Our Only Hope: Why Christmas Is the Best News Ever for Us and the Earth

If we could all live like this, would it solve all the world's problems?

Imagine for a moment that we could actually, in the next decade, meet all of our environmental goals. It won’t realistically happen, but let’s say that all of our electricity came from renewable sources, all our cars were electric, and somehow we’d figured out how to sustainably source and recycle the rare metals to make electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines in a way that wasn’t fueling environmental destruction and oppression in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Further, let’s say that all of our farmland was managed using the best organic practices ever, all beef cattle were finished on well-managed pastures, and the workers in slaughterhouses who processed them had such good unions and rights that they could have the same standard of living as auto workers. And to top it off, let’s say that all consumers, regardless of income level, demanded fresh, whole, organic food—to the point where, if McDonald’s wanted to stay in business, they’d have to offer farm-fresh grassfed burgers on whole wheat buns.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful? But guess what—even if we could make all those things happen, we still wouldn’t be living in utopia. Not to burst anyone’s bubble here, but simply having clean energy and good food—or even good jobs and fair wages for everyone—will not solve all of the world’s problems. If history is any guide, every time we manage to solve one problem, three more appear, like heads on the mythological hydra.

Why is that? Why do all of our human efforts to make utopia always seem to fail, despite our best intentions? Some people blame the government, some blame capitalism, some blame racism, and they’re all partially right. But there’s a deeper, underlying problem that no political or economic reform can solve. The real reason our world is always in trouble is because the first two humans, placed in the Garden of Eden to care for the earth, disobeyed God’s command and did the one thing they weren’t supposed to do—ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in an attempt to be like God.

Seeking power through gaining knowledge was the original sin. It’s also, unfortunately, the fundamental premise of modern Western civilization. That’s why, when we try to solve problems with science and technology, we only make them worse. We’re trying to use the same mistake that got us into this mess to get us out, and that won’t work. The reality our civilization will not accept is that we can’t save ourselves. That’s the curse that followed the original sin. We are all going to die, both physically and spiritually. And there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

That’s where the good news comes in. See, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son—Jesus—that whoever believes in him will not die, but have eternal life. Jesus was both fully human and fully God. He lived a perfectly sinless life on earth—something none of the rest of us can ever do—and when he died on the cross, he paid the price for all of the sins of humanity. Eternal salvation—for both this life and the life to come—is now available for everyone who confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in their heart that God raised him from the dead. It’s that simple—and amazing.

Sadly, even though this free gift of salvation has been available for two thousand years now, the majority of people have refused to accept it. That’s why we continue to have so much evil and suffering in this world. If everyone actually lived according to the teachings of Jesus and followed his command to love our neighbors as ourselves, our social and environmental problems would disappear. But because many people reject that gift of salvation, the world will never fully be right again until Jesus returns and sets up his kingdom here on earth. Now that really will be utopia—whether or not we have solar panels—and I’m pretty sure that all agriculture will be organic. In the meantime, the more people truly follow Jesus, the better we'll be at caring for each other and the earth.

That’s what I celebrate at Christmas—joy at the first coming of Jesus, who paid the price for our sins, and hope for his second coming, when all that’s wrong will finally be set right. Merry Christmas!