This week we look at how God’s love wins for us. One big question we have to answer is the question of time and eternity. Time is like 2011, or tomorrow, or even a decade. Eternity is–well–forever. Usually we think of time as part of eternity, but it is not all of time (which is eternity.) Got it? Good.
One of the most memorable SNL skits is when Simon and Garfunkel have to spend eternity in an elevator listening to the Muzak versions of their songs. This is hell for them. In fact, most of the time we consider an eternity of what we hate/fear the most as our defintion of “hell.” Hell in this sense is whatever we fear or hate to the point that if we had to do it forever and ever and ever would be the absolutely worst thing to imagine. So, if your biggest fear, as for many of the folks who wrote the Bible, is to be apart from God–then, “hell” is time forever apart from God.
And Jesus, at least according to Paul in the book of Philippians, doesn’t want it this way. Listen to what Jesus does in the famous “Christ Hymn” of Philippians 2:
First, “he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,” that is, Jesus did not want to take advantage of his being God, so he “emptied himself.” He gave up being God for being “born in human likeness…and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross.” So, Jesus, although he is God (and presumably immortal), he takes on dying. Now listen to what happens.
God, instead of getting angry with Jesus for going on and dying (and therefore NOT being a very good god–what’s the point of being God if you’re going to die?), but God “exalted him” (raised him up) and gave him the name “above every name.” God’s love, we argue, raises Jesus from the dead, and brings Jesus back to God. God’s love is God’s “Yes” to the negation that is the death on the cross suffered by Jesus. As we “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” we too have death answered for us. Death has no power over Jesus, and in our confession no power over us, so that even though we die we live forever in eternity with God and Jesus as our Lord. In the death and resurrection of Jesus, and our confession of it, we die in time, but we live forever in eternity. (Other Bible writers say we are to “believe” in Jesus…so choose the one–confess or believe–that you undertand best.)
Now, because of what Jesus did, and God’s response to it, you and I don’t have to worry about eternity (we live forever, even when we die.) We are free. What you do on earth has nothing to do with what Jesus did for eternity. Some people worry about this, because they think that what we do here on earth doesn’t matter. They are wrong. What we do on earth here is part of eternity, so, be careful how you act on earth because it might be how you act forever. But it might not…
Because now that you can do whatever you want in time because eternity is taken care of, what are you going to do? Are you going to act in rapacious, self-centered, greedy ways? Or, are you going to live in hope, peace, and cooperation? Now that you don’t have to worry about eternity, how are you going to live today? Or, as Paul says at the end of the Christ hymn, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, because God is at work in you.” Paul understands it’s scary to be living these days, but he also understands that Jesus got eternity handled, and for Paul that means God’s love wins, and we had absolutely nothing to do with it–yet, in our confession and believing Jesus is Lord that eternal love is our gift. Amazing, but true,
May your tables be full and your conversations be true.
Scott, it sounds like progressive and conservative Christians agree! Jesus is lord. He paid the price for us. And through Him we have life everlasting. The debate seems to be around where that separation from God leaves us. A burning place, an elevator listening to Muzak? France? All kidding a side, even more liberal Christians wonder about it. Conservative author Randy Alcorn wrote a book about what he envisioned heaven to be. And while I don’t agree with all his theology, there is a bounty of hope in his conclusions. But in the end, we need to live with the goal of pulling heaven down to earth.
Scott, thanks for your post here.
I have a few theological responses…
First, in the Christ Hymn it’s not just Jesus’ death that Paul is talking about – but also his Incarnation. In this Hymn, Paul speaks of the Incarnation in similar sacrificial terms as he does to Jesus’ death. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that he speaks of it even more. To me, it’s a Christmas Hymn. So, it’s not just about Jesus’ death.
To bring this into the point you’re trying to make here, Jesus leaves the realm of the eternal and empties himself to join us in the realm of the temporal. So that he might save us here. And bring us with him.
Second, I want to push you a bit in your “we have death answered for us.” In Romans 6, Paul says that we don’t just ‘have death answered’ but we are “buried with him” in his death and then “share in the power of his Resurrection.” Towards the end of Galatians Paul says that the marks/wounds/brands/stigmata of Jesus are born on Paul’s own body. We don’t have a “death problem” because we are afforded the privilege of sharing in -participating in – Jesus’ death. And, it’s that death which was won over.
I’m not trying to pick at nits here, but sometimes we downgrade the mystic participation that we share in Christ. We die with him, and then we rise with him.
I really don’t think the faith we have is one where we get to sit back and with clean hands and freshly pressed slacks “just believe.” I think it’s more earthy than that. More incarnational. We’re asked to “have the same mind…that was in Christ” who emptied and humbled himself. We get to bear Jesus’ Life and Death in our flesh and bones. Forever.
Thor makes the same point about a dying and rising god. Those who meet him after he’s been thrown from heaven believe in his kindness and compassion not his godlike qualities. Only after Thor dies for his friends is he worthy of his hammer. He must be empty of his divinity to attain his divinity. What keeps this movie from being Christian is that Thor’s power is still violence.
I love the references to Thor because of one who is proud of his Nordic ancestry, Thor is abit of a hero. Norse mythology is interesting because the gods actually die and we go back into the chaos from which they rescued us. In Norse mytholgy chaos wins, and love barely elicits a whimper. This makes it all the more impressive that Jesus actually loves rather than succumbs to death. Thanks for reading.
I think that Thor, myth or movie, is an image of the gospel to come. Like Chesterton, I see all mythologies as being Old Testaments waiting for the New. So I would say that God offered salvation to your Nordic ancestors through the image of Thor, and they were called to give their lives to Thor and love Thor with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength–until new information came along. In that sense, God’s call is universal. He uses the best images each person has available to call that person to Himself.
An interesting question is this: Could a person see the movie Thor, and respond to the character’s compassion and strength, and say, “That’s my kind of Savior!” If the person were responding to the movie Thor’s Christlike qualities, would that person be giving his life to Christ by giving his life to Thor? Could he say a sinner’s prayer to Thor as he walked out of the movie and be saved?
And if that’s the case, doesn’t everybody at one point say a sinner’s prayer to their best understanding of God at the time? I have to believe that part of being human is recognizing our fallenness and reaching out to God. Does it matter to Jesus if we don’t call Him Jesus? What if we call Him Thor because that’s where we see kindness and strength and justice?
So, I think it’s possible that everyone is saved, not due to God’s magic wand, but because God calls out to everyone, and everyone ultimately recognizes their separation from God and calls back–even if their cry is distorted. God accepts our inarticulate and inaccurate cries for help as if we understood the Trinity as perfectly as the angels. Jesus hears every cry for God as a cry for Him.