Whose End is to be Burned

For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. (Hebrews 06:07-09, NKJV).

Nothing is outside the sovereign control of God. In His mercy, He allows a time for repentance and surrender in this life. And like the earth itself, which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, that time of grace and the pouring out of the sweet rain of divine forgiveness, can either bear fruit or thorns.

No matter who you are or what you have done (and we are all guilty before God), you can drink in that grace, accept the offer of forgiveness extended to you through Christ's horrific death, and be one who receives blessing from God. Or you can stubbornly remain at existential war with your Creator, bearing nothing but thorns and briars… whose end is to be burned.

These verses illumine a solemn warning aimed at willful unbelievers, and others who falsely, or without commitment, name the name of Christ as their Lord and Savior.

This echoes what Jesus taught on ravenous wolves in  the famous Sermon on the Mount, and reaffirms what Paul wrote to the Galatians: that there is a perilous danger in thinking you are Christian when you are not.

With brutal honesty, ask yourself this question: do you pierce and tear those around you, like thorns and briars? Or do you add joy and richness to your household and extended family, and your community, like herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated? For know this, what you say tells as much about your heart and the state of your soul as what you do. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Mt 12:34).

True Christians, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, do not cultivate bitterness, unforgiveness, or resentment. They cannot, for in the end, Christ chastens and corrects, breaks and remolds the converted human heart into His image. And He offered forgiveness to the very soldiers and authorities who crucified Him. He came to save a world that He knew would hate and reject Him, yet He loved us anyway, and died to set us free.

If you are Christ's (which is the single most important issue of your existence), then your purpose in life is to serve His purposes; to share His love and character; to display to a rabid and unfeeling world a love that surpasses all understanding. In that way, and in that way only, you demonstrate the sincerity of your faith. Will you stumble in sin? Of course. You are at war with yourself, old man and new creation, and the battle goes to whichever side receives nourishment and care.

And know this too - if you are not Christ's, you are like those thorns and briars brought forth from earth that rejected the love and mercy poured out by the Savior, who will not accept His offer of salvation through faith. There is then no other outcome to your existence then judgment, depicted horribly in Scripture as where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’ (Mark 9:44, NKJV).

This clarion warning is included in Hebrews and directed with laser-like accuracy to those who have crossed over the border of professed acceptance of the things of God, but whose hearts have remained stone-like and cold. 

Their end is to be burned.

There is nothing more tragic than someone who believes that they are saved, but whose inward life proves otherwise. Is this you? Do you harbor sin protectively deep in your heart, guarding it against all attempts by God to set you free? Do you hold onto grievances and hatred against those whom you feel have wronged you? If so, if you kick and scream against the goads of forgiveness and love, then examine yourself whether you are really in the faith.

In this life, there is nothing more burdensome than bitterness and envy. It eats away at your very core.

It devours from within and causes backbiting and strife to erupt outwardly in your everyday existence.

There can be no peace when thorns and briars abound along your way.

Put aside the offenses of this world and repent. Come to the Cross of Jesus and beg forgiveness.

And He will heal and restore, and empower you with His Spirit to live the life He intends for you… for you as His beloved son or daughter.

Your only alternative is to face the judgment that comes to all sons and daughters of disobedience.

No doubt, if you do not believe in the gospel of Christ, this is all nonsense and religious cliche to you. I know. I came from such a place.

But if you do, even a little bit, then - 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom…(Colossians 3:16, NKJV).

And repent and bear the fruit of repentance.

Crucifying the Son of God Again

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. (Hebrews 06:04-06, NKJV).

If you at all care about your eternal destiny, this passage in Hebrews 6 (and others like it) must - and should - give you pause.

How does such a solemn warning about the impossibility of being renewed again to repentance reconcile with those other portions of Scripture that clearly teach what is known as "eternal security"?

Is it possible to lose your salvation?

How do you get born again, again?

The key to understanding the full import of these verses is to focus on the meaning of the following three key words: enlightened; tasted; and partakers. Each of these concepts singly, and in context, clarify exactly the nature of the warning intended by the writer. 

