“And He rested on the seventh day.” (Gen. 2:2) After six days of work, the Creator rested. Most of us, I would imagine, think of this language as indicating that God worked for six full days, and then rested on the seventh, as if He needed a break. Are there actual days in heaven? Is there a sun that orbits around heaven every 24 hours? No, there isn’t, so “days” are something that God created for us. A day; a measurement of time— something unheard of in a place such as heaven where time cannot exist—is but a unit of work for God, not a length or progression as we see it. If I were to make six items, you might say that I did six units of work. Likewise, God did six days of work, and He rested on the seventh. The seventh day He just let speak for itself. We know that a day must be but a second to God (II Peter 3:8).
In music sometimes there are rests. At that point in the song, the music stops for a moment—not because the musicians where tired and needed a break, but because that rest was a part of the beautiful melody. It was a time to reflect and allow the music to sink in and be absorbed by the listener. This universe is a melody to God, and He is delighted in it. Even the word “universe” gives relevance to music. The first part of the word, uni, means one, and the second part is verse: one verse.
God rested on the seventh day, not the eighth, ninth, and tenth. God rested for a moment but the music continued on. Today was a note in God’s one-verse song. Today was part of a beautiful melody that has been playing since Creation. Even though there was sin and wickedness in the world today, it did not keep God’s creation from being beautiful. God’s righteousness and glory are the melody, and it drowns out all the other noise. And though sin is contrary to God, it is in the same key of God’s sovereignty—the key of God’s perfection that rules all His creation. So even though evil is different from the tune which God is playing, it actually harmonizes quite well. Which brings me to my conclusion: When a song ends, the background sounds die off, so that all that’s left is the melody. When the Great Composer ends this song, He will silence evil, so that all that will remain is His beautiful, pure righteousness.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Faith and Reward
Do you believe in God? Perhaps you don’t know. Maybe you once believed, but the belief has dissipated as the years have progressed. Children in particular seem to have a sense of fear of the unseen. We usually write this off as immaturity and them not knowing that there are no unseen things to fear.
As a child I can remember lying in bed unable to sleep because I was scared. I was afraid of God, and I was terrified of dying. I was afraid of the dark; in reality, I was afraid of the darkness in my heart and the thought of standing before God with that sin. As I got older, however, that fear slowly dissipated. When I think back to those times as a child, I recall a simple process of thinking. I was new to this world, and it seemed so strange to me that I existed, that I was a human with a soul, and that I was alive whether I wanted to be or not. The miracle of being a living soul and knowing that I existed seemed so impossible. I knew there was a God, and I knew that I should be very afraid of Him. So what happened when I grew up? Why did I lose that simple faith that I had?
As the years progressed, I suppose I just got used to being alive, and I took it for granted. I had become hardened. I had gone from fearing the dark to fearing the light. Jesus says in John 3:20, "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." That very darkness that I had feared as a child became who I was. Instead of continuing to fear God because of that darkness in my life, I embraced the darkness and became hard. However, God returned me to Himself, and the beginning of this process started with a renewed belief in Him.
The Bible says that it is a foolish person who doesn’t believe in God (Psalm 14:1). There is so much glory and perfection in creation that anyone can clearly see that there is a Creator. If that isn’t enough, have you considered the impossibility of a human soul? You and I are different beings; we both know that we’re alive and that we’re different. Every person who has ever lived has had their own unique identity. We even have different faces. Animals don’t have different faces. Animals don’t lie awake at night in fear and terror of God; and animals aren’t responsible to God for what they do.
Every human that has ever lived will stand before God one day. And each one of us will have to give an account for everything we have done. We will all be condemned before God because we have sinned against Him. If God hadn’t sent His own Son to die for our sins, it might be a little easier to bear our punishment for sinning against an eternal God, but how sorrowful will that soul be who is cast into hell knowing that he could have been spared. Certainly, God did not have to spare any of us, but He is pleased to do so because of His great love.
Do you think you’re in good standing with God? Do you feel that you have not done enough evil to really be punished by God? Do you think that your good has outweighed your bad to the extent that God will spare you? If so, what kind of god is that which you have created?
