Spiderman 3 (Tobey Maguire, 2007)
Lest we forget, God is good and everything He does and makes is good. He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (I John 1:5). At every stage of Creation, God paused and pronounced it good. So why is there pain and suffering in the world? One answer is the presence of evil. Evil exists, but it is not natural. It does not belong here. After Creation, Evil invaded the world by the Enemy, who had already fallen from heaven.
In the third Spiderman movie, we see a black entity from outer space land on the earth. It touches Peter and begins to reshape his entire personality until he is consumed with evil. This personification of evil assumes a name, Venom. One common thread through the entire Spider-verse is that Peter attempts to rescue the villains. In many cases, he is successful but not with Venom. This is because, as Venom says, “I like being bad.”
In the same way, God would prefer that everyone gets saved. Jesus’ death has enough force to redeem everyone in the world, and that gift is available to all. Yet, some will not accept the gift Jesus offers. In His earthly ministry, some turned away from Jesus. One of His own disciples left and betrayed the group. In Paul’s missionary journeys, he shared the gospel with everyone from paupers to kings. One king, Herod Antipas, even said that he was “almost persuaded.” Some people just prefer being bad.
Your life does not have to be controlled by evil. If the devil has his way, he will reshape your personality until you are consumed. That is why God tells us not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds toward Christ (Romans 12:1-2). Don’t give in to the invasion of evil. It doesn’t belong in this world and it isn’t going to win. Don’t turn down Jesus offer of salvation and let Him redeem you.
Chapel of the North Hills 