I love technology and how its history, so a recent program about the electronics use in the British Night-fighting campaign of World War Two was of great interest to me. I enjoyed all the technical explanations of the equipment used by the Germans and the Brits, but what really interested me was the moves and countermoves by which those technologies advanced and were used against one another.
Basically, one of three things happened: one side would invent an offensive technology only to have the other side develop something to stop it; one side would develop a defensive technology, and the other side would then figure out a way to defeat it; one side would invent something and then the other side would figure out a way to turn that invention against itself. In short, it was a game of oneupmanship, albeit a very deadly one. Every invention was soon undermined or overridden by a better and newer one.
Of course, the principles of attack and defense have never really changed. Sure, the machinery is newer and better today than it was when the first person used their fist against their neighbour, but whether it's a fist a rock or a bomb, someone wields it and someone else gets hurt.
Underlying this human capacity to hurt one another willingly is sin. It’s that simple. Arguments fights, battles, wars or whatever word you describe human conflict are all caused by our willful breaking of God’s basic commandment to love one another. Weapons may evolve, hand to hand combat may be constantly improved, but the reason we improve upon our ways of hurting one another all boils down to sin.
What’s remarkable about sin is that our defense against it has never changed, nor will it ever need to change. All we need to do is to be forgiven and then to love our neighbour, and indeed all humanity, as we would be loved ourselves. It’s a solution as old as sin and just as effective as it was the first time God pardoned us.
Well, OK, there has been on big change, one major advance in God’s way of dealing with sin. God made it simpler. Where once forgiveness required specific sacrifices and ritual behaviour, it now requires only a request. Jesus took care of the cost. He took care of the ritual. Through His death and resurrection God ensured that our forgiveness was not only simpler than ever, it was also guaranteed until the day it will no longer be needed.
Human technology often advances in a series of moves and countermoves. The new, creative ways we sin seem to move ahead steadily and unstoppably. The countermove, however, remains as simple as ever. Seek God’s forgiveness through Jesus, and then love your neighbour as yourself. Counteracting sin’s deadly effects couldn’t be simpler.