Here’s something you should consider:
We have a very limited history of heaven and what takes place there, but there is one thing that we know. Since the earth was created, there has never been a soul who has committed even one sin that has been allowed to dwell in heaven. With this in mind, what makes you thing that you will be allowed to enter heaven? Satan was the first being to ever sin. After he sinned, several angels followed in his evil. They were all cast out of heaven, but that wasn’t the end of the story. In Matthew 25:41 we learn that hell was originally created for the devil and his angels. If God had simply cast them out of heaven, He wouldn’t have been considered very just. How could He maintain His pure holiness and justness when He allowed sinners to go free, unpunished?
If we truly knew the history of God’s divine justness, we would feel completely hopeless. The angels must have stood in profound astonishment at the thought that any of us would ever enter God’s kingdom. But God, through His infinite wisdom and eternal love, made a way for us to be saved. The unthinkable was accomplished when Jesus gave His life on the cross. The eternally perfect God at that point became a Redeemer. It’s not that God was completing His perfection or adding something new to His perfection when He did this. God has always had a redemptive nature, but until He sent His own son to die for sinful, hell-deserving men and women, it had not yet been displayed. It is even possible that we were created for the very purpose of God demonstrating His perfect love and ability to redeem.
God is a just Judge, a righteous King, a glorious Creator, a divine Helper, and now a beautiful Savior. Everything good and perfect, God is. God’s saving ability was manifested in Jesus Christ His only Son. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.” (John 14:6) The angels who know God’s just history must know how precious Jesus should be to us. Why can’t we see that? Jesus is the only chance, my friend; He is the only hope that you have from escaping God’s wrath. It is a wonderful thing to find God’s redeeming love.
From what we’ve learned so far, see if you can see the meaning of these verses: Romans 9:22-24: “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”
Perhaps you’re seeing what I’m seeing here. God didn’t just make us to have fun and live a fulfilled life. No, we were created for God’s glory! It will be a glorious day for God when the gates of hell are opened up. God is going to be glorified beyond comprehension on that day. The Bible says that Jesus has the keys to death and hell (Revelation 1:18). When Jesus opens the gates to hell, there will be great worship and praise among the angels and those whom Jesus chose to save. There will be shouting: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelations 5:12)
Oh, but God will receive glory from the wicked as well. “...At the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and every tongue [shall] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2: 10-11) Furthermore, not only will God receive glory from unredeemed sinners, He will also receive glory because of them. If you aren’t saved on that day, the angels and those redeemed will praise God that He has rid His perfect creation of your wicked soul; they will glorify God because of His perfect justice, wrath, and His eternal compensation for evil.
How is God going to get glory from you? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that God will get glory from your existence; otherwise, He wouldn’t have made you. Will He be glorified in your life and salvation, or will He be glorified in your death and destruction? Sinner, you need a Savior, or should I say, “The Savior.”
If God has given you the ability to believe what I have said, you should see that Jesus is precious, for you have no other hope. For someone to seek Christ they must believe in Him, and know that He is precious. If someone were to tell you that there was gold in a certain mountain, whether or not you would look for it would depend on two things. (1) How much you really believe that it was there, and (2) how much you wanted it.
Do you believe in God and what He says? Do you want Jesus? God says, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13) Maybe you believe in God, but not enough to seek Him with all your heart. If that is the case, then you will never find Him. You must have faith! Only God can give you the faith that is required to find Him, so ask Him for diligence and faith. Maybe God is even using these writings to build faith in you. Hebrews 11:6 says this: “But without faith it is impossible to Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." So in order to come to God we must believe that He exists (that He is), and that He will reward us for diligently seeking Him.
So what is the reward that is spoken of here? I believe that reward is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Therefore, if we don’t have the faith to believe in God, and if we don’t treasure His reward enough, we will never please Him because God will not be pleased unless we have the covering of Jesus’ sacrifice. God said of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 17:5) If you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus, His sacrifice will cover your sins, so that God will look on you and be well pleased. If you don’t have Christ’s sacrifice, God will not be pleased with you; His eternal wrath will be kindled, and you will be cast into hell forever. Dear friend, don’t be one of those who stands before God uncovered. Have faith; seek God.
