Tag Archives: Death

No Baloney

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What’s the best line in the whole Bible?  What would you choose?  Me? It’s something Jesus told the boys on the night He got arrested:  He said,

“… if it were not so, I would have told you…” (John 14:2)

Jesus wasn’t blowing smoke.  He wasn’t saying nice things just because they were comforting.  He wasn’t going along with wishful thinking or superstition.  The things He told were absolutely so; they were accurate descriptions of reality.  “If it were not so, I would have told you.”

That’s important to me because, over the years, people have told me a lot of religious things that were not so.  They were really true.  And I don’t want to be fooled or gullible.  You hang around funeral homes and you will hear a lot of things said that may not be so.  Comforting? Yes.  Nice ideas?  Yes.  But true?  Maybe not.  “Oh, Wilma has gone to a far better place.”  Maybe that’s true; maybe not.  People who say such things don’t necessarily believe them, but they know they help those who grieve.

Jesus knew His family and friends would not only be grieving but also they would be horrified and frightened.  He knew platitudes might temporarily help, like a kiss on a cut, but what they really needed was a strong dose of truth.  Truth they could lean on.  Truth that would hold when they did.

Here’s the rest of what He said:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

Rooms?  Many rooms?  What’d He mean by that?  There’s no good English word.  Bibles used to use the word, mansions, which really gives the wrong idea.  The Greek word refers to places in which one makes his or her home, to live there permanently.  Dwelling places.  He was saying God has many dwelling places where those who “trust Him” (verse 1, above)  will continue to live, even after death.  With Him.

And, if it were not so, He would have told us.

Lean on that.

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Ransom

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Why would teenage girls leave freedom and join up with ISIS?  Why would they willingly give themselves to a group that enslaves and abuses women?  Somebody must have lied to them, told them they would be better off, that their lives would matter, that they would be fulfilled.  Who knows what else?  And they bought it.  They believed the lies.

Suppose they get to Syria and pledge themselves to ISIS: what comes next?  Nothing good.  So, what would happen if these girls realize they’ve made a mistake and want to go back to Mom and Dad?  Almost certainly, ISIS would say, “No, we own you now; your lives belong to us.”   What if the girls have babies?  Those babies would be born into captivity and would belong to ISIS, too.   And what if Mom and Dad wanted to buy their daughter back – how much would ISIS demand in exchange for just one of their lives?  I’m not sure another life would be enough.

This modern day scenario works as a parable to explain how we humans have rebelled, bought into lies, run away from “Home” and have become enslaved and owned by Satan.  He holds us hostage, separated from God and destined for death.

Psalm 49 sums up our predicament:

“No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him— the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough— that he should live on forever and not see decay.” (Psalm 49:7-9)

He says, there is no way any of us could pay enough to escape death and attain eternal life.  None of us could pay for anyone else, either.  Nevertheless, this same psalmist was inspired to know this:

“But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.” (Psalm 49:15)

No man can pay enough so God will do it; He will redeem me.  God gave that writer a peek and a hint of the most amazing good news!  God will pay the ransom and it will be enough.  As revealed to the prophet, Hosea, God said:

“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death…” (Hosea 13:14a)

Jesus explained that His coming crucifixion would fulfill the promise of God:

“… the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”” (Matthew 20:28b)

You can be set free.  You can return to your real “Home.”  You can escape death.  Here is the deal:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

 

Priceless

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How much would you pay for your soul?  How much would it be worth to you to know that your soul, the essence of who you are, would come into its full potential and live forever?  How much?  If something is rare, it costs more.  Someone bought a 1962 Ferrari for $35 million!  Presumably, it was pretty rare.  How much would the Ferrari guy pay for his soul?  Souls are priceless, so rare a value cannot be determined.  How rare is your soul?  It is one of a kind.  Jesus said:

“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

Why is any payment necessary?  Don’t we already have our souls?  Yes, but our souls are dead – separated from the Spirit of God with which they were designed to be filled and brought to life.  This separation came about as a consequence of not trusting God and turning away from Him.  Adam and Eve initiated that “death” or separation.  We continue their pattern of rebellion in each of our lives.  If you don’t pay your phone bill and they shut off your connection, your phone dies.  You can pay the bill to restore your phone to “life.”  How much would you have to pay to restore the life of God’s Spirit to your soul?  The life of your soul is priceless.  Not even the Ferrari guy would have enough to pay to restore your soul.

“No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—” (Psalm 49:7)

No one who has ever turned from God – ever – could pay for your soul.  The only one who could ever pay enough would be someone who led a perfect life and did not owe a payment for his own soul.

Consider these words of Jesus:

“…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:10b-11)

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

The Life You’d Die to Have

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You have been invited.  Act now and you can be rich, just like the guy in the infomercial, who’s standing in front of his new mansion, his arms around babes in bikinis, just back from a spin in his Maserati.  If you accept his invitation, you can have all that too – and more!  …Unless you read the fine print.