The word translated enlightened, is photizo (fo-tid'-zo) in Greek, and essentially refers to the light shed upon something through instruction or teaching. It is knowledge (not wisdom) gained, but not acted upon. It neither precludes subsequent action, nor implies it, but is a necessary precursor to either response. I may learn something, but take no action based on that learning. In that sense, I have been enlightened, but that is all.

The next key word is tasted, which is the Greek, geuomai (ghyoo'-om-ahee). While occasionally used to infer the act of eating, its primary connotation is to try the flavor of, to sample, or to test for satisfaction. It is the attempt to determine whether something is pleasant or satisfying before fully consuming it.

Partakers comes from metochos (met'-okh-os), and means sharing in the office of, or work, or dignity of something or someone. It signifies partnering at varying levels of intensity or commitment. It can be used to convey a range of involvement from a temporary convenience to a full-fledged allegiance. In and of itself in this context, partakers of the Holy Spirit it does not indicate what Christians refer to as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that occurs a true conversion, but only a recognition that He exists and might prove useful.

From these three words alone, it is clear that the individuals in view are not full converts to the faith of Christ, but only dilettantes hovering on the borders. They may be on the verge of saving faith, but have not yet stepped over the line. To stubbornly or self-deceptively remain in that state can be dangerous. The writer is warning those who have skirted the edge of belief, sampling the things of God, perhaps even voicing a certain level of commitment, but have not yet purposed in their heart of hearts to become Christian, to rely only on Christ for salvation and to fully accept Him as both Lord and Savior.

In that state, it is possible to fall away. The word used here is not apostasy, but parapipto (par-ap-ip'-to), with the difference involving the underlying motivation. Apostasy is the willful, premeditated turning away from God, and declaring oneself His determined enemy. It is what Satan has done. In contrast, falling away here refers to the eventual denial of faith because of something else, usually a perception that God has not filled His part of the perceived bargain.

Typically, this occurs when someone uses Christ for themselves, as a means to an end, rather than the ultimate object of personal faith. They are mercenaries, believing only as long as they receive the benefits that they have determined is their due.

I have seen this equation work itself out in a person's life, and it is tragic. What may have started out as apparently fervent belief devolves into open hostility and ridicule because Christianity has not proven to be the panacea mistakenly thought. Thorns, bitterness, disappointment, and the cares of this world eventually take their toll, and this self-centered, prideful falling away hardens the heart involved so that he or she can no longer come to that point of brokenness and contrition indicative of, and necessary for, real repentance.

At this point, their previously professed belief becomes vociferous antagonism, either in word or deed or both, and those around them may now use this falling away to conclude that Christ is not worthy, and His supposed power insufficient or meaningless. 

This eventuality is described in the harshest terms possible by the phrase, they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

That is precisely what happened on that blood-soaked hill of execution outside Jerusalem 2000 years ago, when the Savior was made a public spectacle; humiliated, tortured, and executed excruciatingly as a vile criminal on Golgotha, the Place of the Skull.

His enemies were merciless in their treatment of the One who came and died to save them. They mocked, cursed and spit upon Him, taunting Him in every conceivably evil way in order to undermine the world's perception of who He was, and from where He came. They reveled in their seeming power over Him, and rejoiced in their unreasoning hatred of One who did only good, and taught only truth, and who's sacrificial death was on their behalf, if only they would believe.

This is the outcome that the writer is warning against. Once it occurs in this way, there is no turning back, not because God refuses the person, but because the person arrogantly, willfully, and despicably refuses Him.

Those who selfishly use Christ for their own fleshly purposes, trying Him out, sampling Christianity to see if it is of sufficient earthly benefit, deny Christ's magnificence and majesty, and ultimately show their true motivation by public denial and mockery, just as those at the foot of the Cross who cheered His dying.

It is no accident that Jesus repeatedly warned His prospective followers about the dangers of shallow commitment. 

Unless you are His all the way, you may not be His at all.

Going on to Perfection

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. (Hebrews 06:01-03, NKJV).

There are no worldly solutions to the world's problems. No amount of legislation, no charismatic leader, no attempt to police human morals or discourse, nor fear of punishment will make life on this planet any less prone to tragedy, loss, violence and death.

