Thoughts on life and Scripture...

Sunday, July 24, 2016

The Zombie Redemption

There he was locked in a cage that was in the corner of  the foulest room that I had ever seen. He sat in his cage glaring at me through the bars. "Stay back" said a voice behind me. I looked around to see a short, fat man with an evil grin. "The creature will bite if you get too close." I felt a cold shudder travel down my body as I seemed to be in the presence of very wicked creatures in a dark room. "What is that creature in the cage?" I asked the man beside me. "Oh he is a sort of zombie. He is dead and alive at the same time. But I would say he is more dead than alive."
  "How did he come like that?"
 "Ah he was warned of the consequences, but alas, stupid fool, he chose to disobey and then this happened. He turned into a zombie. Now I own him."
His laughter echoed through out the room as he said this. I looked again at the creature in the cage and saw in a glimmer of light the rotten features of his deformed face. So I turned away and asked the man, " What do you do with him?"
"Oh, I enjoy torturing him. Then at times I let him out to terrorize the people in the town. You wouldn't believe the crimes that this thing does.  Of course no one can do anything to overpower it. While he commits outrageous acts, I watch and take delight in his evil."
" Is it possible for him to be released from his cage? Could anything be done to relieve this creature from his misery"
"No, well, yes, but it is almost impossible. The creature has a long lists of crimes which must be punished by the judge of the land. If those crimes were paid for by someone who would suffer cruel torment in this creature's place, then he could go free. But who would want to rescue such a creature. And what would you do with him after he is released? He is too vicious to be kept out of his cage."

I saw then that there was no hope for this foul creature. Why would anyone want to pay such a high price to save a half dead creature that chose to put himself in this place to begin with? There is nothing that is good to be found in the disposition of this zombie. So I turned to leave this dreadful place, when a man stepped into the room. He walked past me to the torturer and showed him a piece of paper. As the torturer read it his mouth fell open and the color drained from his face. All the man said was, "It is paid in full." Then he walked to the cage and looked at the creature with the kindest and most compassionate expression. Then he went to the door of the cage and opened it. He took hold of the creature's arm and dragged him out since it did not want to go out to this man. But when the creature was out, a most incredible transformation occurred. The creature was changed. He looked more like the man and less like a zombie, although he didn't shed all of his deformed features. The man looked into his eyes and said "Follow me" and so the new creature did with joy.

In the book 'The Doctrines of Grace' by James Boice and Philip Ryken, there is this paragraph. "John Gerstner, who was a professor at Pittsburgh theological Seminary, compared Paul's description of our sinful state to what horror stories call a zombie. A zombie is a person who has died but who is still up on his feet walking around. it is a gruesome concept, which is why it appears in horror stories. but it gets worse. This upright, walking human corpse is putrefying. It is rotting away, which is probably the most disgusting thing most people can imagine. But this is a fair description of what Paul is saying about human nature in its lost condition. Apart from Jesus Christ, these sinning corpses are "the living dead".
The verse they are referring to is Ephesians 2:1-2 says, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world."

 The world loves zombies. But the real zombies are the members of Adam's race. We are alive to sin but dead in it. We are spiritually dead, but alive to committing all manner of sin. We are hideous creatures before a Holy God. His wrath is against us. There is no reason that anyone would want to save us, especially considering the great cost it would be to redeem us. Yet the love and compassion of God is great and so He came to redeem ugly sinners by dying on the cross to pay for our sins. Our story can't fully illustrate this love of God to unworthy and vile sinners, but I hope it helped you to understand better the love of God in Christ. To God alone be the glory.

2 comments:

  1. Love it. I had a proff at Concordia here in Edmonton who was crazy about this kind of thing. He did a whole study of "The Walking Dead" from a Christian vantage point and as a sort of cultural analysis.

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