Life or Death
“Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. ‘For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul” (Hebrews 10: 35-39).
Hold on. Do not let go. In this entire series, that is my hope and prayer for you. It is what God is speaking to you. In His word, it is purposely splashed to cover the breadth of it. He has revealed to you through the Scriptures and creation what is this life.
Right now, in your mind, remove every iota of creation there is and picture God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that is it. That is all that is left. Nothing else. God is all there is. Now, let everything else back in. It is there, only because of God. As He has revealed, He is the creator and sustainer of all things. Everything in existence can be said it exists, only because it comes from God. Him, alone.
In this life, in all of history, God has shown this and is showing this, still. The creation, from the beginning, having once been nothing, owing every speck of itself to the One who created it because it simply would not be had God not created it, has decided it will find life, meaning, purpose, satisfaction, joy, and truth, elsewhere. It has decided it would follow another voice, another will, another refuge, outside of God. Though, of course, those things – life, meaning, purpose, satisfaction, joy, truth, and refuge – are not what they say they are if separated from God. Without God, the sole creator and giver of life, life is death, meaning is vanity, purpose looks like a man walking off a cliff to his death with a smile on his face because he was told at the edge was life. Without God, satisfaction turns into agony, joy becomes depression, and truth becomes more than a lie, it simply does not exist. Without God, what should be a refuge becomes your every fear, walking into a tight-walled darkness, seeing nothing but black, hearing voices tell you this and that, only to find that everything they tell you leads to pain, vanity, depression, and agony.
For many in this world, they blame God, even though they are reaping the very natural consequences of separating themselves from Him. Some have become so hardened in heart by the deceit of the voices in the dark. They have bought into them, grasping with their arms extended in desperation for any hope of life, truth, and joy, the consequence of choosing to completely abandon the only source of life.
It is a very sad picture. God does not take pleasure in their destruction. In fact, we see evidence that His sadness surely exceeds ours (Jer. 48:36). He says in Ezekiel 18:31-32, “Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,’ declares the Lord God. ‘Therefore, repent and live.” And that is exactly God’s offering in Christ to those in the dark, a new heart and a new spirit, and that for life.
God has not left us to death, to the lies that lead to the pain and sometimes excruciating misery. He has left His kingdom in Christ Jesus to enter our misery, to save us. In the dark, He is the light. Though, some are so hardened, they see the light and turn around in misdirected anger or see the light and are so wound up in lies that they do not know the difference anymore between truth and deceit. And still more see the light but realize it reveals their nakedness, all their sin and guilt they thought was hidden in darkness, but in the light is revealed to be shame. They turn to cover themselves again in darkness even though God pleads with them, “Turn to me and live” (Ezek. 18:32)!
Do Not Turn Back
If you are reading this and you proclaim Jesus Christ your savior, you are still walking in this dark and evil world. Jesus has and is revealing everything to you; where all peace, joy, truth, satisfaction, meaning, and safety reside, in Him, in God, where it always has and only can be. He came here, to be in your position, to defeat what you could not defeat, so that you could have a new heart and spirit, His. So that when His light is revealed, there is no shame or guilt, there is only the face of the One who saves you. So then, do not turn away, back into the darkness that leads to a deeper black. You still have to walk through darkness, but Jesus will not lead you to a cliff’s edge; He will lead you to eternal life, out of the darkness forever.
If you are feeling the sadness, despair, suffering, and wickedness of this dying world, or when you do, remember it is because you are still in this world. This world is unavoidably dying and experiencing these things. It is unavoidable, but for the Christian, for you, it has been turned on its head to produce something with glory. Consider what the following passages have in common:
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:16-18).
“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
“But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation” (1 Peter 4:13).
“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Of Christ, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).
“Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgement so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering” (2 Thessalonians 1:4-5).