Only changed human hearts result in changed human behavior, and the only way a human heart can be changed is through faith in Christ, and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. Only in this way will murderers become life-savers, criminals become responsible citizens, and would-be conquerors become peacemakers. There is no other remediation  and no other hope.

Yet the world system continues to disparage the Christian faith, and consistently uses any means available to denigrate and marginalize men, women, and children of faith.

This is nothing new, of course, and has gone on since The Fall in Eden. But what is increasingly evident in these last days is the prevalence, frequency and intensity of the anti-God propagandists, and the growing eagerness of their intended audience.

Such should not be so in the church, however. Within the body of Christ, as the world worsens, Christians should become that much more immersed in the truth of God, and committed to living out a life of faith regardless of the seeming hopelessness and ever-growing chaos of the modern world.

Thus, the verses above continue the exhortation of the previous chapter to mature beyond being infants of the faith, and to desire a broadened and deepened knowledge of all that God offers in His Word.

Like any journey, there are the necessary steps along the way, requiring us to move out of our respective areas of comfort, and to travel further in our quest for truth. These necessary steps are what is need to go on to perfection. The word translated perfection is from the Greek root meaning completeness, lacking nothing. It does not mean sinless, moral perfection (though it certainly does not exclude such in the ultimate sense).

It does mean seeking to be fully equipped in whatever is needed to finish a journey, fulfill a task, purpose or goal, which, in this context, means living a life exclusively for Christ.

Step one is to go beyond the starting point of the gospel by leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ. Please note that word, discussion. The writer encourages us to move forward, not by discounting the vital importance of the gospel message, but to not stop there. To use it as the bedrock and build upon it.

This is an apt interpretation, since the very next phrase speaks of not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. Justification (being declared innocent) is by faith alone in Christ alone. No amount of ritual, ceremony or system of works can earn pardon from the penalty of sin. Believing (faith toward God) in Christ's substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf is the only means of earning God's favor. Nothing else will suffice, which means that until we completely abandon any and all attempts to save ourselves, we cannot be saved.

Yet we are not to stop there, either.

Like dead works, those other symbolic rituals that can be used to substitute for true faith (and are, in fact, obstacles to true faith), must also be abandoned. We are not regenerated by baptism, infant or otherwise, nor does the laying on of hands endue us with redemption. Rock-solid acceptance and reliance on these are truths are fundamental to saving faith, but again, we cannot stop there.

Nor are we to be satisfied with the promise of resurrection of the dead, as our ultimate motivation to follow Christ. Nor should the prospect of eternal judgment being our destiny without Him be the primary reason we desire to follow Him.

While all these are true, we should seek to go beyond these, for it is CHRIST HIMSELF who is to be our supreme motivation. Knowing Him, walking in intimate fellowship with Him, being conformed into His image is the perfection we are to strive to journey toward.

And these goals are based, not just on His redemptive and saving work, as monumentally important and significant as these are, but on His magnificence and supremacy to all things as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

This is what the writer is diligently communicating throughout this presentation of the measureless worth of the One who came to save us.

As loving, faithful, gratefully obedient children of God, we must not be content with anything less than knowing Him as completely as possible this side of eternity.

That is our goal. That is our destination. We are to forsake all else.

Profitable Exercise

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 05:12-14, NKJV).

The apostle Paul writes in his first letter to Timothy, his son in the faith, "[for] bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." (1 Timothy 4:8, NKJV).

This distinction between bodily and spiritual exercise is repeated here in Hebrews, immediately following the warning about dullness. Like anything in life, maintaining an edge of proficiency, keeping sharp, requires repeated use. Like running or weight-lifting builds up muscle and endurance through repeated use of the physiological systems involved, so too will the continued exercise of spiritual discernment increase our ability to live a godly, Christ-honoring life.

It is a simple formula that works itself out in every other area of human existence, and yet is so prevalently neglected in the realm of faith. 

Look, many are very diligent in keeping in physical shape, and this only makes sense as being good stewards of our physical bodies. I am certain most of us in this culture have seen individuals doggedly pursuing their fitness rituals in all kinds of weather conditions, and in whatever other circumstances may be impacting their lives. It is easy to see an almost religious devotion and a willingness to sacrifice in maintaining a rigorous exercise regimen.

