The Heart of All [that] Matters

 Most people today are automatically skeptical of anyone who claims that they have the Truth. Notice that I refer to Truth with a capital T. The difference is that most of us don’t doubt that there are certain truths that can be known with much certainty (such as the sky is blue), however the trouble for most comes when someone comes along who says they know the Truth - that is, absolute truth. I’ve had a number of conversations (some of them very passionate on both sides) throughout the years that have revolved around the topics of Truth, absolute morality, the nature of religion, and other related issues. I have done a lot of listening as people have told me about their beliefs in and about karma, reincarnation, whether or not heaven exists and what it takes to get there, etc. I’ve also heard a lot about Jesus. Many claim that these topics are good for just that – conversation – but that seeking to push them beyond the realm of personal piety and devotion into the domains of, say, politics or proselytizing, is to cross a boundary that ought not to be crossed under any circumstances.

I suspect, though, that this is not a realistic value to hold. After all, what a person believes – the fabric that makes up what psychologists and social scientists call personal schemas - impacts everything… at least if a person is coherent. That being the case, the issues of the nature of morality, the knowability of truth, the claims of various religions, and the like, really are foundational to not only how we live our lives, but how we make sense of the big questions of life, such as Why is there suffering? Why am I here? Is this reality all that there is (or is this reality even real)? In even a cursory survey of the various hypotheses, philosophies, and beliefs that have circulated throughout human history as our race has sought to answer those questions, what we quickly realize is that not all roads lead to Rome. And the issues are, in my mind, so crucially important that they very literally are the matter of life and death for each and every one of us. Including you. So assuming (as we all must) that we may know certain truths provisionally, which may reliably lead us to other, more sweeping truths, I want to get to the heart of all that matters – and without which nothing matters.

To begin, I must say a word about a prevalent philosophy in this age that is often called moral relativism. Simply put, moral relativism (which in many cases is functionally synonymous with postmodernism) is a phenomenon that has gripped the United States – as well as the rest of the Western world – that basically teaches the absence or knowability of any objective truth. Basically, whatever people believe is fine for them, because there’s no real way of knowing if anything is true at all. Yet as much as this way of thinking dominates the landscape of the modern mind, there are some inescapable pitfalls inherent to this way of thinking. For example, people just don’t live as though there’s no ultimate truth. How do I know? Because if I kill your dog and eat him, you will retaliate with either personal physical attack, litigation, or some other form of retribution. When I ask you why you’re taking action against me, you would say something like, “Because you killed my dog, and it was wrong!” (Or, to make a stronger point, substitute dog with child – the case is made either way). If relativism as an expression of postmodern thinking is true, then I would not have been wrong to kill your dog (or child), because that would have been “my truth” (which, as the moral relativist asserts, is true for me). In fact, if we were to be consistent, we would have to say that the 9/11 terrorists were not wrong in doing what they did, as well, since it is in accordance with their truth that they acted! (These illustrations are simplified, but make the point, I think.)

Someone will say to me, “Rick, that’s going a bit far! Your truth is fine for you, and mine is fine for me, as long as we don’t express our truths in ways that hurt other people.” Fine. However, the problem becomes the fact that your understanding that it is wrong to hurt other people came from somewhere. (In other words, you are making an absolute truth statement [capital T Truth] to justify a universal law that ought to govern personal morality.) Many people have proposed reasons why this does not prove an ultimate truth or reality, yet none provides a coherent and satisfactory account of morality without an ultimate reality that may be objectively referenced. I hope I haven’t bored you thus far, but I feel compelled to start where I did because of the times in which we live, particularly the intellectual challenges that are posed to having meaningful dialogue about truth, falsehood, and morality. Having begun there, I propose that we must ask ourselves these questions: What is Truth and how can we know it?

