This article is based on the premise of being Christians. Generations over thousands of years have debated this. If only people who believe in Jesus and worship him be able to go to heaven, then what happen to those sincerely good moral folks who don’t believe in Jesus? Do they go to hell? Then where is fairness? Justice?

Question should rather be asked is it fair for the Son of God Jesus Christ, who never committed any sin, to die on the cross to be a ransom for humanity? It’s funny people asked the first question, because imagine that Jesus the Son of God did not incarnate into the world and take up the sufferings and humiliation of dying on the cross, then what? Then I bet no one will complain that it’s not fair, because everyone then will go to hell. Then everyone will cry out to God “save us O God!” Now that’s actually what God did He gave his only begotten Son:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

It’s God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life! That’s the love of God that drives God to save mankind. He acted because of his love; otherwise we would all have perished. Is that fair? If you really want to be fair, the whole humanity would perish! Period. There will be no complaints but only facing the stark reality of burning unquenchable fire in hell. 

Now God has acted, and sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world due to his love for us, we reject him because we think it’s too narrow? Not fair? First there was zero way to heaven, we didn’t complain. Now there is a way, albeit a small narrow way, we complain! How lame is that? Because on the surface it may seem to be narrow, selective, and downright even unfair. But the fact of the matter is that the way has to be narrow, because you will have to know God’s way, not just any way. It’s like you have one father, so people start complaining that you are being narrow. You can’t help it, because you can have only one biological father, not two or three! Only one, one mother too. When God came into this world, same thing, he is telling us there is only him. You don’t have two gods! One!

Deut 6: ⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Yahweh told Israel, tell Israel, your God is one. You can’t have two gods! You either accept him or reject him, but you can’t complain that there is only one way of salvation. It’s really saying you are complaining because there is only one God, and it’s unfair??

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

Jesus did not show us the way to heaven. Jesus says He is the way. He is the truth. He is Life. That’s a bold claim and a universally selective one. There is only one way back to God, you can accept or reject? Likewise, Jesus can’t help it saying that too, because there is only one way, not two ways back to God! So if we are to be intellectually be a man or woman of integrity, we must either accept Jesus as the Son of God and the only narrow way, or reject him as the only way. There is no middle way, because if so, you would have been a hypocrite to yourself and the world!

Finally what about folks who are good morally, basically a good man but not believing in Jesus? Do they go to heaven? According to the gospel of Jesus, the kingdom of God is not a standard of good and bad, but rather a reconciliation of our relationship with God as our Father. Essentially you can be the best morally behaved son in the family, but if you refuse to call your dad as dad, rejecting his fatherhood, what good is there? I think the poor father would rather have a more mischievous son but calling him dad.

Ephesians 1: ³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he^[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship^[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves

Because relationship crowns above all ethics. God is not interested in your own good doing, but he’s after your heart to love him. God loves you and he wants you to love him. Your good deeds morally good behavior has nothing to do with you coming back to his family. 

Communion: Baptist view (memorialism) Reformed view (spiritual presence), Lutheran view (consubstantiation), and Roman Catholic view (transubstantiation).

Catholic’s transubstantiation view teaches that the bread and wine we offer at the Lord’s Supper today is transfigured into the actual body and blood of Christ, which is a heresy.  Lutheran’s consubstantiation says that Christ is present in the Lord’s Supper in, with, and under the signs of bread and wine. Luther teaches the doctrine of ubiquity in order to show how Christ’s bodily presence is possible and actual. Luther and Calvin rejected transubstantiation with the real presence of Christ, but they both confess the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.

I hold to the Reformed view of a spiritual presence of Christ in the communion. I believe that the typical evangelical view of memorial only falls short of the spiritual presence of Christ in communion. The Lord’s Supper was a meal in which bread and women were used as food and drink for strengthening o the body, and served above all as signs and seals for the exercise of communion with the crucified Christ. It is both an ordinary natural meal and an extraordinary spiritual meal, in which the host, Christ, offers his own crucified body and shed blood as nourishment for our souls. Christ has to offer up his body into death in order that it may be food of our souls. John 6: ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

The table of the Supper being about true communion between Christ and believers, a communion not just with the benefits but above all with the person of Christ, both in his human nature and in his divine nature. Problem with Catholics and Lutheran view on communion is that in communion Christ comes down physically form heaven to earth and they can eat his body and drink his blood, not just spiritually but physically, with their mouths. By contrast, Calvin emphasized that communion of believers with Christ, also according to his human nature, is spiritual in nature, and this comes about, not because Christ comes down physically, but because we lift up our hearts spiritually to heaven, where Jesus Christ, our advocate, is at the right hand of his heavenly Father.

The communion between Christ and believers is so intimate and unbreakable. There is no transference of substance, no consubstantial oneness; like that of the three persons in the Trinity, nor a personal union like that of the two natures in Christ.

A physical union by transubstantiation and consubstantiation with the associated is totally groundless and useless because communion is brought about by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in Christ as the head and in believers as his members. Only the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, can so unite people with Christ that they share in his person and benefits and cannot be separated from him by death to the grave, by the world or by Satan. For that reason, this communion is always spiritual in nature. It also embraces the human nature of Christ and believers in their physical existence for Christ cannot be conceived apart from human nature, and he purchased not only believer’s souls, but also their bodies.