Yet many of these same individuals in the world are entirely neglectful of the only realm of living that has eternal significance: obedient faith in Christ, the Savior.

Can you imagine how effective an individual Christian's witness would be if he or she directed the same fierce self-discipline in godly pursuits that someone whose focus was on the world did in their ungodly pursuits?

Can you imagine how much impact to the community a life would be if a person single-mindedly pursued their relationship and knowledge of Christ with the same intensity that many people invest in acquiring things and a good physique?

And this is the essence of the exhortation in the verse above. The writer of Hebrews is soundly criticizing some in his audience who have remained content to be just over the borders of belief, but have not gone beyond into the central regions of the Kingdom. 

Instead of being built up in the faith, edified by loving pursuit of God's word and truth, they are content to remain spiritual babes, suckling on the mere milk of the gospel, and not imbibing the solid food of deeper communion with their Creator and Redeemer.

In choosing to remain unfed - and it is a choice along the same lines as any other - these individuals remain unskilled in the word of righteousness. Their ability to discern good and evil remains impaired, polluted and weakened by worldliness and lack of exercise.

There is only one remedy to this condition: immersion in the nourishment of God's word. 

This in turn will lead to intensified prayer, fellowship with other saints, and a desire to show ever-growing love by obedience to the One who died to save us, and who lives forever more.

Remember, friendship with the world is enmity with God.

You cannot have it both ways.

Dullness

And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. (Hebrews 05:09-11, NKJV).

First drifting, then departing, and now dullness, the third in the progression of dire warnings in Hebrews directly related to neglecting so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him.

Christ, our Sacrifice, who learned obedience through the things which he suffered, has been perfected (made complete, fulfilled, finished) in that He became the final and comprehensive payment for our sin and our entrance into Heaven. Just as omniscient God voluntarily taking on a subservient role learns obedience, so a divine Being complete in Himself, becomes perfected as a payment for sin by voluntarily dying on the Cross in our place. This is utter humility on Christ's part, in absolute accordance with His teaching that the Son of Man came to serve and not be served.

This aspect of the  Lord's earthly mission and ministry is yet another integral part of His overarching superiority to all things, and is the common theme woven throughout this magnificent book of Scripture. In inconceivable condescension, God Himself became Man, divesting Himself of all the inherent privileges and power of His eternal godhood, to suffer and die for creatures miserably dead in their own trespasses and sins. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

And in that perfection, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. That word translated author here is aitios (ah'-ee-tee-os) in Greek, and means essential cause. In other words, by His ministry and death He caused salvation to be possible. Prior to the completion of His work, salvation was impossible.

As a reminder to us that these events were ordained before the foundation of the world and foreshadowed throughout the events of human history, the writer refers again to Psalm 110 and the ancient order of Melchizedek as the prototype of a High Priest called by God, rather than one genetically inheriting that position. This fact of being called to, rather than inheriting the priesthood as a descendant of Aaron, will be used later in Hebrews to continue the presentation of the superiority of Christ. For now, it serves as a rebuttal to the anticipated Jewish argument against Jesus being considered a legitimate priest because He was descended from the royal line of Judah, from which tribe no man has officiated at the altar.

Now, at this point in the discourse, the writer would like to expound even further on this distinction, but can't because his audience has become dull of hearing.

Dullness is the inevitable and tragic result of selective inattention to the things of God. It is what happens to a person who claims belief, for whatever false reasons, but does not invest in the relationship he or she is to have with the Lord. Like a ship dismissive of needed course correction that drifts from its intended destination, and ultimately departs from safe waters, the inattentive Christian becomes spiritually dull, and unable to hear the urgings and will of his Lord.

Discover a man who is oblivious to the walk of obedient faith, and you will find beneath his lackluster witness a purposeful ignorance of the doctrines of the Christian faith.

It is inevitable, for you become what you pay attention to, and become less like what you willfully ignore.

This is a spiritual principle as adamantine as the laws of sowing and reaping, forgiveness and forgiving, and humility and exaltation.

