Jesus We Talk About Saved Anyway
Dear Thomas,
In your seventh question, you asked, “If there is life after death and if I am a good person (have integrity, am morally and ethically honest, and live the social values that Christians talk about), why wouldn’t a loving and just God save me even if I didn’t buy into all that Christian religious stuff?”
There are a number of issues in this one question. First is the question of whether there really is life after death. Then there is the question about what it means to be a good person and how that goodness relates to being saved. Third, there is a question about what kind of God God is and if His judgment is fair.
And finally comes the question about buying into all that “Christian religious stuff.” By that, I presume you mean the beliefs that lead to the religious practices of prayer, reading the Bible, and meeting with other Christians to support one another and grow in spiritual understanding.
It may also mean attending Sunday school and church worship services, taking part in communion and other aspects of a particular church’s liturgy, giving tithes and offerings to the church, and other such activities.
Those are all valid questions, but let’s begin with the question of life after death. Nearly all humanity throughout the ages, no matter the religious belief system, has had some construct of life after death.
At the deepest level of our sense of being, death is unnatural. Anyone who has been to the funeral of a young child knows there is something terribly wrong with death. Death really does not make any sense when much of the cosmos seems to have an eternal component.
Something must account for it, and there must be some alternative to it—that is, unless you are a materialist who believes there is nothing other than matter and that physical death is the total end of all living things. But for those who believe there is something beyond death, one of several constructs is usually embraced.
First is the construct of reincarnation, a belief that when we die, we come back to a new and different life in a different form. Reincarnation sees life in a perpetual circular motion going from eon to eon.
We die only to come to life again, either to a better life or a worse life, to a higher life-form or lower life-form, depending on our success at living in the previous life.
Then there is pantheism, the belief that human beings, like all things, are part of an eternal God. In this construct, God is in everything and is everywhere. God is in the rocks and the soil, in trees and plants, in anything that has any molecular structure. God is all in all, but thus, He is not personal and not relational.
The birth and death ofall things, whether stars in the universe or people on Earth, are just parts of the process that make up the idea of God. The death of one thing may give life to another thing but not necessarily the same thing; however, the other thing is still part of God, which it was in the first place.
Then there is the belief in the immortality of the soul that says at death a person becomes a disembodied spirit as the soul detaches from the body. This concept identifies the soul as not just mind, emotions, and will but rather as something within a person that has no physical or material reality yet controls the functions of thinking and willing, hence determining all attitudes, emotions, and behavior.
Here the soul lives on after the point of death, though with no physical body. In this construct, the soul is the very essence of a person deep down and all the way through. It never dies, though the flesh may perish. It separates from the body at death and continues to exist with a spirit life of its own outside the body.
The immortality of the soul makes the assumption that the soul has life by right once it has come into being. Once it comes into being, it can never go out of being, can never be extinguished, and can never not be. It is only a matter of what kind of eternal life it will have.
Finally, there is the construct of resurrection, the physical body coming back to life as an immortal body. Christianity has understood resurrection from the dead through Scripture and as specifically validated through the resurrection of Jesus and His personal promises concerning a resurrected life after death.
In 1 Corinthians 15:20, it says, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Verse 42 of that same chapter says, “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable.” When Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, He said to them,
When Jesus ascended to heaven, He promised that He would come back to claim His own. Our resurrection or our translation if we are alive at Jesus’ second coming will take place at that time (see chapter 6, “No Coming”).
I don’t think Jesus was wrong, mistaken, or talking nonsense when He affirmed that life would exist after death, that death as we know it isn’t the end. Besides Jesus’ resurrection, God gave us two examples. One was Elijah, who was translated (see 2 Kings 2:11—12), and one was Moses, who was resurrected (see Deut. 34:1-6; Matt. 17:1-3).
Because of who Jesus is, His comments about life after death as well as His own resurrection confirm the reality of life after death. This belief in the resurrection is crucial to the Christian faith, for as the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”
None of your questions and none of my answers hold any relevance except for one’s orientation of life here on earth if Jesus Christ was not raised and there is no life after death. Of course, some would disagree; some would suggest that religion is humanity’s way of injecting meaning into a life that is fundamentally random and meaningless. However, if there is life after death and I am convinced by Scripture that there is— your questions have extreme relevance.
Let me address the issue of being a good person. The good you are talking about is behavior or performance in relation to some standard. Christianity is not about performance it is about a relationship, a broken relationship that needs healing and needs to be put back together.
It is this relational aspect of Christianity that separates it from all other world religions. All of the other great world religions require performance as the measurement for rewards in the afterlife. Unfortunately, a lot of performance-based rewards have crept into Christianity, as well.
It is true that the relationship with a loving and righteous God will be exhibited in a person’s behavior. It is an understood principle that we become like the person we listen to, watch, admire, and even worship.
Thus, if you find Christians talking about honesty, integrity, promise-keeping, fidelity, fairness, care for others, respect for others, responsible citizenship, the pursuit of excellence, and accountability, they are talking about aspects of what it means to love. Yet someone could perform relatively well in all these categories, yet not love at all, but rather perform purely out of self-interest.