"He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19-20)
As a child I can remember lying in bed unable to sleep because I was scared. I was afraid of God, and I was terrified of dying. I was afraid of the dark; in reality, I was afraid of the darkness in my heart and the thought of standing before God with that sin. As I got older, however, that fear slowly dissipated. When I think back to those times as a child, I recall a simple process of thinking. I was new to this world, and it seemed so strange to me that I existed, that I was a human with a soul, and that I was alive whether I wanted to be or not. The miracle of being a living soul and knowing that I existed seemed so impossible. I knew there was a God, and I knew that I should be very afraid of Him. So what happened when I grew up? Why did I lose that simple faith that I had?
As the years progressed, I suppose I just got used to being alive, and I took it for granted. I had become hardened. I had gone from fearing the dark to fearing the light. Jesus says in John 3:20, "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." That very darkness that I had feared as a child became who I was. Instead of continuing to fear God because of that darkness in my life, I embraced the darkness and became hard. However, God returned me to Himself, and the beginning of this process started with a renewed belief in Him.
The Bible says that it is a foolish person who doesn’t believe in God (Psalm 14:1). There is so much glory and perfection in creation that anyone can clearly see that there is a Creator. If that isn’t enough, have you considered the impossibility of a human soul? You and I are different beings; we both know that we’re alive and that we’re different. Every person who has ever lived has had their own unique identity. We even have different faces. Animals don’t have different faces. Animals don’t lie awake at night in fear and terror of God; and animals aren’t responsible to God for what they do.
Every human that has ever lived will stand before God one day. And each one of us will have to give an account for everything we have done. We will all be condemned before God because we have sinned against Him. If God hadn’t sent His own Son to die for our sins, it might be a little easier to bear our punishment for sinning against an eternal God, but how sorrowful will that soul be who is cast into hell knowing that he could have been spared. Certainly, God did not have to spare any of us, but He is pleased to do so because of His great love.
Do you think you’re in good standing with God? Do you feel that you have not done enough evil to really be punished by God? Do you think that your good has outweighed your bad to the extent that God will spare you? If so, what kind of god is that which you have created?
Here’s something you should consider:
We have a very limited history of heaven and what takes place there, but there is one thing that we know. Since the earth was created, there has never been a soul who has committed even one sin that has been allowed to dwell in heaven. With this in mind, what makes you thing that you will be allowed to enter heaven? Satan was the first being to ever sin. After he sinned, several angels followed in his evil. They were all cast out of heaven, but that wasn’t the end of the story. In Matthew 25:41 we learn that hell was originally created for the devil and his angels. If God had simply cast them out of heaven, He wouldn’t have been considered very just. How could He maintain His pure holiness and justness when He allowed sinners to go free, unpunished?
If we truly knew the history of God’s divine justness, we would feel completely hopeless. The angels must have stood in profound astonishment at the thought that any of us would ever enter God’s kingdom. But God, through His infinite wisdom and eternal love, made a way for us to be saved. The unthinkable was accomplished when Jesus gave His life on the cross. The eternally perfect God at that point became a Redeemer. It’s not that God was completing His perfection or adding something new to His perfection when He did this. God has always had a redemptive nature, but until He sent His own son to die for sinful, hell-deserving men and women, it had not yet been displayed. It is even possible that we were created for the very purpose of God demonstrating His perfect love and ability to redeem.
God is a just Judge, a righteous King, a glorious Creator, a divine Helper, and now a beautiful Savior. Everything good and perfect, God is. God’s saving ability was manifested in Jesus Christ His only Son. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.” (John 14:6) The angels who know God’s just history must know how precious Jesus should be to us. Why can’t we see that? Jesus is the only chance, my friend; He is the only hope that you have from escaping God’s wrath. It is a wonderful thing to find God’s redeeming love.
From what we’ve learned so far, see if you can see the meaning of these verses: Romans 9:22-24: “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”
Perhaps you’re seeing what I’m seeing here. God didn’t just make us to have fun and live a fulfilled life. No, we were created for God’s glory! It will be a glorious day for God when the gates of hell are opened up. God is going to be glorified beyond comprehension on that day. The Bible says that Jesus has the keys to death and hell (Revelation 1:18). When Jesus opens the gates to hell, there will be great worship and praise among the angels and those whom Jesus chose to save. There will be shouting: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelations 5:12)
Oh, but God will receive glory from the wicked as well. “...At the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and every tongue [shall] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2: 10-11) Furthermore, not only will God receive glory from unredeemed sinners, He will also receive glory because of them. If you aren’t saved on that day, the angels and those redeemed will praise God that He has rid His perfect creation of your wicked soul; they will glorify God because of His perfect justice, wrath, and His eternal compensation for evil.