You become what you meditate upon. If it is the things of the world, you become like the world. If it is the things of Christ, you become like Him.

As a Christian, friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4).

Look, superficial Christianity is like anything superficial. It is a veneer easily tarnished or scraped off, that neither protects, encourages, nor nourishes.

Someone who cannot hear the Good Shepherd cannot follow Him.

Dullness of hearing can quickly become fatal, like that sheep of the field left behind and subject to the ravages of the wild because it simply ignores the shepherd's call to the safe haven of the sheepfold.

The only protection against dullness is diligence.

Diligence in the Word, in prayer, in fellowship, and obedience.

There are no shortcuts, loopholes, and scant margin for neglect.

When It All ends

That night Seth dreamed.

It nearly killed him.

He was in a normal place at first. A place with sunshine and green leaves, a blue cloudless sky and a breeze that gently wafted the aromas of honeysuckle, lilac and cedar in perfect combination.

Outwardly idyllic, the effect this scene had on him emotionally was one of longing and poignancy that caught his breath. Somehow and in someway, while in this dream setting he was not part of it, like it was enveloped in some kind of crystal clear shrink-wrap that he could not penetrate no matter how hard he tried.

The feeling of loss this engendered seemed to go on forever, and sink whatever hope may have lain dormant in his heart.

He wanted with all his will to awake from sleep and have this fade into memory, but it stubbornly remained and entrapped him on the outside.

After some timeless and excruciating interval, he began to move away from the warmth and sunlight. He could still see it sharply, the image cutting open his heart even as it became smaller in perspective.

He began to bleed copiously from his chest, at first brightly red, but then becoming dark and sluggish; thick like the sludge that sometimes comes from a long disused water faucet.

As his blood spread, it blocked out the rapidly dwindling panorama of sunlit forest still receding from him. It became like a pitch-black curtain admitting not even the smallest photon of light.

In turn, the curtain began to enfold him in greasy, smothering folds of lead-heavy and coarse cloth.

And then it drew tighter, like a cocoon, or a mummy wrap.

Now all was fathomless darkness, intolerably close and hot.

His breathing became more labored, each laborious inhalation taking minutes to satisfy his imperious need for air.

He could not move arms or legs.

The terror of suffocating intensified. His entire existence focused on the next unsatisfying breath.

Until an even greater fear engulfed him.

At first it commenced as an unnoticed rumble of thunder on the very edge of perception.

It sounded like a cataract of water roaring over the edge of some great cliff.

Then it became much louder very quickly as he seemed to be falling toward it.

As he descended the heat became unbearable.

The blackness around him began to deteriorate. Bright orange writhing worms of flame seemed to be consuming it, replacing it with a deeper, more pervasive red glow.

Now the heat became so intense it felt like icy fingers slicing away his skin and scorching his very bones with acid tongues of flame.

The agony nearly overwhelmed him. Never in all his years had he felt such physical pain.

He opened his mouth to scream and the worms of fire leapt down his throat, searing his lungs and burning him literally from the inside out.

And still he fell into increasing heat and crushing depth.

Now the far memory of sunlight and leaves seemed only to exacerbate the torture as he uncomprehendingly longed for the pain to cease, yet it did not.

It maintained itself unabated, feeding endlessly on his flesh, but never consuming it.

Always the same indescribable torment, not for a second abating...

Finally, mercifully Seth awoke.

His body and the bedclothes around him were drenched in sweat.

His heart was racing almost to the point of bursting, and he was gasping for air.

He suspected he was near death, and that thought for the very first time in his self-centered life brought not a hint of relief from the cares of this world, as it had done in the past.

Instead, it filled him with a dread that made the darkened bedroom spin in a sickening spiral.

When he awoke again, he found himself on the floor, having lost consciousness and having slipped noiselessly from the bed in a tangle of drenched sheets.

He was shaking as he extricated himself and walked unsteadily into the bathroom.

He reached the toilet just as an unstoppable wave of nausea engulfed him.

He remained kneeling in front of the bowl in the dim illumination of the hall night light, too weak to move.

Seth tried to dismiss the nightmare and chalk it up to the deleterious effects of all the pressure about Jill's incident he was feeling.

