998 - What's the Point?
Friends: Forgiveness from God is a start, but not the finish. What’s the real point? God gives us the perfect answer. Blessings, Bob
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Spirituality Column #998
December 30,
2025
Common
Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
What’s
the Point?
By
Bob Walters
“All
this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.” – 2 Corinthians
5:18
Their lake home 30 miles or so west of Traverse City
has never housed a computer, smart phone, or internet connection. But Pam’s dad Richard, who passed away four
years ago, was a retired Nazarene pastor and very interested in my writings. He
and Pam’s mom Etta were daily breakfast Bible studiers and to my mild surprise,
Etta also read my weekly columns. Upon Richard’s passing, I kept sending the
columns.
Along with the columns I have always sent a newsy one-page
letter about our own home, school, and church activities, plus kids, grandkids,
upcoming plans, etc. Richard used to tease me, asking if I just recycled the
columns every so often (tacitly admitting he wasn’t above repeating the
occasional sermon), so – as I always have – I begin every letter the same way, “Here
are this month’s columns. Still no repeats.”
What’s the point? Well, for the price of postage, a #10
envelope, some paper and printer ink, I stay in touch with family, Etta knows
the letters are an expression of love, and I hope she knows I enjoy sending
them as much as she enjoys reading them. The point really isn’t what I write in
the columns and letters; the point is the relationship.
And while I never “recycle” columns, there are some
recurring themes I regularly point out, among which are why we do the
“religious” things we do, and more importantly, why God does the things He does.
We often stop short of the main point.
Ask 100 professing Christians why God sent Jesus into
humanity, why Jesus came to earth, or what Jesus does for us, just about all of
them are going to answer some version of either “to forgive our sins,” “to save
/ redeem us,” “so we can go to heaven,” or, for the pessimists, “so we don’t go
to hell.”
All that is true enough. But none answers the superseding, quietly
obvious but critical question: “Why?” Forgiveness, salvation / redemption, and heaven-instead-of-hell
are valuable, sure. But we need to climb a bit higher on the theological mountain
to discover God’s purpose for these graces and to understand the lives we are truly
living.
In other words, Why do we want these things? Why does
God give them?
As noted above in 2 Corinthians 5:18, “All this is
from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.” While Christians
think in terms of our own lives, sins, mistakes, pride, good works, bad works,
daily struggles, occasional successes, love and hate, joy and despair, God sent
Jesus into the world “to reconcile us to himself through Christ.”
It’s not just for forgiveness, salvation, and heaven;
it is our re-joining God’s life.
Jesus brings much to the party, like actual knowledge
of God, objective truth, infinite reality, a gateway to God, and eternal life
in the Kingdom of God. Forgiveness in Christ is a means to an end, not the end
in itself; the end is reconciliation and restored relationship with our Creator.
Our goal and end result is eternal participation in God’s love and glory with
our inclusion in His Kingdom. In Christ, we become part of that life.
When we express our love for God, or for others – our
in-laws, for example – who is the ultimate winner in the equation? Do we do
things to please others? Or to please ourselves? Or to discover that whatever
life throws at us, we know that the love, righteousness and relationship of
Father, Son and Spirit, alive within us, are all true?
That’s the repeat. That’s the joy. That’s life with
God. And that’s the point.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com)
and Pam, who were married in 2009, are visiting Mom up north after Christmas.
BTW, Bob’s parents passed in 1991 (John) and 2003 (Ruth), and are buried in
Mackinaw City, Michigan, a half mile from their beloved summer sanctuary on the
Straits.
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