The rest of this note is about Truth, and what I propose as our most reliable and solely authoritative source of Truth are the 66 books of the Christian Bible. I understand that some readers might be tempted to write me off as a “soapboxer,” and I would understand why. If you’re one, perhaps you think that I am out of line to “impose” any of these things on anyone (the objection noted above). But if you’re getting hung up here, please consider taking a brief gander at why it’s in your best interest to take this seriously. Here are a couple short videos that might be of help:

If you’re still skeptical, I get that. If I were in the shoes of a skeptic at this point, I’d want to know precisely what it is the men from these videos were talking about. If that’s you, let me briefly remind you that the whole point here is that I believe that something fundamental about your existence hinges on the issue at hand – that these things literally hold life and death in the balance for each one of us. Including you. So if you need further discussion in order to digest what I’m saying from here on out, it would be wise to take a few hours to diligently investigate the evidence for yourself, and sooner rather than later. You can view a well researched, clearly presented seminar about the reliability of the Bible by clicking here: Why We Believe the Bible. Everything from here on out is drawn from Scripture.

The Heart of All [that] Matters

(What I present from here on out is intentionally detailed, and is meant to provide a thorough, biblical, and coherent explanation of the heart of all that matters, and without which nothing else matters. Too often, the heart of the message is presented without giving much detail, and it is viewed as overly simplistic, wishful thinking that is on par with the standard bedtime fairy story. My goal here is to delve into the depths of the Gospel in an understandable way. However, if you want a distilled explanation of what I’m saying, I invite you to click on this link: two ways to live: the choice we all face. You can also view a creative summary in four minutes by watching the video on the sidebar titled, “The Gospel In Four Minutes,” or a more comprehensive but still brief exposition in the video beneath it by Paul Washer.)

Creator

“‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!…. Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4.8, 11b, ESV)

“You… are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong….” (Habakkuk 1.13a)

God has always existed and will always exist; there was never a time He didn’t exist. (I refer to God in the masculine because Jesus Christ is a Man, and God chose to refer to Himself using male language. Human language is gender-bound, and God has, in His manifold wisdom, chosen to communicate Himself to us in the masculine. Ultimately, as one writer has pointed out, “God defines Who God is and how we are to image Him and relate to Him. God has chosen to reveal Himself with male imagery” [M Kassian]. So, while God “encompasses everything that is good about masculinity and femininity,” I must be faithful to what He’s communicated.) Moreover, He has always existed as Trinity—namely, One God has always existed as three Persons; not three gods, but three Persons. (This is a difficult one to grasp, if not humanly impossible, but it’s the best I can do to explain it right now without digressing from the main point of the message.)

The first thing to realize about God is that He is holy. His holiness defines everything He is. That is, He is unfathomably, incomparably, and comprehensively majestic, glorious, true, manifold in perfection and beauty, beyond anyone or anything that the most brilliant mind could fathom, righteous and good (just to take a stab at helping us understand the concept of holiness as it pertains to God). He is God. He is the Definition of Himself. He is Other. God is holy. If we don’t grasp this, we don’t grasp anything.

Creation

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1.27)

“For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….” (Romans 3.22b-23)

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…. For the wages of sin is death….” (Romans 5.12, 6.23a)

“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” (Isaiah 64.6a)

God, because He is so holy, “went public” with His majesty, so to speak. He created the universe, with the human race holding a special place among everything He made. He created humans completely perfect to display His beauty in a special way, because God Himself is completely perfect and beautiful — that’s the purpose of our existence, to glorify God and enjoy Him by living like He’s the Supreme One that He is! Because He’s holy, nothing unholy (that is to say, imperfect and impure) can dwell with Him in love and harmony, because He cannot allow this — it would be essentially His choosing to live in perfect peace with those who hate Him, as if nothing was wrong… it’d be absurd. (I worked in a restaurant through college and grad school, so to put it in restaurant terms, it’s like serving a glass of water to someone when it’s caked with dirt or grime — it’s just sick and wrong.)

So humans were created perfect in order that they could enjoy an intimate relationship with God and thus glorify Him (declare His worth through their existence). But we all know what happened: people went bad — they became God haters, in fact! God had guidelines for how to live so as to enjoy Him, not because He loves rules but because He knows what’s best for our highest enjoyment, and how we most fully glorify Him. (This is much the same as a parent setting up rules like “don’t play in the street,” not to be a burden to their children, but because they know that their children’s highest enjoyment is to not be creamed by a car.)