How is God going to get glory from you? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that God will get glory from your existence; otherwise, He wouldn’t have made you. Will He be glorified in your life and salvation, or will He be glorified in your death and destruction? Sinner, you need a Savior, or should I say, “The Savior.”
If God has given you the ability to believe what I have said, you should see that Jesus is precious, for you have no other hope. For someone to seek Christ they must believe in Him, and know that He is precious. If someone were to tell you that there was gold in a certain mountain, whether or not you would look for it would depend on two things. (1) How much you really believe that it was there, and (2) how much you wanted it.
Do you believe in God and what He says? Do you want Jesus? God says, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13) Maybe you believe in God, but not enough to seek Him with all your heart. If that is the case, then you will never find Him. You must have faith! Only God can give you the faith that is required to find Him, so ask Him for diligence and faith. Maybe God is even using these writings to build faith in you. Hebrews 11:6 says this: “But without faith it is impossible to Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." So in order to come to God we must believe that He exists (that He is), and that He will reward us for diligently seeking Him.
So what is the reward that is spoken of here? I believe that reward is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Therefore, if we don’t have the faith to believe in God, and if we don’t treasure His reward enough, we will never please Him because God will not be pleased unless we have the covering of Jesus’ sacrifice. God said of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 17:5) If you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus, His sacrifice will cover your sins, so that God will look on you and be well pleased. If you don’t have Christ’s sacrifice, God will not be pleased with you; His eternal wrath will be kindled, and you will be cast into hell forever. Dear friend, don’t be one of those who stands before God uncovered. Have faith; seek God.
"He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19-20)
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Time, in Light of Eternity
God is eternal; He has no beginning or end; He is limitless. You may say, “But I don’t understand that; I can’t conceive or comprehend something being limitless.” Of course you can’t! The very nature of God’s limitlessness requires that it not be limited, or held, within the bounds of our puny imaginations.
Did you know that you will spend 100% of your life in the eternity that follows this world? That sounds crazy, but if you think about it, any amount of time, no matter how large is nothing when compared to eternity. Our minds, though brilliant and complex as they may be, cannot begin to even grasp the smallest edge of eternity. Does that mean eternity doesn’t exist—since we can’t understand it?
Obviously, not only is it impossible for our mind to grasp the existence of eternity, it is equally if not more so, impossible to imagine the absence of eternity. I endeavor to believe that many of us have tried to understand the vastness of eternity, but how many of us have tried to get a handle on a concept that depicts the absence of eternity? If you were to set out on a quest to understand this absence, here are some good questions to ask yourself.
If you believe that we came from and are headed to eternal oblivion, it would seem that the blackness of eternity past and eternity future would engulf and completely swallow our existence to the point that we could say that it never logically existed. The line between eternity past and eternity future is so small that we could easily zoom out to the point that it completely and totally vanishes.
Eternity cannot be understood, compared to, or measured by time; and any attempt to do so is sheer nonsense. When we measure something, we generally try to measure it with something that is bigger than the object. For instance, we wouldn’t try to measure a ten-foot wall with a two-foot tape measure. Trying to measure eternity with time is like trying to measure the surface area of the world with grains of sand. And that illustration applies no matter how large the sections of time may be by which you try to find the end of eternity. Moral of the story: time and eternity have to be thought of in separate leagues, otherwise time will completely lose its meaning and value because eternity "doesn’t play fare."