If a man says, “I’ll bring flowers to my wife, and I’ll help with the housework. I’ll help her take care of the kids. I’ll wash her car, and I’ll even fold the clothes. Then maybe I’ll be rewarded and get what I want,” he is acting from self-interest.
But if he does these things just because he loves his wife with no reward in mind except to see her burden lightened, to make her life a greater joy, and to communicate continually and validate his love and admiration for her, his performance is motivated by love.
The outward performance is the same in both cases, but one is based on self-interest while the other is based on love that is other-centered. It is this kind of other-centered relational love that Christianity is all about.
It is about being loved by and loving in return a gracious, trustworthy, loving, relational Creator God who first loved us and has always loved us.
Next what kind of a God is God, and is He fair? Throughout its span of history, from creation to recreation as well as in the life and history of Jesus Christ, the Bible indicates that God, infinite in power and glory, Creator and Sustainer of all that is, loves.
I can tell you that our Trinitarian God desires a personal and direct relationship with each of us both now and forever. And as we choose to enter into that relationship, we continually discover evidence of His trustworthiness, faithfulness, forgiveness, and care.
By beholding Him through all His activity that makes up our rescue, we are changed. Our love for Him grows, and the desire to honor and worship Him increases.
Yes, God is fair, but He is also gracious. However, we must want to receive that grace personally, for God is always respectful of our freedom as individuals.
Furthermore, for grace to become effective in our lives, we must recognize its value and choose it with that choice aided by the Holy Spirit. It is not something that comes by way of good deeds.
Our redemption, our healing from the consequences of sin and brokenness comes to us as a free gift from the one who creates, recreates, and heals as we allow His Spirit to be enlivened within us and we follow His promptings.
Last ofall was your question about all the Christian religious stuff and your participation in it. As my presumption previously defined “the stuff,” why wouldn’t a person want to participate? God created us for fellowship with Him and one another.
Religious stuff is about the healing process— that is, learning about, acknowledging, and praising the God who heals and about the celebration of being healed.
The style of Christian worship services and fellowship varies widely. That is because each of us has a different personality and different thinking style. This affects our perceptions, actions, and activities.
Our brains and nervous systems are wired differently. Some of us are naturally left-handed, while others are right-handed. Some of us lead our vision with our right eye while others rely on the left. Some kick with the right foot, while others prefer the left.
Similarly, we think differently too. Some of us are introverts, while others are extroverts. Some of us are creative and musical, while others are analytical and logical. Some like great variety, while others are very organized and exacting.
Some of us are leaders, and others are servant followers. Some like harmony at all costs, and others push to meet personal goals. No one style is particularly better than the others. They are all just different.
Some people receive information and experiences primarily through visual means, while others absorb through touch or kinesthetic means. Still others receive information and experiences through hearing or auditory means.
In Gary Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages, he explains that expressions of love are more meaningful to different individuals when they are received in certain ways.
Add to all this the diversity of our gifts and talents, and you can easily see the need for a wide variety of religious expressions. Therefore, a meaningful style of worship depends on who we are and how our systems are wired.
Thus, it is appropriate to find a fellowship that gives us the greatest input for who we are as persons. The “Christian religious stuff of religious worship practices and fellowship should meet as closely as possible the same spiritual, intellectual, and emotional “stuff’ we are made of.
Remember, as long as it expresses the love of God through Jesus Christ, the particular religious institution or affiliation is not of the greatest importance. Rather, having a meaningful expression of a relationship with the living God and sharing that relationship with others is key.
Having said that, I must add that I feel it is very important that the particular institution, religious affiliation, or fellowship represent and tell the truth about God. And that truth is that God is love and continually descends to mankind to redeem, rescue, and heal us from the effects of this world’s brokenness and the effects of our own internal brokenness. The means and style in which this is done may vary widely from megachurches to what Jesus said in
God delights in and promotes fellowship within all human relationships, inside or outside churches. God loves community in all its forms for loving, reconciling, and healing people. God’s working on men’s hearts and minds as expressed in the very nature of your questions is what it is all about.
God’s Spirit is active in you; otherwise, you would not have bothered to ask so many questions or read my responses to them. God’s desire is for you to know the answers in a way that leads to a relationship with Him. And no matter what my answers might be, they would be meaningless and fall on deaf ears if the Holy Spirit weren’t continually at work within you. As we read in 1 Corinthians 2:10-14,
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us [His grace and reconciliation through Jesus Christ].
This is what we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
It is my continual prayer that you will discern the truth about God in Jesus Christ and desire a relationship with Him. That has been the whole reason for my response to your questions about this Jesus we talk about. You have probably heard it said that God stands at the door of our hearts and knocks.
However, there is no knob on the outside of the door, so He cannot open it. Each of us by an act of our own free will must open the door. Christ knocks at the door of each human being’s heart and waits. He will leave only when someone says in effect many times over, “Go away! I don’t want the result of Your loving Spirit in my life.”
It is always my prayer that you will open the door wide and let Jesus Christ, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, come in. If you haven’t opened that door already, know that He’s waiting.
Your friend,
Matt