Daunting, as time marches to its mindless beat, we question what’s life all about? Tragically, there’s no time to defend one’s point of view as the slippage of time inevitably leads one to fade to black. As one journeys into time, the older one gets, time becomes irrelevant as the curse of death is imminent and necessary. For one cannot die if one has not lived even for the briefest moment (in utero, as well). How ghastly those seconds transform into minutes, then hours, days, months, and subsequently, years. And, what have we to show for it? What will be the legacy left for the future generations, as if the individual really cared that much. After all, we all die alone. Death is peculiar in that way, isn’t it? From the moment those of us who can, begin to reason and it becomes a feverish race to the epitaph. All the accomplishments dwindle to memories of what once was. We capture those treasured memories in pictures as if we could ever scroll back time to our former youth. Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. We are faced with the inevitable, sometimes drowning ourselves in quiet desperation or a good bottle of wine. Have you ever seen the lack of glow in a person who just died? The body, a corpse, could be compared to a box of wood. Lifeless, arbitrary, indifferent, it just ceased to exist, yet there it is, a memory of what once was a living being. It’s strange. I have seen so much death in all my years as a physician that it’s hard to make a connection anymore between what was once a living being and a box of wood. Within a millisecond, things change dramatically and one is left wondering, was it ever alive before or is it just the memories that keep it from dying in our minds? It’s surreal. One moment, a living embodiment of the image of God, the next, emptiness, material, void. The question must be answered, but what is the question to be asked? Is it different for each and every person or is it the same? I bet, if one thinks long enough, one can come up with many questions about life and death, what are we doing here, et cetera. But what is the true, honest question to be asked? In my opinion, the necessary question always pertains to whether one believes in God or not. That’s it. One might try to evade the question, but guess what, one cannot evade God. The essence of life and death is God. The reason for our existence is God. Everything in the universe, all that exists, all thought, all science, all anything basically “boils down” to God. One can try to avoid God. Throughout history, many multitudes have tried. In this present moment, humankind is moving away from God at an alarming rate. Sure, there are statistics that capture, perhaps, 70% of the population of the world believing in a god. I would suggest that of those 70%, how many truly have a relationship with God? Even among professing Christians, how many have true faith in a personal God? I suspect the odds would be even lower. Now, what is the connection between life, death, and God? Obviously, if one has to ask that question, the answer is nothing!
A more challenging question lies in those who profess to believe in God and what their opinion is regarding their view of life and death. If life, then ultimately one dies. If death, on the other hand, does one ultimately live? As of recent statistics, there are 7.6 billion people living on this planet. More then half of those, supposedly believe in God. Of those that do believe in God, more than half believe in a personal God. If so, then life after death has many options, but ultimately two, if there is a personal God. Why personal? See, because He cares about His creation. So He won’t annihilate it because He created it. If He is personal, one of His attributes, being consistent, would be love. If He loves, He is good. Therefore, He has an interest in His creation and the human race He created. Free will seems to be the spoiler, however, since humans can freely choose not to want to be with their creator. For those who decide not to be with Him, God would never impose His will on His creation. Why? Well, otherwise there would not be free will, right? So, it is our choice to be with God, or not. This happens in life and in death. See, God won’t exterminate His creation after death. He loves His creation and He is holy and good. To annihilate His creation would not be consistent with God’s attributes since when He created humans, He deemed it very good and, by the way, God doesn’t lie, otherwise He wouldn’t be good or holy. Therefore, God determines a place (yes, a place), where those humans who choose not to be with God can be there for eternity. For those who want to be with God, well, there’s a place where those who choose to be with God, go there for eternity.
There’s a catch. There’s always a catch. Sin. Now, one can choose not to believe in sin and that’s fine. Your choice. But God makes His choice as well. See, God can’t exist in the sam place with sin. Why? Well, as I said, God is holy and good. Sin is wickedness, and rebellion and an affront to a God’s holiness. So, there’s the rub. One can choose to acknowledge that one is a sinner, the turn to God for help or one can just keep on sinning, choosing to be placed forever away from the presence of God in eternity. It’s not the degree of sin that keeps one away from God, it’s the amount. Yes, one sin is enough or eternal banishment. Why? It’s a sin against an infinite, holy, and good God which requires an infinite punishment. Do we all sin? Yes, it’s in our nature, from the beginning. Now the question arises, now what, who can be saved? Well, here’s the thing, it depends on which god you believe in, doesn’t it? There are many religions and many gods. Which one is the right god? If one makes a “wrong choice of god,” poof, eternal banishment. So who decides? Is it better to just not believe in anything and when you die, you just go to ground and don’t have to think about eternity? Well, it depends on your worldview, doesn’t it? Many are happy to live the blissful lie, because, let’s face it, not all religions are the same. Fact is, they’re all quite different. All of them can be wrong but not all can be right. Only one can be right. Pick one. Go ahead, and, roll the dice. What have you got to lose, except, maybe, eternity apart from the true God who loves you.
So, how to choose? Well, it’s been said before, but worth repeating: Jesus is the only Person who claimed to be God and proved it. Sure, there are vigorous debates, since he lived 2000 years ago, that He is in fact, God. But, that’s really not the gist of this particular story. For the sake of argument, let’s say Jesus actually is God and is in Heaven. The whole issue of Christianity bases it’s whole theology on this fact. If Jesus,is dead, no Christianity. Simple. Let’s suppose that He is who He says He is. Then He’s the only way to Heaven. And that means, spending eternity with Jesus, who is God. Now, some of you may ask about the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. This, again, is unique to Christianity. No, there are not three gods. No, they’re not parts of God. The simplest way to understand it is there are three Who’s and one What. There are three eternally distinct Persons within the Godhead, but only One God. Sure, try to wrap that around your mind. There are many, many heresies concerning the Trinity and I’ve read enough books to know that this forum is not the proper one to spend thousands of pages on it. Suffices to say, that God is one What and three Who’s. This is important because the concept of grace come from God the Father. Grace shows us that God exists. That’s called common grace or general revelation. Even the wicked can see God’s handiwork even though they choose otherwise. Efficacious grace is different. It’s special revelation that can only be imparted to those who put their faith and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Why? Well, Jesus hung on a cross and bore the sins of all humankind so that we could be with Him, for those of us who believe He did that. He reasoning: love for all. I don’t see anyone else claiming to be God who hung on that cross, do you? So, if true, then, efficacious grace is imparted to those who God determines would choose Jesus as Lord and Savior. There’s a question among many theologians as to whether grace irresistible or not. That’s another story. We, as humans, get to decide whether we accept God’s grace or not. What is grace? An unmerited favor. We don’t deserve anything from God. Our default position is to be away from Him for eternity. He believes otherwise and bestows grace upon us. By the way, what ever common grace one has while alive, if one chooses to be apart from God, even that grace is taken away forever. That’s called Hell. So grace is given to us by a holy God through His own good will as we merit nothing from Him. Some say, I didn’t ask to be created. Not your call. The clay doesn’t ask the Potter why it was made. By the way, God also imparts mercy in His graciousness. What is mercy? We don’t get what we do deserve! That is the infinite love of a gracious God.