But the first man and woman rejected the gift of God’s rule, and in that moment, everything about them – down to their very genetics – was altered so as to become radically depraved (not meaning that they became as bad as could be, but rather categorically wicked in every part). Since that time, everyone who has ever been and ever will be born has that same problem and therefore naturally doesn’t have a loving relationship with God, but rather one of hatred toward God. (This is the case even if all a person is conscious of is feelings of indifference toward Him – this is rightly classed as essential “enemy-ness” toward the God Who is worthy of nothing but ceaseless worship and adoration.)

The thing about it is that even though human beings went from being immortal to now experiencing death, the spirit — or what is the life of a person, including our emotions, mind, etc. — is still immortal and, upon death, either spends eternity in the Presence of God (this is heaven) or in torment, as the natural outcome of their animosity toward God (this is hell).

Do you see the problem? Each one of us is wicked and unholy, yet God is righteous and holy and cannot dwell with the unholy – and because He is just, He must eternally punish wicked sinners for their eternal rebellion against Him….

So is that it?!

NO! [Thank God!]

Christ

“… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith…. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 3.23-25a, 6.23)

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the Gospel I preached to you…: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scripture….” (1 Corinthians 15.1-4)

God had a plan so that His people won’t experience eternal torment in hell. In fact, the crux of the matter is that God had a purpose so that His people may exist in sheer love and holiness with Him, celebrating His rule with Him forever!

Remember how I said that the Bible records God’s eternal existence as Trinity — the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit? Well, God must punish our unholiness — or rebellion (as we already saw). God cannot ignore our deep rebellion, because it essentially proclaims to the universe that we’re wiser and better than Him… that we are the makers of our own good and right, and God is not worth worshiping. God can’t allow His holiness to be so slandered. It would be a complete ignorance of His perfect justice, which demands punishment of the wicked. (We would think it warped and evil if a human judge didn’t punish wickedness, right? It’s infinitely more so when talking about the divine justice.)

So how can an unholy person be with the holy God in love and yet have God punish the sinful unholiness of that person?

The answer is that that person must become holy, and the only way that happens is Jesus Christ. When humanity went bad, everyone was disqualified from heaven. Yet God had brilliantly and eternally crafted a plan for His people to be qualified once again. Jesus – Who is God – was and is perfect and holy and true: the very Definition of goodness, holiness, and perfection! He was the perfect Person for the impossible task of perfecting all persons who would be with God. So He entered human history as the God-Man and lived the perfect life; the only perfect life that a human has ever lived. He lived the life that you and I should have lived.

But how do you think the holy God was received by wicked humanity? It didn’t go over well. As a whole, people didn’t accept Him. For one thing, He claimed to be God. For another thing, He claimed to be holy, and people didn’t accept that because nobody else on earth was truly holy. Moreover, Jesus taught that in order for people to get God instead of hell for eternity, they must: (1) admit their hopeless depravity against God; (2) admit that they need Jesus to save them from their self-made malady with its hellish consequence; and (3) give themselves to Him completely. Essentially, Jesus taught that a person must turn to Him in faith and repentance (turning from sin, to Jesus for life). So because they hated the message He preached, the powers that be back then killed Jesus by Roman crucifixion.

But that’s not the end….

The Bible teaches (as I mentioned) that the eternal death penalty (hell) is the only appropriate destiny for unholy people who have willfully snubbed God. Because of this, Jesus couldn’t just die, because that would mean that death (the penalty) gets the last word and is greater than God, since it overcame Him when Jesus died. But Jesus amazingly rose from the dead and reigns for eternity… everything hinges on this! As author Josh McDowell once wrote, “The resurrection of Jesus Christ is either one of the most wicked, heartless, vicious hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, or it is the most fantastic fact of history. It is either history’s greatest delusion, or the greatest miracle that history records!” This is because if the resurrection did not happen, then there is simply no hope for a wonderful existence with God for all eternity! (And incidentally, the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection is indisputable.)

