Maybe you have heard someone sneer, “Did he really say that?” When you hear this, the person is usually mocking the original statement and questioning the logic of the speaker. The main goal of the asker’s disdain is to change your attitude toward the speaker of the statement. Satan did the same when he spoke to Eve and said, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Satan intended to change Eve’s attitude toward God by mocking what God had said. Satan’s mockery led Adam and Eve to agree with Satan, displacing God’s authority and replacing it with their own. Today, the human race mocks God and says “Did God really create the world?” or “Did God really write the Bible?” Was Satan successful in the garden?
What would your reaction be to someone who mocked you? Most, if not all, would respond with hatred, or with a desire to get even. Not God! God still compassionately loves the human race, even though it mocks Him and questions His existence. God loved us so much, He designed a plan to save us from our sin, to bring us closer to Him, so we would not question Him anymore. The Bible says, “The Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world” (1John 4:14, ESV). What an amazing fact! God responded to our questioning, to our mockery, with love, and sent His only Son to save us. Since God is righteous and loving, sin had to be paid for in a righteous and loving way. How could this happen?
The only way was for God to punish Jesus, His Son, on the cross for our sins. This satisfied God’s righteous standard of punishment – and it was completed in love. Jesus was mocked by the Roman soldiers who dressed Him up as a pretend-King, with a reed for a scepter and branches with long thorns for a crown. They bowed down before Him, laughing at the fact that He called himself a King. The mockery continued all the way to Calvary, where Jesus, God’s Son, was nailed to a cross. Despite the jeering, taunting and ridicule, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34, KJV). He never retaliated, but instead offered forgiveness, just as He does today. Jesus offers forgiveness of all sin to anyone who trusts in Him.
Adam and Eve, as they stood before a tree, decided to disobey God, and with their decision, sin came into the world, and death by sin. But Christ took the tree that is marked by death through crucifixion and turned it into life for all. The question we should really ask, without any hint of mockery is, “Did Christ really die for sinners?” The Bible explains it best: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8, ESV).