Jesus has a different invitation for you, but He begins with the fine print.  He invites you to deny yourself and die.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)

Which invitation looks better to you?  Self indulgence or self denial?  Obviously, the “get rich quick” guy is  scamming us.  But why would anyone sign up for “losing his life to find it?”  It sounds like Jesus asks us to leave behind the life we’ve worked so hard attain, along with all the its comforts. Do we really want to let go of all that?

Before you decide, watch this:

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

 

Do You?

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Let’s suppose the skeptics are right and Jesus was merely a profound teacher, a man in tune with deep wisdom.  Maybe Jesus was simply a man who surpassed all others by His understanding of reality.  Given that premise, try to imagine what He meant by these teachings- literally:

““For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”” (John 11:25-26)

Okay then, literally, what did the “best teacher” mean?  Literally!   Was what He said true?  If not, why would He have had the cruelty or audacity to teach such things?  And, if they are true, then what did Jesus mean by “believe in Me?”  And the part about being the Son of God?

One last question:  Why did Jesus ask His friend, “Do you believe this?”

Do you?

The Point of No Return

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You are standing on a tiny ledge of trim that runs around the top outside wall of a building.  Your shoes hang over the edge and looking down makes your head swim.  Just picturing this makes my palms sweat.  If you pay attention and keep your balance, you just might make it back to safety.  But, if you lose your balance and fall there won’t be anything anybody can do to save you.  

There is a sin like that, a sin from which there is no rescue, nothing anybody can do to save you.  John calls it “the sin that leads to death.”  Commit that sin and you have fallen off the ledge.  Even prayer isn’t going to help.

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. (1 John 5:16-17)

Are your palms sweaty?  Do you want to know what the deadly sin is?  Jesus called it “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.”  He said:

“But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”  (Mark 3:29)

But what does that mean?  The best explanation is that it refers to someone who knows that what he has experienced was accomplished by God’s Spirit, and that he nevertheless attributes that experience to the work of Satan. In simple terms, the sin that leads to death is deliberately and knowingly hardening one’s heart against God.

Bad news and good news.  Bad news: If you deliberately turn away from God, knowingly turn away from Him, there really is a point of no return. Good news:  If you are worried about this, you probably have not yet stepped off the ledge, so to speak.  And there is a way to be sure you don’t.   

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God  [Jesus] keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.   (1 John 5:18)

How can we be “born of God?”

Yet to all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in his name [believed in Who He is], he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent,c nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  (John 1:12-13  with my added explanations)

What’s Love (and Justice) Got to do with It?

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Why did you get so mad? The judge said the kid was a victim of “affluenza” – too much money and not enough parental discipline.  Sure, he killed four people and injured two others.  Sure, he was driving drunk. Sure it wasn’t his first offence.   But, hey, it’s not his fault because he was too wealthy to know better, right?  No jail time; just a residential treatment facility for the very privileged few…

What makes this outrageous is that justice was not served.  We are wired to seek justice.  Justice is good; injustice makes us deeply cranky.  Animals don’t seem to care about justice.  But humans have been designed by God to reflect His being.  You already know God is love.  But God is also Just.   Consider what He told Moses:

And he [God] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.   Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished;…”  (Exodus 34:6-7a)

How can God be loving and forgiving, if He also must not leave the guilty unpunished?  Like a good parent, that’s how.   But these statements about God’s character become more puzzling when we consider that His justice is perfect.  Perfect  justice must equate punishment with the impact and consequence of the offence.  Pure justice demands a death penalty for causing  death.  Since sin causes spiritual death (God told Adam that on the day he disobeyed he would die), the just penalty for sin must be death.  Here’s the riddle:  How can God forgive us and love us, if first He has to kill us, to fulfill justice?

The solution to this riddle remained a mystery until 700 B.C., when Isaiah revealed how God would accomplish it.  He would send His “Son” to undergo the penalty required by perfect justice on our behalf.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  (Isaiah 53:5)

Jesus gave His life to pay our penalty.  He became the Solution to the riddle of God’s love and justice.  He went “all the way” to rescue us.  John explained that Jesus “came by water” (He identified with us in baptism) and “by blood” (He paid in death so that we could be reconciled with God).

I realize that this explanation may not fully satisfy.  We understand it somewhat, but wrestle with the idea of someone dying in our place.  If that describes how you feel, look back at “All the Way – Part 2” for more on that…

Just the Way it Is

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Lately I’ve heard a bunch of complaining from Christians because they are not respected in this world.  Some say they are hated and persecuted for their beliefs.  John says, “Duh! What else is new?”

John knew that Jesus saw people in two groups: those heading for eternal life and those heading for death.  There was no middle ground.  Here is an example:

But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.  I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be,a you will indeed die in your sins.” (John 8:23-24)

In this life we think we are making progress if we are going faster. But it doesn’t matter how well you are doing if you are heading the wrong direction, away from life and toward death.  The turning point comes when we believe in Who Jesus claimed to be (God).  

