The difference between the end and the means

I am going to make a guess which may, if I pull it off well, sound educated. If you were to ask most people in this country what the point of Christianity is, they would tell you that Jesus died to forgive us our sins so that we can go to heaven. The problem with this answer is that they have mistaken the means for the end. It isn't surprising that they should do that. If they are anything like me, their mind naturally vacillates between shame and regret of the past, and fear and anxiety of the future. Along comes Jesus with a cure for both, and our natural response is, "Yay, I'm cured." Consider this: a man goes to the doctor with a broken leg. The doctor puts the leg in a cast. Why? Well, so the bone will heal. However, there is a better and even more obvious answer if we look a little further. The doctor's goal is not to simply heal the break. The doctor's goal is that the patient should walk again. Healing the break is the means to that end. The same thing goes for the cure Jesus offers us. It isn't the goal. He is curing us of our past and future so that we can live with Him in the present. C.S. Lewis (probably my favorite author of all time until I read an author I like more) said something in The Screwtape Letters that I really like.

"The humans live in time but (God) destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity... in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them."

Jesus cures us of our sins for a reason - so that, instead of guilt, we have the courage and boldness to walk with Him. Jesus promises to provide for us and take care of our future for a reason - so that we can walk with him in the present without fear. All this leaves for us is to trust Him and walk.