Eternal Life, a Place or a Person?

Eternal life, is it a place or a person?

I have heard the gospel shared for years as a Southern Baptist boy growing up. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the infamous questions tacked on to the end of sermons and used to start evangelistic conversations like , “If you were to die tonight do you know where you will go?” or “If God should ask, ‘why should I let you into heaven’ what would be your response?” were in fact a culture created by Evangelism Explosion. Then, perpetuated by all the knock off versions of the EE method that others took credit for when they simply changed words or added and changed a few verses.

This is not the time or place to critique this approach, and it is amazing the ways our God has used this passion for evangelism to reach thousand of people, for which I am grateful. But it is simply to say, the questions you ask teach as much as the information and life you lead. The resulting theology from the grassroots level has had a unintended effect.

John 17:1-3 says,

 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (ESV)

John says eternal life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. What we need is Jesus, who is eternal life. No surprises here. John loves the subject of Life.

John 1:1-4

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 3:14-16

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:36

 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 4:13-14

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 5:24

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

There is no difference for John between life and eternal life. In fact there are only 6 chapters out of 20 that don’t directly use the word life. But consider the passage from John 17, and the well-known John 14:6. You could say that, since the book is about Jesus, all 21 chapters are about life. Jesus Christ is life, and all life in him is eternal. So whether John says you can have eternal life, or simply just life, he is talking about the person of Jesus Christ. Life is in him, he is life.

Eternal life, according to John, is Jesus. This is a very different way of thinking than the idea of Jesus Christ bearing our sin in His body on the cross so he can now offer you eternal life (Heaven) as a free gift. The free gift is not heaven. Eternal life is not heaven. Eternal life is not a place.

Why does this matter, because when heaven becomes the goal of our salvation Jesus simply becomes a means to get what we want. Jesus is not someone we use to get what we want. Heaven is a secondary blessing that comes with knowing Christ. Jesus is life and all we will ever need. We need Jesus more than heaven.

Pauls says in Philippians 3:7, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” Maybe we should be asking ourselves this question, “If I never go to heaven, and all I have is this life with Christ would it still be worth knowing him?”

If heaven is all we are after, then it is pointless to forsake all for Christ in this life. We just simply “accept Jesus” and then endure until we get what we really want. But let me ask another question. If life with Christ is not worth forsaking all now, why would you think it would be any different after death? In other words, if you don’t want all of Jesus now why would you want all of him then?

Honestly, I think we have been sold a bill of goods. Heaven became a place you will love because of what you will get. In reality heaven allows us to experience Christ in sight, not just faith, God’s glory on full display right in front of our eyes.

So you can keep your million years of golf or surfing or whatever it is you hope eternity will hold for you, and I will take Christ. I want to know him, to love him, to worship him with every breath in this life and the one to come. I would not have Life without Him.

Eternal life is not a place, it is a person, his name is Jesus. Eternal life begins for you the moment you believe.

You were created to worship and glorify God. Sin has taken your eyes from his glory to your own and deserves death. Your glory is a cheap imitation. God became a man and lived the life you can’t. Jesus, God in the flesh, lived for the Father’s glory perfectly, yet died your sinner’s death, was raised to life three days later. Having finished the work of rescuing you, he now now calls you to trust in his righteousness (life) rather than your own. He offers life eternal in him through faith beginning the moment you believe and it culminates on the day he returns to restores all things in creation to his Glory.

This is His story and what you were made for. Give up those selfish dreams. They are filthy rags compared to the riches of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord!

Morality without God: Living a borrowed idea.

(Originally posted May 19, 2009)

In an article posted by the News and Observer in Raleigh, NC this week, Yonat Shimron wrote of families in the Triangle area meeting on Sundays to “get together and offer each other support for rearing children without religion.”

The article Parents gather to nurture non-belief tells the story of these families who want to raise their children to be open-minded and willing to ask questions. I am all for teaching children to think, as a student pastor I encourage our students to think through what they believe, to ask questions and seek answers. This is not a counter Christian idea but is firmly rooted in the understanding that Jesus Christ is the truth. If one wants truth, one can find absolute truth. But there in lies the problem with the concept of morality without God.

Niki Ashmont, a social worker from Zebulon is quoted in the article, “People think if you don’t believe in God you have no morals. That’s just not the case.” The question we must be open to is, where do morals come from? How does a society determine its morals? Can one culture determine something to be right and another the same to be wrong? Can a tribe in Africa approve of murder and it be ok? What if a person from that tribe came to the US where murder is wrong, would it be ok for him to do murder here since his society has determined it to be a virtue rather than a vice?

These are questions that an open mind must ask. But just as it is vital to be open to questions, it is vital to be open to where the answers may come. So here is the main question, Can one have morals without God? I say, absolutely no.

When there is no God, man is no longer created in his image. As a Christian my worldview is shaped by the understanding that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Dr. Paige Patterson, while speaking at Richland Creek, my home church, submitted that the most important verse in this Bible was Genesis 1:1, without which nothing else would matter. (Click Here for the message)Why? Because all things find their beginning in him, including morality, right and wrong.