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  (John 3:16)

Jesus moves us from death to life because He gives us the Holy Spirit, connecting us eternally with the life of God.  Our human bodies die.  When given the life of the Spirit, our souls live forever.  Jesus said,

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.   (John 6:63)

The thief (Satan, the ruler of “the world”) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  (John 10:10 – my added parenthetical notes)

When we believe, Jesus turns us away from death and toward life.  Our citizenship, our place of belonging, is transferred from “this world” to God’s family and His Kingdom.  Those who have the Spirit, take their cues and motivations from the Spirit.  Those who do not have the Spirit, take their cues and motivations from the ways of the world.  These two groups are moving in opposite directions and see things from two opposing viewpoints.  That is why John writes:

Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.   (1 John 3:13-14)

The “world” hates those who believe in Jesus?  Really?  That is what Jesus taught:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)

Gang members know, if they ever leave the gang to pursue a different lifestyle, with different rules and a different way of seeing the world, the rest of the gang will hate them.  May even try to kill them.  That’s what happens when you leave the gang of “the world” to follow Jesus.  No point complaining about it; it’s just the way it is.

No Middle Ground

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If you don’t love your brother you might just as well murder him.  There is no middle ground.  Hold on!  Step away from the gun.  I am making a point (actually John is) in a blunt way.  There is no middle ground between love and murder when considering whether your actions are motivated by the Holy Spirit or by Satan.  Your actions reveal to whom you belong.  Here’s how John sets it up:

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)

Somebody asks, “Hey, John, what if I just sort of tolerate my brother?  Do I really have to love him?”  John’s response is:

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. (1 John 3:11-12a)

There is no middle ground.  Any attitude toward your brother that is not produced by the Holy Spirit is motivated ultimately by Satan.  The Spirit produces life; Satan comes to kill and destroy.  John says, you either are a child of God and have His Spirit, or you do not and are a child of Satan. That sounds harsh to us.  We want shades of gray, ambiguity, moral no man’s land.  But spiritual reality leaves no middle ground.  It is like the sharp edge of a sword, dividing one side from another.   Jesus taught this “either-or” message in the sermon on the mount”

 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Matthew 5:21-22 )

There is no middle ground.  You either are in step with, and powered up by, the Spirit of God, Who gives life, or ultimately serve the one who brings death.  That teaching is tough.  It doesn’t sound reasonable.  But it is true.  We might compare it to the attitude of a college football coach who will not accept anything less than 100% from his players.  Any player who is half-hearted, who simply goes through the motions, might just as well go sit with the other team.  No middle ground. The difference with John’s teaching is that who you are, which “team” you are on, is not based on personal effort but rather on a gift, God’s Gift, His Spirit.  That is why John calls those who live by the Spirit “Children of God.”  They have been born into new life in a new family.  In his Gospel, John explains it:

Yet to all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:12-13)

If this doesn’t rub abrasively against your natural instincts, you should read it again, chew on it some more.  There is more coming…

Who Can Fix It?

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Let’s go deeper into a statement from the last post: “Religion cannot work because nothing a dead man can do will restore him to life.  The only One Who can restore “dead” humans to life,  who can restore the flow of His Spirit,  is God.”  (See: The Futility of Religion)

Just under 10 years ago, NASA sent a robotic “rover” to Mars,

English: Artist's rendering of a Mars Explorat...

English: Artist’s rendering of a Mars Exploration Rover. Français : Vue d’artiste d’un Mars Exploration Rover (litt. « rover d’exploration martienne »). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

designed to receive transmitted instructions from earth, follow them, and prowl around on the surface of the planet.  But something went wrong with the operating system of the rover.  He could not communicate properly with the transmissions from Pasadena.  Let’s suppose, in that condition, the rover could still move around on the planet.  Even though he could do stuff,  there would be no way for him to do what the engineers who designed him wanted him to do.  Because the necessary communication was cut off, he would essentially be dead.  Suppose the defect that cut off communication also prevented the rover from using its solar battery chargers.  Maybe it couldn’t point the panels in the right direction.   Soon it would not only be dead to communication but also physically dead – out of power as well.  (This is not exactly what really happened; I’m tweaking the details to make an analogy.)  

Here’s the point: The rover couldn’t fix itself.  Communication with the engineers was dead.  Power was going to eventually be dead, too.  The only party that could accomplish the fix  was the engineers.  They observed the problem, diagnosed it, and initiated the process by which it was eventually fixed.

Using that analogy to illustrate our situation with God, our communication with God (His Spirit) has been cut off.  In that condition, there is no way for us to do what we were designed and intended to do.  We can roam around the planet and do stuff, just not the right stuff.  The Bible word, sin, simply means doing the wrong stuff.  We are “spiritually dead;” our communication with the “Engineer” is down.   As a result, we will also physically die, too.   We cannot fix that.  Nothing we can do will make His Spirit connect.    That’s the bad news.  The good news is that He has observed the problem, diagnosed it, and has initiated the process by which it may be fixed.  God said He would repair our operating system:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

PS: The name of the Mars rover?  Spirit!  Stay tuned…