One Life to Live

“The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10).

There is a deleted scene from the Star Trek Enterprise third season episode “Similitude” that says:

“If you had five days left, would you spend them sleeping? …Did you know that at one time in history human beings lived an average of only 35 years? The average Vulcan lifespan was only 40? … [Both] species expend a lot of effort to change those statistics. I guess it’s just natural for people to want to stick around for as long as possible.”

According to Wikipedia, the life expectancy at birth in the bronze age and iron age was 26 years, and in 2010 was 67 years, with some regions of the world around 80 years. But how well do we use the time we have? If life expectancy were only 40 years, what might we do differently? Would we want to spend 16-20 years getting an education for a relatively short career? Would we spend 40+ hours per week in the office trying to earn enough to pay for the big house, second car, dream vacation, retirement, etc.? Would we invest thousands every month in healthcare and insurance, if it can’t significantly extend our lives? 

Those things aren’t necessarily bad if we assume we’re going to live 80 years, but maybe they aren’t the best things. What would you do differently if you knew your time was short? Declutter and simplify your life? Leave work early? Turn off the TV? Spend time with family and friends? Enjoy nature? Make sure you understand the Bible and have a right relationship with God? Share the gospel with those you love? 

If we think we have many years ahead, we get lackadaisical about setting priorities. Things don’t matter very much if there’s always tomorrow. There is a benefit to living with a sense of urgency to accomplish things that really matter in whatever time we’re given. Although the early Adventists were mistaken in setting a date for Christ’s return and they ended up looking foolish (twice!), at least they were willing to take a stand for what they said they believed. If you know the end is near, it is perfectly rational to give away all your possessions, warn people of the coming judgment, and say your goodbyes. 

Jesus urged readiness in His parables in Luke 12, “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (v. 40). He repeated, “Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes” (37, 43). It is in this context that Jesus said, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (v. 48). How often do we consider that length of life is a gift entrusted to us, that we are to invest and not squander our time? Whether our years are 20, 40, or 80, have we done more than just try to stick around as long as possible and build bigger barns for our stuff? 

With each new day we have a chance to decide what matters most to us and invest accordingly. How many days are left on the calendar for you, for me, for this world? 

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). 

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

In Triumph and in Death

 A Bible search for the word “always” led me to see to a curious juxtaposition of verses in 2 Corinthians. On one hand we have the victorious image of 2:14 (ESV):

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.”

That’s the kind of verse everyone would like to claim. We’d all like to feel triumphant over sin, adversity, and death. And we often seem to think that our faith will be easily shared with others, like a fragrance wafting across the room with no real effort on our part. But then just two chapters later the Apostle Paul writes:

“[We are] always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (4:10-11).

That picture isn’t so pleasant or desirable. We don’t particularly want any form of death, whether it is the daily death of our own selfish desires or the death that comes from persecution for our faith. Christianity would be so much easier and more appealing to the world if it were obviously victorious and comfortable. If it were really about health and wealth, it wouldn’t be hard to convert people. There would be no need for evangelistic crusades or prayer meetings or hard conversations. In fact, it wouldn’t even require the work of the Holy Spirit.

But from the beginning faith has required death. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, death was introduced into the world (Gen. 3). The curse included the death-like futility of toil, physical death, and spiritual death. God’s first action after pronouncing this death was to kill animals in order to make garments of skins to cloth Adam and Eve (v. 21). It wasn’t long until the Old Testament sacrificial system was enacted as a temporary substitutionary death that pointed ahead to the Messiah who would “give His life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28), and “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22).

We must first put our faith in the One who died in our place, but it doesn’t end there. As we put on our new life in Christ, it requires the death of our old self—we can’t put on the new without putting off the old. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God… Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Col. 3:3, 5). We won’t be conformed to the image of Christ without sacrificing our own wills to His (Rom. 12:1-2). We won’t “spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere” unless His life is being lived out day by day. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9).

In this age of self, this is not a popular message. Everyone wants to live their own life, follow their heart, and fulfill their own desires. But for those who claim faith in Christ, it is not my life but His, not my desires but His, not my will but His. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). This message is repeated in various ways throughout the New Testament, so anyone who believes that they can be a Christian and yet live however they please is sadly deceived.

“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:15-16).

May we be a fragrant offering, broken and poured out for Him.

“It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20).

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer. 

It Is Written

The following is some theological speculation that I’ve been mulling over in recent months. I don’t claim to have a corner on truth, but this just helps me to make sense of some parts of Scripture…

I’ve come to think of this life as being a book in God’s hand. I’m sure the metaphor breaks down at some points as all metaphors do. Psalm 139:16 (ESV) says, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” If all our days were already written, then the book is completed and the end is sure. This should be a reason for peace and trust in the Author. Should we still pray? Yes, because that is method God has ordained for us to interact with Him. As many have said, prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us. Prayer affirms our faith and shapes our understanding of God’s greater plans.

Jesus is referred to as the “Word made flesh” (John 1:14) and the “Author of life” (Acts 3:15). The Author chose to enter His own story for the good of His people. He provided the necessary solution to the problem of sin. Only the Author could resurrect His own character.

Time, from Creation to the Second Coming, is contained within the book. God is outside of time. “Do not overlook this one fact, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8). We see time as a fixed construct, passing by second by second, but God sees all of time in His hand.

The choices we will make are already known to God, but not to us as the characters in the book. Because we are created by God with certain characteristics, we fulfill the plot that God has already written. (Perhaps our free will is not so free as we may think.) Some characters are written with evil intentions. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth’” (Romans 9:17). But as Paul points out in Romans 9, such people are still responsible for their actions and will be judged accordingly.

The image of a completed book also helps clarify some of the conflicting views on death. If a character dies in a realistic novel, you don’t expect them to reappear in a later chapter as either a ghost or a real person. (I won’t get into other types of fiction.) Let’s say the character dies and comes out of the book into the hand of the Author. If the book contains time and God is outside of time, where or when is that character from the perspective of those still in the book? His body in the book is dead. He may or may not be conscious of being in God’s presence, depending on how you understand Scripture. (N.T. Wright interprets Revelation 6:9 to say that the dead are awaiting the resurrection under the altar of God, which presents some interesting images.) But think about this, if the character is consciously with God, do you think he’s going to be asking to get back into the book to see how the rest of someone’s story was written or to try to change it? Perhaps this explains how Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:3). They were written back in for a few paragraphs.

At the conclusion of the book, all the characters will be brought outside its pages to face the final Judgment. And my interpretation of 1 Corinthians 15 is that immortality will be granted to those who have put their faith in Christ while the rest will cease to exist, as characters whose roles in the book have ended and as pages burnt to ashes in the fire. I imagine the book has enough pages to keep a fire going for quite some time. The fire may be eternal even when the book is gone. And maybe the marriage supper of the Lamb is a cookout, since Jesus seemed to like fires on the beach (John 21:9).

When we move into eternal life in the new heavens and new earth (2 Peter 3:12-13), it will be as if we’re moving from a two-dimensional world into a three-dimensional one, out of the book and into reality. What we’ve experienced here is but a shadow of what is to come (Col. 2:17, Heb. 10:1), and just a dim reflection in the mirror compared to what we will one day see (1 Cor. 13:12). That makes me even more anxious to see that new world. But until that day, we might as well enjoy the story as it continues to be revealed to us.

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now… Come further up, come further in!” –C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.