So what if there was no God, why would that cause morality to cease? Or to put it another way, why would there no longer be right and wrong? IF God did not create the heavens and the earth, then we and the rest of the world are a product of random. Random has no meaning unless it is given meaning by an authority who can rightfully give that meaning, i.e. God. But if there is no God even our intentions and thoughts to assign meaning to random cannot be valid since the thoughts are a product of random themselves.

In other words the whole world including our own thoughts are a product of random chance with no purpose, no meaning, and ultimately will pass into useless memory.

Which then raises the question how can these parents in the article, “raise caring, responsible, ethical children.” I would submit they can be caring. I would also agree that they can be responsible. But they cannot be ethical because there is not such thing as ethics apart from God, and for that matter our definition of caring and responsible are up for grabs because all are simply a product of random with no real value or meaning. In order for them to be ethical or “Moral” they must borrow parts of a Christian worldview and biblical ideas to support their desires and declarations.

If taken to the logical conclusions raising moral children in an absence of God is impossible, unless you borrow morality and the difference between right and wrong from the scriptures. Anyone can hold whatever belief they want, but please ask questions before you live out that belief. Ask real, hard questions and be ready for real, hard answers.

The scriptures say in John 1, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God….and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus Christ is truth in the flesh. As the creator he is the beginning and end of knowledge. Since we were created by God in His image we can reason, be creative, and have real emotion, because God himself does.

Which leaves you with the ultimate question. If I can know truth through Christ then that means I must admit that I have sinned against a holy God and need a Savior to take the penalty for sin, or I will be justly punished for eternity for my rebellion. The Truth, however, provided a sacrifice to take that penalty for you. Jesus Christ who lived a perfect life died a sinner’s death so that those who by faith believe in him though they have lived a sinner’s life can have the righteousness of Christ. And that is the Truth.

(Addition August 8, 2010)

As a parent that leaves us with one glaring truth as well, when we do lead our children to be moral apart from Jesus Christ we are expecting of them the impossible. Parenting apart from the gospel is only raising pharisees. The Truth must be the cornerstone of our teaching, guiding, and everyday talk. We must use the scriptures and believe them to be sufficient for all things pertaining to life and godliness.

Pastor Dave

A dad’s perspective on a son’s salvation.

I found my oldest son, Solomon, playing on the washing machine after I asked for the DVD and Wii games to be put away. I confronted him for his disobedience and was greeted by the usual “humph,” a matter of fact, “I am not going to do it,” and arms folded.

His direct disobedience came with the customary single spanking. So I took him alone into the bedroom and encountered a very disobedient heart.  His anger for the first spanking led to our conversation.

“Solomon do you understand that receiving a spanking is your choice as a result of your decision. It is best for you to obey mommy and daddy because God has given us responsibility for you. When you disobey us you are also disobeying God. It is so foolish to disobey God. Foolish actions will always lead to hurt in your life. This spanking is to remind you that foolish actions lead to a fool’s reward.”

After we finished I found him perched on the bathroom counter about 5 minutes later. When I asked what was wrong he told me, “My butt hurts.”

“What does that remind you of,” I asked.

Looking down he said, “That it’s foolish to disobey you.”

I grabbed a seat next to the counter, sat down and asked, “When you disobey me, who are you really disobeying?”

“God,” he responded with tears in his eyes.

“Do you understand that spankings are not punishment for your sin, but the way I remind you of my love and show you the path of righteousness?” I asked.

His response was accompanied by his first look to my eyes, “Yes.”

I began to notice a very tender heart in Solomon. His defiance and anger had given way to sorrow and a teachable moment. So I asked, “What is the real punishment for sin?”

“Death,” he answered.

“Who will punish that sin?”

He responded, “God.”

Taking this moment I said, “This is not why you were created. You were created to reflect God’s glory by bearing his image. God is love, so you can love. God is creator, so you can be creative. God is truth, so you can know, which is why you love to read so much. It is why you are smart little boy. But your sin has made you love the wrong person. You love yourself more than God. That is why you get angry with me for holding you accountable for your wrong. It is why you think it is okay to disobey. But God has made you for so much more than yourself.”

We talked about Christ, who was God, who had lived a perfect life, died a sinner’s death, and was raised to life three days later. I showed him how Christ did all these as a man in a way Solomon never could because of his sin.

“I want to live for what I was created for,” Solomon said as he listened in one of those rare attentive moments. He then said, “Spankings are kind of like an electric fence.” I was intrigued to say the least. So I asked how.

“The fence keeps me walking on the road I should, but when I want to go a different direction the fence shocks me enough to hurt. But this isn’t as close to as bad as it would hurt if I went passed the fence.” “But dad,” he paused. “I really want to go outside the fence. I want to just grab it even though it hurts and cross it.”

We then talked about how Christ did for us what we could never do ourselves. That Christ did this to free us from the power of sin that makes us want the wrong things. Those are foolish and lead to destruction. We talked about how Christ is worth more than anything on the other side of that fence and the journey down the road Jesus offers is far more than any journey you could ever have for yourself.