Some have contended that hell is not forever. That notion is impossible! If hell at any point ended, eternity would continue on to the point that the punishment of hell would eventually disappear into utter darkness, as if it had never happened. But know this: at the point where a million years of hell would vanish in the rear view mirror of eternity, the sinners will still be paying the eternal punishment of the sins that they have committed against an eternal God. Probably the best explanation of this concept was summed up by the great evangelist Jonathan Edwards:
Yet, just as time cannot breach eternity, so corruptible objects cannot breach perfection. In the same manner that time is swallowed by eternity, anything short of eternal perfection will be swallowed by God's eternal wrath over sin. See, eternity and perfection are equal; they are the same distance, length, width, and breadth. Like eternity, perfection cannot be outdone, overspent, or underestimated. Therefore, the perfect Lamb of God is the perfect substitute for the eternal evil that we have done, and it is the only thing that can save us from the eternal wrath that we are sentenced to.
Did you know that you will spend 100% of your life in the eternity that follows this world? That sounds crazy, but if you think about it, any amount of time, no matter how large is nothing when compared to eternity. Our minds, though brilliant and complex as they may be, cannot begin to even grasp the smallest edge of eternity. Does that mean eternity doesn’t exist—since we can’t understand it?
Obviously, not only is it impossible for our mind to grasp the existence of eternity, it is equally if not more so, impossible to imagine the absence of eternity. I endeavor to believe that many of us have tried to understand the vastness of eternity, but how many of us have tried to get a handle on a concept that depicts the absence of eternity? If you were to set out on a quest to understand this absence, here are some good questions to ask yourself.
- If there was a beginning, when was it?
- If you come to a conclusion of a beginning, what was before that?
- If you’re still considering trying to figure this out, you might as well ask yourself, when will time end?
- If you find an answer to the last question, ask yourself, what is after that?
If you believe that we came from and are headed to eternal oblivion, it would seem that the blackness of eternity past and eternity future would engulf and completely swallow our existence to the point that we could say that it never logically existed. The line between eternity past and eternity future is so small that we could easily zoom out to the point that it completely and totally vanishes.
Eternity cannot be understood, compared to, or measured by time; and any attempt to do so is sheer nonsense. When we measure something, we generally try to measure it with something that is bigger than the object. For instance, we wouldn’t try to measure a ten-foot wall with a two-foot tape measure. Trying to measure eternity with time is like trying to measure the surface area of the world with grains of sand. And that illustration applies no matter how large the sections of time may be by which you try to find the end of eternity. Moral of the story: time and eternity have to be thought of in separate leagues, otherwise time will completely lose its meaning and value because eternity "doesn’t play fare."
Some have contended that hell is not forever. That notion is impossible! If hell at any point ended, eternity would continue on to the point that the punishment of hell would eventually disappear into utter darkness, as if it had never happened. But know this: at the point where a million years of hell would vanish in the rear view mirror of eternity, the sinners will still be paying the eternal punishment of the sins that they have committed against an eternal God. Probably the best explanation of this concept was summed up by the great evangelist Jonathan Edwards:
The crime of one being despising and casting contempt on another, is proportionably more or less heinous, as he was under greater or less obligations to obey him. And therefore if there be any being that we are under infinite obligations to love, and honor, and obey, the contrary towards him must be infinitely faulty.Lastly, since we’re talking about eternity, I would like to mention one other eternal aspect, and that is the perfect Sacrifice of God Who freely gave of His eternal perfection to cover our eternal imperfections. Of course the One I’m speaking of is Jesus. The Bible refers to Him as the spotless Lamb of God. First Peter 1:18-19 says that we are “not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold from our aimless conduct received by tradition from (our) fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.” When it speaks of “corruptible things,” it is speaking of things that measure worth.
Our obligation to love, honor, and obey any being is in proportion to his loveliness, honorableness, and authority.... But God is a being infinitely lovely, because he hath infinite excellency and beauty....
So sin against God, being a violation of infinite obligations, must be a crime infinitely heinous, and so deserving infinite punishment.... The eternity of the punishment of ungodly men renders it infinite . . . and therefore renders no more than proportionable to the heinousness of what they are guilty of.
Yet, just as time cannot breach eternity, so corruptible objects cannot breach perfection. In the same manner that time is swallowed by eternity, anything short of eternal perfection will be swallowed by God's eternal wrath over sin. See, eternity and perfection are equal; they are the same distance, length, width, and breadth. Like eternity, perfection cannot be outdone, overspent, or underestimated. Therefore, the perfect Lamb of God is the perfect substitute for the eternal evil that we have done, and it is the only thing that can save us from the eternal wrath that we are sentenced to.
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