But the resurrection did happen: Jesus Christ lived the perfect life we should have lived, suffered the wrath of God in place of His people, and rose from the dead, proving that the Father accepted Him as the perfect Substitute for His people!

Commitment

“They put [Jesus] to death by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him on the third day…. Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name.” (Acts 10.39b-40a, 43)

“Jesus came… proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.’” (Mark 1.14-15)

“Then he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved….” (Acts 16.30-31)

So what does the fact that Jesus died and rose from the dead mean for us today? What does it mean for you who reads this right now? Well, the whole thing about Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection is that this is the way that God crafted for unholy and depraved people to become holy, and thereby able to experience worshipful intimacy with Him forever. Jesus paid the death penalty as the perfect Substitute for every person who believes in Him! What it means for us today is this: We either repent of (turn from) our sin and believe in Jesus or reject Him — there are no other options.

The Bible says that Jesus is the supreme King over everything, and those who do not give themselves to Him in faith (deepest trust that He alone saves) and repentance (a genuine, lifelong commitment to actively war against their sin) don’t actually believe in Him. (You see how this is more than simply mentally acknowledging something to be true? The joy of believing is in the fact that we are receiving at that point no less than God for our Treasure, not simply the things He gives us – He Himself is our all-consuming Treasure!) As the Scriptures say, “Whoever believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God…. 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 3.18, 36; The Holy Bible, English Standard Version).

And we have to do something with Jesus. Every person, whether they want to or not, has to do something with Jesus Christ. We either peg Him as liar Who was not actually God, or we call him a lunatic Whom we should pity because He was genuinely off His rocker to claim what He did, or we call Him Lord – Master – because that was what He claimed to be (credit to C. S. Lewis in his Mere Christianity here).

It works this way: If we live with Him as Lord, what He did in His death and resurrection does something miraculous within us. What happens is that we who are separated from relationship with God are instantaneously made holy in Christ. The Scriptures say that in some miraculous way we are in Jesus (we are made right because we are eternally bound to the righteous Jesus). This is so radical that God calls us a “new creation!” From that point on we are in loving relationship to God and have the capacity to reflect His glory as He created us to. This doesn’t mean that our bodies are perfect (as I can testify even at my age), and it doesn’t mean that we never act sinfully. But it does mean that when God sees us, instead of seeing our unholy, rebellious nature like He did before, He now sees that His Son has claimed us for His own and that we are qualified in Christ for eternal joy in His Presence. It means that we are never the same, and are increasingly shaped to reflect His image.

The most important thing you can know is this: The Bible, which is God’s personal written Word to us, tells you that in order to be saved from the natural course of your eternity in hell, you must personally submit yourself to God, trusting that Jesus alone – not Buddha, Allah, or any other so-called god – is the One Who loved His people so much that He chose an agony-filled death and glorious resurrection to claim them for His own! It means giving your life over to this King, with all of the implications of joyous, love-filled, obedient worship to the God Who cherishes those who come to Him in Christ. There is no greater joy and honor than this, and there’s no alternative for those who would be saved from the torments of hell that we all deserve. (I’m not going to lie to you or water it down: This is indeed a radical, life-altering, lifelong decision with eternal implications, but it’s the best choice that could ever be made!)

If you find yourself responding positively to (truly believing) what I’ve shared with you, then you are embarking on an eternity-long relationship with the God of the universe! I encourage you to tell God that you believe His message by praying (talking to) God something like this :

“Dear God, I know that I am unworthy to be accepted by You. I am unholy and have rebelled against You. I don’t deserve You as my Treasure – I don’t deserve eternal life. I need Your forgiveness. Thank You for sending Jesus Christ Your Son to die the death that I deserve, that I may have forgiveness. Thank You that He rose from the dead to give me new life. Please forgive me and change me, that I may forever live with Jesus as my Master. In His Name and for Your glory. Amen.”

This is the first step on your journey of eternal life, and God has given you the tools for walking it! (Keep in mind that it’s not a prayer that saves you, but faith in Christ alone. It’s just that the natural outflow of this faith is declaring to Him in prayer your repentance from sin and trust in Christ, and thus beginning your living relationship with Him.) Furthermore, He promises that those who are truly His will display evidence of His transformation in their lives, and I want to share with you what that means. Basically, it means putting your faith in practice.

