Monday, April 2, 2018

594 - Measuring Stick

Spirituality Column #594
April 3, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Measuring Stick
By Bob Walters

Americans culturally are an especially competitive and commercial lot.

We The People want a rulebook, a scorecard, and referees in order to know how we rate. And when it comes to the action-reaction marketplace dynamic of reward and punishment, to paraphrase William Shakespeare, all the world's a trade.

Unfortunately and errantly, that's often how people go to church.  Christ freely offers to us grace, love, freedom, hope, and truth.  We don't have to compete, we don't have to "keep track," and we don't have to toe a line; we needn't fear the scorekeeper.  But we take what we learn in secular culture and apply it to the "religious experience" and clog up our divine joy in Christ with the transactional rubbish of this world.

In that sense, "Christians" are no different from those who ignore God; who also are competitive and commercial - usually with a different moral playbook and notion of grace - and still striving against life's measuring stick.  It is a peculiarly American trait.

So … in this corner we have love, Jesus, and the Kingdom of God, and in that corner we have Satan’s Hell of eternal damnation.  Reward over here; punishment over there.  Faith, mercy and joy in this corner; the blind despair of “I don’t care” in that one.

We ask competitively “Where do I stand?” instead of “How do I stand with Jesus.”  We fear “punishment” but sincerely wonder, “Do I really need to worry about Hell?”

That’s our culture: “What do I have to do?” and “What can I get away with?”  So it is “Whew!” though false news when clergy – whether it be Rob Bell, an Anglican Bishop, or the Pope in Rome just before Easter – provides a notion that Hell does not exist.

I’ve grown in my faith to the point that I don’t look at Hell so much as the justice of punishment, but more like it’s a highly predictable finish for those absent God.  What is Hell like, exactly?  I don’t know, but the Bible convinces me I don’t want to find out.  And who goes there, exactly?  Honestly, I’m not sure about that one either.  But I surmise persons who spend their lives rejecting Jesus, insulting God’s plan, denying the Holy Spirit, and ignoring the opportunities of faith, the Bible, and the consequences of sin, spend no serious time in this life believing in Heaven or Hell anyway.

Simply put: Without Jesus, our sin – and we all have it – leads us to Hell.  Of that I am certain.  But it’s like the guy who prefers jail to freedom; is Hell really “punishment” if one wants nothing to do with God?  And why debate “punishment” at all?  The Bible’s language regarding the Cross of Christ is about defeating sin and death in love and obedient sacrifice.  Punishment, depending on the translation, is barely mentioned.

Still, if I want to control you I’ll scare you by preaching “punishment for sin.”  Whereas if I love you, I’ll preach God’s love, the truth of His righteousness, the sacrifice of Jesus, the miracle of His resurrection, the joy and greatness of the Kingdom of God, and the freedom of this life when our hope and trust points to eternal life.

God’s righteousness is unassailable, and that’s all I really need to know about Hell.  It is my comfort, though, to know in Christ I don’t have to worry about it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes sin, Satan and Hell all exist, and that bad preachers and the secular marketplace work like crazy to make us think they don’t.

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