What’s so Fab About it?

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness…” Genesis 1:26

Have you ever watched the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? I mean the good one with Gene Wilder.

If you have, I’m sure you recall the scene where Violet Beauregarde, the champion gum chewer,  is chewing a piece of the “most amazing, fabulous, sensational gum in the whole world” that Wonka himself shared with her.

After popping this sensational piece of gum in her mouth and chewing on it for a hot second, she asks, “What’s so fab about it?”

Her question doesn’t seem unreasonable. I’m sure at first it tasted like any other piece of gum she had gnawed on in the past.  However, it wasn’t until she continued chewing that the gum itself revealed what made it the “most amazing, fabulous, sensational gum in the whole world”—it was a three-course meal!

Maybe you’ve been asked a similar question about your faith.  What’s so fab about it?

Or maybe you’ve been asked this one: How is Christianity different from other faiths or religions?

Or this one: Don’t we all worship the same god?

All these questions, just like Violet’s question, are not unreasonable. And much like the gum itself answered her question, God Himself answers ours.

We don’t have to “chew” for long though to get our answer because God reveals what’s so fab about it not at the end of the Bible in Revelation, but at the very beginning in Genesis in the very first three chapters.

I encourage you to read these chapters of Genesis for yourself because they tell us about the creation of the world and its inhabitants, the relationship of mankind (Adam and Eve) with God and His with them, and finally it shows just when that relationship was broken because of man’s sin.

To shine another light on this, Genesis 1 and 2 are God establishing that He only has good intended for us.  We know this because of all that He created and that He Himself fellowshipped with Adam and Eve in the very perfect garden in Eden. His fellowshipping with them demonstrates that He wants a relationship with us.

Finally, in chapter 3 we see that relationship broken when Adam and Eve listened to a serpent (Satan) and not to God. This act of disobedience was sin and it changed the course of all mankind whether we like it or not, or believe it or not.

Whew! That’s a lot for just the first three chapters in a book that has a total of 1,189 chapters.

Want to know what the remaining 1,186 chapters are about?

I was hoping you’d say yes!

These remaining chapters are about God’s grace—His unearned and undeserved favor. They are about God lovingly, relentlessly, and sacrificially pursuing us in that grace so He can give to us what He always intended for us—to live with Him in a sinless, unperverted, and uncorrupted world. God pursues us so that we may be reconciled to Him.

But more than realizing that in these remaining chapters God pursues reconciliation with us, we discover He always intended to be the reconciliation.

How do we know that?

We know it because of the language used in our key verse today:

“Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness…”

I can’t tell you how many times I have read that in the past and not understood what it was really saying. I completely missed that the singular God creating the world in Genesis 1 was in fact not singular. He is a triune God and has always been the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Therefore, we see that in His trinity He has had a plan all along for the reconciliation of mankind to Himself.

So many times I have read things in the Old Testament and missed what they were all pointing towards—the coming Messiah. I’ve always interpreted each event in the Bible as a singular, distinct thread woven into the grand tapestry of human existence. I never perceived the ever-present scarlet thread—God’s plan to redeem mankind through the blood of Jesus Christ—that ran in tandem with these individual threads.

The history of the Jewish people in the Old Testament was just that—history. I never saw that the immeasurable depth of God’s love for His people was on display so that His people today could see just what a patient, loving, and forgiving God He truly is. That His patience and provisions bestowed upon the Israelites were Him pursuing them and preparing the reconciliation.

I never saw that the covenants God made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David were all illuminating God’s redemptive plan for His people, leading to the New Covenant established by Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection.

This New Covenant abolished the law that was necessary in the Old Testament and signifies a new relationship between God and His people. This new relationship is the manifestation of God’s pursuit of His people and the reconciliation that has been achieved due to Jesus.

So, what makes Christianity different from other religions?

And don’t we all worship the same god?

Tell me, what’s so fab about it?

Well, my friend, you probably already know what is so fab about Christianity.  And the answer to that answers the other two questions.

Christianity is so fab because most religions require that a sacrifice be made to their god, but our God is the sacrifice for us.

It was His plan all along…even while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).

So, if your god isn’t the sacrifice they require, then, no, we don’t all worship the same god. But we can if you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and it is His death and resurrection that has reconciled you to God.

Friend, Wonka sacrificed a piece of gum that ended up having an adverse effect and made Violet…well…violet. Jesus sacrificed Himself and made us white as snow.

Now, that’s something we can chew on!