We Need A Hero

Superhero movies are big business. When the X-Men film 'Days of Future Past' opened earlier this year, within the first week alone it took more than £200 million at box offices around the world. The X-Men are not the only superheroes enjoying big-screen success. According to film site Box Office Mojo, since 2000 there have been more than 60 films featuring heroes such as Wolverine, Rogue, Batman and Iron Man. Peter Parker recently returned to perform more heroics in 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2'.

It appears that cinemagoers can’t get enough of all-action adventure stories where, despite the many personal problems the screen hero goes through, by the closing credits he or she will have saved the day. The world does not end, evil does not triumph and those who are saved live happily ever after.

Sometimes, we may wish that a superhero would do the same in our lives. Such a wish might seem rather excessive. After all, there are not many times when we feel our lives are threatened or that evil forces want to rob us of our future.

Yet Christians believe that the future of every person is in the balance. They believe the world will end when Jesus returns from Heaven. At that point, everybody will discover what their eternal future holds. Because none of us can lead a perfect life and we all do things that are wrong, we deserve to spend eternity separated from our perfect Creator.

However, Christians also believe they have been saved from this fate because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus died and took the punishment for our sins so we can enjoy eternal life with God.

The Bible puts it like this: ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its saviour’ (John 3:16, 17 Good News Bible).

Jesus will be our saviour if we ask him to forgive us for the wrong things we do. Then we can experience the eternal love of God that will save us from an eternity of misery, defeat and separation.

UK & Ireland War Cry 9 August 2014