“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
Do you see it, the glory and kingdom of God? In all of these passages, in passing through this world’s sufferings, afflictions, trials, fire, persecutions, tribulations, and death, we come out and rise to the eternal glory, the kingdom of God, at Jesus Christ’s return. This is what we endure for through faith! Do not turn your back on Christ and His kingdom. I know it hurts, whatever it is that is causing distress. I know the debilitating pain that feels like you are pressed into the corner of that pitch-black room, like you are surrounded by death and not even a positive thought from your mind can pierce through and forward. Cling to God in Christ when you are on empty; when you have nothing left.
In this moment is your salvation.
Letting Go
In this moment is your salvation because at this spotlight in the history of your life you can say with Paul, “For indeed He [Jesus] was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God…” (2 Cor. 13:4). Paul finished that sentence with, “Directed toward you,” speaking to the reality that all his strength and power directed towards the recipients of his letter was not his own, but God’s. This was the reality for Jesus, for Paul, and for you if you are in Christ, carrying the same Spirit within you as Jesus. The flesh is weak, but God is strong. The flesh and this world are prone to the lies of darkness, the lust for everything that leads to death, but the power of God is the wellspring of all that is life.
Here is your salvation because at this point, you can agree with reality. Like a fish out of the water trying to live on something other than what is natural for it, in its final gasps it realizes it needs to be back in the water, where life is meant to be found. Those dying gasps bring it back to the water where it recalls what is life and what has now become its salvation. For the fish and for you, your defeat is your salvation. Having been purged from the only source of life and finding out what naturally cannot be, life without God, with humility you fall back into the embrace of love.
And to this world and this body of sin and death that deceive, you can say, too, with Paul, “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). And this is obedience to Jesus because Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul” (Mk. 8:34-37)? This understanding of our suffering is so far beyond itself. It reaches into the gospel and the story of all history, from beginning to end in the Bible.
A Race
Endure for the kingdom of God. This life, for the Christian, is a race through a dense jungle of vines that have come alive and have one purpose, to destroy us, to keep us knotted up from ever escaping. When we turn to God and run to Him, the vines lurch out at our ankles, arms, and torso to entangle us. Sometimes it seems we have been overpowered. Like a caged animal, it seems the vines have closed completely around us and then pretzeled us immovable. But then with an ounce of faith and a sword invisible, the vines start to snap in separation. We have new strength.
Breaking free and continuing to run, we come across varying difficulties. At times it is vines in vast numbers, and at other times a vine the size of a giant sequoia, taunting with its sheer size and strength. Yet, with every encumbrance we power through with a strength that is not our own but has become ours. It is a gift and an inheritance, an adoption, even. With every challenge and test comes pain but also greater strength. Growth, stamina, and endurance are the results.
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” (Heb. 12:1).
And always remember your savior, the One who led the way and made it possible to escape. “…Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin…” (Heb. 12:2-4).
What is next is that these trials, these vines, God uses to discipline you for your good, that you would realize your growth and endurance to make it out and into His kingdom. “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? …But He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12:7, 10-11).
In that, too, Jesus has led the way. “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (Heb. 5:8-9).
A Final Plea
Very early in history, God said, “Sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen. 4:7). Adam and Eve, Cain, and a list including every human to breathe air has been unable to defeat sin. We have all become its slave, except for One; Jesus Christ, the true Son of God and man.
In Him, take courage, rest, strength, discipline, endurance, and an imperishable inheritance, along with so much more. You WILL find life in God’s kingdom, even though everything in this world attempts to hold you back. When your body has nothing left, and I mean quite literally, nothing left, in your heart hold on to God in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Keep the eyes of your heart fixed on heaven where the evils of this world will be no more and instead the glory, wonders, and love of God will fill the entirety. Jesus, “Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2), is your shining example along with so many saints and a, “Cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1). Look closely at the heart of these witnesses: “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country for which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them” (Heb. 11:13-16).
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passes away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’ And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’ Then He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.” – Revelation 21:1-7
Make that your hope.
-Pastor Ben