But a very small voice in the back of his mind kept asking himself inconveniently, "Is that what death is really like?"

It's Not What You Think

Life returned to normal once Jill returned home from the hospital.

Except Seth became obsessed with keeping her safe and stress free so that her weakened cerebral arteries would never again be overburdened. And when he was not overzealously pursuing her preservation to the point of his own physical and emotional exhaustion, he expended whatever was left of his obsessional energies on ensuring that all the memorabilia of his wife - photos, letters, videos, artwork, crafts, everything that had her imprint upon it - was categorized and in safekeeping. It was absolute torture for him, the more so because to not do it was completely unbearable.

Seth was almost a person in that his love for Jill sometimes approached the border beyond the sphere of himself and ventured into the realm of actually caring for her, for her sake alone. Those times, infantile and clumsy, were nonetheless what endeared him the most to his wife and daughters. They were what gave Jill the most hope that perhaps it was not too late for his heart to soften and his his eyes to open to how things really were in the world.

For his part, Seth desperately avoided facing the reality that everything he depended upon to cope with life could be ripped from him in an instant. The fragility of his  wife, his girls, his job, his health, his security - all these fundamentally essential things - he could not afford to look at honestly because if he did, his sanity would run screaming into a black hole never to reemerge. It had come close in the back of that ambulance, and he must avoid at all costs a repeat of that glance over the abysmal event horizon.

"You can't keep this up," Jill told him gently two weeks after the hospital. "You are trying to control the universe. It won't work."

He looked at her, exhaustion evident in his face and eyes.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, trying, and failing, not to be annoyed.

"You are worried about things you can't control. My life is not in your hands."

He looked at her, his red-rimmed eyes like a lost little boy.

"Look, I'm just trying to minimize the risks."

"Seth," she said, "life is not what you think. It's not what you think at all. You and I don't control anything. We can either submit completely to the One who does, trusting that He knows best and loves us. Or we can engage in a hopeless and purposeless battle that cannot be won unless we surrender."

"I don't know what that means." It was almost, but not quite, a plaintive whine.

"It's like Jacob wrestling with God. He was losing as long as he continued to struggle. It was only when he gave up the fight and asked for a blessing that he began to understand. And then the Lord graciously gave him a limp for the rest of his life as a reminder of how things really work."

"Bible stuff again," he said. "You know I don't get it. You know I don't get how you can believe it."

She sighed. For a smart man he was incredibly thick.

"Seth, you are holding onto the wrong things. You are striving against forces over which you cannot prevail; like a solitary man trying to hold his ground against a tidal wave. It's not possible. It's not even sensible."

"I get the tidal wave bit," he said. "I do. I'm just trying to get away from the shore."

"But I like the shore," she said with a smile. "Some of the best times, the times most worth living are right on the beach. Despite the dangers. Maybe even because of them."

"So what are you saying? Just give up and let you die without a fight?"

There was a fierce anger just underneath his voice. Anger at her for being mortal. Anger at himself for being so dependent and weak. Anger at life itself.

"It's not up to you, Seth. It's not up to me either. And I'm not saying 'give up and die'. I'm saying give up and live!"

"I don't know what that means!"

She growled.

"You are blind to how gracious God has been to us. To you. You are so afraid of things getting worse that you have no clue how good they have been! How many families out there in the world suffer loss every day! How many moms and dads weep over the graves of their children? How many watch as loved ones go through unmitigated agony helpless to do anything? I love you, Seth but you are an incredible idiot!"

"I don't care about all that other stuff. It doesn't mean anything to me. They're just words!"

"Bingo!" she said, an expression of equal parts of love, pity and exasperation. "And until they're more than that, your life is going to be a living Hell!"

"I'll try," he said to mollify her, to keep her calm so her brain wouldn't die.

The School of Suffering

As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek”; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. (Hebrews 05:06-08, NKJV).

The contempt with which modern, enlightened secularists hold faith in God, and the study of God, is rife with a certain kind of arrogant and mind-numbing delusion. So confident are they of their materialist/naturalist/educated world view that they routinely scoff at even the name of Jesus Christ, or at the thought of Biblically-based Christian faith. They hold true Christians as mentally defective, and the most rabid among them would seek to outlaw religion, and especially Christianity, itself. Their current chief public spokesman is Richard Dawson, who makes a substantial income from deriding God and those who follow Him.

