If, like me, you’re not a reader of the Financial Times, the headline for the Saturday newspaper (30/10/21) may have passed you by. In a picture that occupied a significant section of the front page, the paper anticipated the COP26 Conference which ran this week in Glasgow. Finally, world leaders are meeting to discuss the significant issue of climate change. Something needs to be done to save the world. Without seeking to minimise the significance of CO2 emissions, I want to consider a biblical perspective and what God has already done to ‘save the world’. There are significant similarities. The Bible states, ‘the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world’.[1] The problem that afflicts humanity is not just CO2. It is the problem of sin – our inability to do what is right in the sight of God. Some people have taken to gluing themselves to motorway slip roads in a bid to force the government to ‘do what is right’. It isn’t new but people usually forget to look within their own hearts and ask whether they always do what is right. Are we perfect? Can we honestly say that we have never failed? The Bible challenges us all, ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’.[2]
Like the issue of climate change, the message has been preached for some time. Many have been warning of the danger. In the longsuffering of God, the gospel has been preached for centuries. The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, has provided salvation from sin through His death upon the cross. He suffered, bled and died that you and I might be saved from the consequences of our sin and guilt. Sadly, like the message of climate change, many have ignored what God has done in the person of His Son.
Something needs to be done. Those whose homes have been flooded by the latest storm to lash the country would testify to its urgency. Time is running out. In a similar way, time is running out spiritually. When the Lord Jesus returns to take Christians home to heaven,[3] all opportunity for salvation will have gone. Judgement will follow.
We might ask ourselves what we are doing to ‘save the world’, but what are we doing to save ourselves from the penalty of sin? Do we recognize the problem? Are we prepared to confess it to God? Are we trusting Christ?
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