For a start, you’ll want to find a Bible-teaching church in your area and contact a pastor there to talk with him about the eternal change that has taken place in your life. Here are a couple of good resources for locating such a church: The Gospel Coalition Network and 9Marks of a Healthy Church. Also, having prayed your first true prayer to God asking His forgiveness, you’ll probably have some questions about what putting your faith into practice looks like. Here’s a helpful way that it’s been said:

“There will no doubt be all kinds of areas in your life in need of change. You’ll need to get rid of old rebellious habits (like greed, anger, selfishness, and so on) and start some new ones that please God (like generosity, kindness, love and patience). This will go on for the rest of your life, but God will be with you all the way. He’ll keep speaking to you (through your reading of the Bible); He’ll keep listening to you and helping you (as you pray to Him); He’ll empower you to change and to live His way (by His Spirit Who lives within you); and He’ll provide brothers and sisters to encourage you along the way (as you meet with other Christians…. keep putting your trust in the right place. It’s only because of Jesus (and his death and resurrection) that you can be forgiven and put right with God. You’ll need to keep coming back to this again and again, because as you start to live God’s new way, you will still fail and do the wrong thing. We all do. We all need to keep looking back to the death of Jesus on the cross as the only grounds for our pardon. We must never stop relying on him—and him alone—as the means by which we are forgiven and granted eternal life.” (from “two ways to live: the choice we all face”)

Concluding Matters

Just as I have hoped and prayed for many people to respond in faith and repentance to what I have shared about Truth, I anticipate some objections, too. For one, I’ve seen countless professing Christians who don’t put on a very attractive front, whether by the way they act or by the way they treat others. I have talked to people who have said, “If this is what Christians are like then I want nothing to do with their God!” Yet I beg you, please realize that professing Christians do not always act the way we should given the miracle that God has done. We are in continual need of God’s patience and leading to help us to live like Him – to live out the miracle of being in Jesus. Please don’t look at other humans in a way that would deter you from knowing and loving the God Who sustains your very existence, and Who holds your eternity in His hands! It’s not by our own goodness that we’re saved, but by Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection. It’s about Jesus, not others, and it’s your life in the balance.

I’ve also run into so many people who believe that every religious or philosophical system is valid and that they all lead to the same place. But you must understand that it is a logical and real impossibility that “all roads lead to heaven,” because so many of them fundamentally contradict each other. (I addressed this a bit at the beginning of this message.) You must ask yourself if what I have told you today about the Bible and its message is in the slightest possibly true, because if it is, it must be reckoned with. It does not allow for “all roads to lead to heaven,” because it boldly proclaims Jesus Christ as the one God and the only One by Whom anyone is saved!

I could go on and on about the truth of biblical Christianity, not only in itself but as it’s held up to every other belief system out there, but for the sake of space I won’t. The truth is that every person – atheists included – believe something. We simply cannot function without a foundational system of belief about the universe, taken on faith. (This includes science, which is built on principles and theories that cannot be objectively proven, but simply believed.) But what I’ve held up for you today is the reality of things, plain and simple (yet not at all simplistic, as I hope you’ve realized, having read this far). In all honesty, despite the evidence for it, it still requires faith. And that is what I’m inviting you to square with.

The truth of the Christian faith could be reasoned over all day, but ultimately, if God the Holy Spirit does not give a person faith and repentance, he or she will not believe, and therefore will not be saved. The Bible boldly proclaims that the message you have just read – the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen – is foolishness to the person who does not believe it:

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe…. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men…. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 1.18-21, 25, 2.14)

If you want to know if you have the gift of faith and repentance unto eternal life, then here is a simple way to know:

“‘… repent and believe in the Gospel.’” (Mark 1.15)

May the blessing of Christ be with you!

For the sake and supremacy of Jesus Christ,

Rick

All biblical quotations are from the Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001).
First image obtained from http://danielharmes.com/
Second image obtained from http://www.knighton.org.uk/