It would be more than a little infuriating if it wasn't so… tragic.

The pressure to conform to this elitist view is overwhelming in some circles, and it is subtly reinforced by popular culture and the western entertainment media. We who believe are stereotyped in any number of vile ways, and are marginalized as being on the fringe of "proper" society.

But the greatest intellectual and societal equalizer of all is the very nature of life on this fallen world. It is best summed up by this:

"…All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades… Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades…” (Isaiah 40:6-8, NKJV).

And,

…For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (James 4:14, NKJV).

And,

…Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. (Psalms 39:5, NKJV).

Physical death is the enemy that conquers all conceit and false self-assurance. And inevitably, before the final battle, a conscious life lived with even minimal self-examination is full of suffering. I dare any vaunted intellect to honestly claim otherwise. I challenge any self-assured secularist or elite academic to squarely face suffering and death personally with the same mocking derision heaped upon followers of Christ. Try gritting your teeth and not aging, or avoiding the loss a loved one, or blithely watching a family member suffer and die.

It is only Christianity that gives assurance that life has ultimate purpose and meaning, and it is only a follower of Christ that can know that the final enemy, death, has been defeated.

One of the most common modern criticisms of faith in Jesus is that it is too simple, too easy, too much of wishful thinking.

That is a criticism founded on nearly complete ignorance of at what cost the war against death has been won.

Imagine being exquisitely alive and powerful and at the pinnacle of your experience as a human, and then voluntarily becoming an invalid. Think about it for just one second, as life goes on around you unfettered and free. Imagine surrendering all your authority and influence and control over your own immensely significant life and becoming completely subservient, and doing so out of a love so indefinable that no words exist to convey it. 

In that dependent state, imagine being not in the company of loved ones or friends, but in the the thrall of implacable enemies who are not just ruthlessly hostile, but wish you the worst imaginable harm.

Now imagine going through all this suffering and humiliation for the sake of the very creatures who are killing you and at the behest of the One Being in existence who is your equal.

Perhaps such images will give some insight, some scant glimpse, into what it means for God to become Man to provide the example of learning and suffering, and to die for the utterly unlovable, and in so doing accomplish the impossible: saving the world.

Suffering is the Grand Teacher. Without it in this world, nothing of any lasting importance can be learned.

Without suffering as contrast, any enjoyment in this life is shallow and without real appreciation. It is a lure into a trap of self-entitlement and eventual jaded bitterness.

Without suffering there can be no true thankfulness in the human heart, for it is by genetic inheritance as hard as stone, requiring the furnace heat of pain to soften.

Without suffering the human mind remains as ignorant and self-centered as a newborn, incapable of knowing where she ends and the universe begins.

Even the most decadent, and supremely self-confident man, woman or child, is guaranteed at the moment of death to face the fathomless black abyss of death without God, and if the lesson of dependence on Him and obedience to Him has not been learned in the light of this life, the fiery darkness of eternal suffering will teach it.

But then it will be too late for the lesson to have any effect other than to solidify forever a life lived in ignorance.

The Son of God was perfected as our sacrifice by learning obedience by the things which He suffered.

He did so for us, and for the Father.

No amount of lofty, conceited intellectualism, or blithe animalistic living, can, in the end, effectively deny the reality and truth of our lives being in the hands of the One who made us.

To attempt to live life without acknowledging that fact, and respond accordingly, is the ultimate stupidity.

And it is tragic beyond words.

God allows us pain to combat the deadly anesthetic of sin.

Like leprosy of old, if left unchecked our inherent sinful nature deadens our sensitivity to the truth of God.

Without the lessons offered through suffering, every human soul would be guaranteed to fall inevitably into everlasting torment, after living a purposeless life.

Only Christianity can make sense of suffering.

Only Christianity can make life-giving use of suffering.

Thank God for suffering. It is the key that opens the door from ignorance to intelligence; from darkness to light.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (James 1:2, 3, NKJV).