“I want to go on that journey with God, dad,” Sol said. “I really do want to live for Jesus and I want to be what he created me to be. I need Jesus to do for me what I can’t.”

“He already did,” I answered.

“I think he knows better than me, dad,” Sol responded.

So I led Solomon in a prayer. He told Jesus he trusted him. He told Jesus he was going to leave behind what he wanted in life. He told Jesus how he wanted what Jesus created him to be.

To say this was a beautiful moment would be an understatement. To say that God answers prayer would seem to routine. To see the eternal result from a spanking that hurts me more than it would ever hurt him, worth it. I love my children too much to let them walk a path away from freedom to foolishness and destruction. After that moment we gathered with my wife and the three of us thanked God for answering our prayers and saving Solomon.

Just a few short weeks later I was blessed to baptize the second member of my family. First my wife a few years ago, and this weekend my son.

“I baptize you, my brother in Christ and partner in the gospel from this day forward, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Buried with Christ. Raised to walk in newness of life.”

May our journey together in the partnership of this gospel be all that our Lord promised and commanded.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.  - Colossians 1:29

Lesson from 17th Century Pietists.

According to Alvin Reid in Firefall the Puritan movement through William Perkins (1558-1602) influenced William Amesius and William Tellinck, who “led the movement of the Reformed Pietism in the Netherlands.[1] A Lutheran by the name of John Arndt (1555-1621) also led in the early stages of Pietism and was the author of True Christianity.[2]

The early Pietist leader, Philip Spener, was heavily influenced by Arndt’s work and wrote the manifesto of the Pietist movement, Pia Desideria (1675).[3] Originally a manual for the reform of Lutheran churches, Spener’s work made an impact on Lutheran as well as Reformed and Moravian streams.[4]

The six measures of reform in the Pia Desideria were: 1. A greater commitment to spread the word of God. 2. A renewed emphasis on the Lutheran view of the priesthood of all believers. 3. A greater focus given to the development of individual spiritual life. 4. Truth should not be established through disputes but through repentance and a holy life. 5. Candidates for the ministry should be genuine Christians who have had spiritual training. 6. Sermons should not demonstrate the preacher’s erudition, but attempt to edify.[5]

Two specific results attributed to the Pietist movement by Reid include encouraging revival and pioneering world missions.[6] The Pietist also increased focus on disciple making in individual lives. Revival and world mission have a clear connection to the emphasis on the spiritual life. When a person grows deeply as a believer, revival and missional impulse come natural.

The Pietist movement demonstrates a historical phenomenon connected with personal piety. The movement, as some have suggested, can lead to a mystical spirituality;[7] yet, the benefits of historical results outweigh the risk. Like the Anglican church of the Puritans, much of the American church is highly institutional, with little to no missional impulse. Since the Pietist movement did result in revival and missionary fervency, one should expect a similar result if our congregations determined to live lives of purity and holiness in Christ. This is not to say the revival is automatic, but instead to say conditions preceding revival will always include a renewed emphasis on personal piety.

The natural overflow of a deep and abiding relationship with Christ will always be a love for people and a passion for God’s mission. Works like True Christianity and the  Pia Desideria can help our modern context return to a faithful, Christ-centered disciple making method, rather than a consumer based entertainment approach.

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[1] Malcolm McDowell and Alvin Reid, Firefall: How God Has Shaped History Through Revivals, (Enumclaw, WA: Pleasant Word, 2002), 175.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., 176.
[6] Ibid. 181.
[7] Ibid., 175.

Run the race in third place.

The third place is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. – Wikipedia

Simply put, you spend the majority of time outside home and work at a third place. Think about it. Where do you spend most of your time? If you have been raised in “church” and you understand that I am a Christian pastor, you will assume I think it should be the church building. But, that is exactly opposite.

The mission of the church flows from the mission of God, namely to glorify himself primarily by redeeming lost man in Jesus Christ. Our third place, then, must be somewhere other than the church building.

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am not saying gospel community with other believers, as a part of a local church is wrong. I am saying that gospel community with other believers, as part of a local church should take place in the community as much or more than in a central gathering place.

To take the gospel to people, who were created for a relationship with God in Jesus Christ, we must go to where they are. We no longer have the luxury of cultural expectation to “go to church” as our third place. It is gone for the majority of the population.

Take for instance my context, Roswell, NM. The majority third place in our community is the home of friends. A small town of around 50,000 with relatively few entertainment choices, leaves meals and movies with friends in homes a great option. In order for the gospel to impact lives of those outside the influence of the church we must open our homes in hospitality and accept invitations of new friends.

We desperately need Christian presence in our community third places. People will build community relationships in places other than work or home. Find out where it happens. Join them. Demonstrate a compassion and conviction unlike anything they have seen. Speak the gospel with care and boldness. Stay friends even if they do not believe, because the gospel leads to love of people, not just talking at people.

Take time to intentionally run the race in third place.

Where does your community spend most of their time? How can you take the gospel to the third places of your context?