). 

You and I were once enemies of our Creator (Romans 5:10), deserving on the day of judgment to be “cast our from the favorable presence of God, into hell, to be justly and grievously punished, forever” (Answer 28, New City Catechism). 

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). 

You and I are saved “by faith in Jesus Christ and in his substitutionary atoning death on the cross; so even though we are guilty of having disobeyed God and are still inclined to all evil, nevertheless, God, without any merit of our own but only by pure grace, imputes to us the perfect righteousness of Christ when we repent and believe in him” (Answer 29, New City Catechism). 

Our biggest problem has been permanently, forever and ever, solved. 

No matter how awful the day. Now matter how heavy the burden. Now matter how bad the breech. Now matter what terrible, regrettable, horrible thing we have done or endured, our biggest problem is already solved and there’s no going back. 

Nothing in this life, this day, this world is worse than the problem that has already been taken care of on our behalf—our salvation, our justification, our unmerited and wondrous unity with our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. 

Christian friend, whatever you face today, put it into eternal perspective. It is small in comparison to the very big thing that God has already done. Be encouraged. Take heart. Rejoice. 

May you and I remember, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39). 

May we remember this truth and may we weigh all things in light of its glory. No matter what today brings—whether it’s tremendous weight, or minor annoyances, or both—with the help of Christ who already saved us, we can endure. Because we walk in the kingdom of the beloved Son.

Our biggest problem has been solved.