Ready Player One, a movie about a video game, is out in movie theaters, and I confess: I enjoy playing an occasional video game. Sometimes it’s Madden or NBA Jams, or a little “old school” with Pac-man and Tetris. When the universe needs defending, I pop in Halo, pick up my controller, and have at all the alien bad-guys. More often than not, I get picked off and die – GAME OVER! Thankfully, it’s just a video game, and I can “re-spawn,” come back to life, and rise to defeat evil once again (cue dramatic theme music).
Coming back to life in video games is an amazing thing. It happens without a blink, without question, and very naturally. You die on the screen, wait a second or two, and you’re back in it. You don’t skip a beat. But if you stop to think about it, it’s weird and surreal. This isn’t how it happens in the real world. There is where I’m dead. Game over. No second chance. Opportunity lost. Defeat. Regret. The end. There is no coming back or do-over in this world. Life happens real time and there is no rewind.
Thankfully, in Christ, we as believers do get a do-over of our lives. He is better than a video game. We have been given a second chance; the old has passed away and the new has come. We get new birth through Jesus’ death and resurrection. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through His resurrection from the dead. We are not still in our sins, because Christ has paid the price of our sins, and He has been raised. If He is raised, are we not raised to new life as well? We are more than conquerors and not condemned. He is with us always, to the end of the age. Our debt is paid, the chains of sin and slavery fall off, we are free to walk in His light and life. We are “new and improved,” our spiritual DNA rewritten and recoded. There is therefore now NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. This is our living hope. We get a second chance.
The promise of hope, resurrection, and new, eternal life is ours to keep. Believers in Jesus do not need to fear death; the ultimate “second chance” is better than a video game. It is life with Him forever, because He is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Him, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Jesus shall never die (John 11:25-26). Do you believe this? The occasional video game can be fun to play, but true life and real “respawning” after death only comes through Christ.