Catholics and Lutherans, grace is something material and passive that is physically even by an unbeliever, received by believers, but for the Reformed it is the personal living Christ himself who imparts himself in the Supper as spiritual food to those who believe in him. According to the Reformed, therefore, he is not less present, but more present, much more vigorously and authentically, than according to Rome and Lutherans, for he is not physically and locally present in the sins but spiritually, as the acting Christ himself, in the hearts of believers. It is one thing to be the bread that makes us alive, but another the flesh of Christ to be life giving because from its substance life flows forth into our souls.

The Lords Supper is the sacrament of maturating in communion with Christ. The Lords’ supper remains a communion with his crucified body and with his shed blood.  Impossible with trans & Con-substantiation, as the deceased Christ recedes behind the glorified Christ. Eating Christ’s body and drinking his blood amounts to our closest possible union with Christ.

There has been quite a lot of gospel centered teachings on loving God for not what he can do for you but rather for who he is. There is a lot of truth in it, but there have to be a combination of who he is and what he does for you. Even God is frequently quoted in OT and some in NT about the deeds of the Lord. Psalm 92 “For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;I sing for joy at what your hands have done.How great are your works, Lord,how profound your thoughts!”

You (God) make me glad by your deeds, Lord. It’s the deeds of the Lord that God has made me glad. This is a clear example with many many others in the Bible. And psalmist says here” I sing for joy at what your hands have done”!! Done!! This is clearly the deeds of God and what God has done has made me sing for joy!!

Psalm 116: “¹ I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;he heard my cry for mercy.² Because he turned his ear to me,I will call on him as long as I live.” This is another clear language that I love the Lord because he heard my voice, he heard my cry for mercy. –There is clear evidence we love the Lord because he heard our voice, our cry. Is that wrong? Not so, if you take it in the word value way, and not like binge greedy seeking God’s answering your prayers as a means to get what you want only, and not for God’s will to be done. However, if you take it like I only love the Lord if he answered my prayers, that will be wrong. That will be like an idolatry, and that’s what the gospel centered messages are saying. So, on the bible, we are validated to love the Lord because He has heard me. Legit, and we have to experience oru theology, experience our God, and who God is!

Question is how do I know who God is until I see what he does? Actions speak louder than words. That’s truly a strong and valid legit question. How do the creations know who their creator is without seeing and sensing and feeling what God has done in general and for him or her ! A man or woman’s heart is moved, as God touched him or her. It’s an expression of God’s love towards him or her. Example is the woman with the bleeding problem, after Jesus touched her and healed her bleeding and was later confronted she trembled and gave thanks! Because God has touched her! The leper who was cleansed leapt in joy and screamed!! Not just healings as the manifestation of the glory and deed of God, there are many others in the Bible, like the fire of God descended on Elijah’s sacrifice and licked up every drop of water, or feel the love of God as the Holy Spirit fills a person with joy and peace. These are tangible works or deeds of the Lord and as people receive the healings they see the almighty God and give thanks .

The other common way of showing who God is when he answers our prayers. When we have been praying for an open door, God opened that door, a job, a wife, husband, whatever, when God does answer the prayers we see who he is and our hearts are filled with joy thankfulness awe and worship towards the Lord and our God. All these point to my thesis here that you can’t see or know who God is until he manifests himself like the above described or in intangible way like his presence and peace and joy.

Now there is a third way which is probably the most major and common way of knowing God and hence loving him and serving him. And that’s through the word of God in meditation, a powerful way, or through the word of God preached.

Thesis is you won’t know God until he does something in your life no matter how you read the Bible and understand theology. But I would say by reading and understand theology God will dawn in your heart the revelation of who he is. And with actual answered prayers , it’s a complete revelation of God. I would conclude saying we love God for who He is and what he does for us and the world. You can’t separate the two. There is no dichotomy between the two.

This is a great article by Andrew Wilson taking Gavin Ortlund’s excellent new book, Theology Retrieval for Evangelicals, on the subject of Jesus’ dual natures (divine & humanity) especially in view of how he can physically be present in the Lord’s Supper in the so called “Extra Calvinisticum”. I prescribe to the Spiritual Presence Reformed View on the Lord’s Supper, the Spirit of Jesus present with us in taking Communion.

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https://thinktheology.co.uk/blog/article/one_of_the_best_illustrations_ive_heard_in_years

Suppose, just as Christ comes into his own creation at the incarnation, Tolkien had written himself into Middle-earth as a character of the story alongside Frodo and Merry and Pippin and the rest. Had Tolkien done so, he would not for that reason cease to exist in Oxford (in fact, his whole existence in Middle-earth depends on his continued writing). Nor has the unity of Tolkien’s person been impaired, for one person can simultaneously be in Middle-earth and Oxford, because they are not two different “places” within one realm but two different realms altogether. In other words, it is one thing to be in Oxford and Cambridge at the same time, but another thing to be in the Shire and Oxford at the same time; and the relation of “heaven” and “earth,” and with it the relation of Christ’s divine and human natures, is more like the relationship between the Shire and Oxford. This is the value of the metaphor of story—the distinction between “author” and “story” is robust enough to retain two natures while fluid enough to retain one person. Middle-earth and Oxford may be two while Tolkien remains one …

It is not merely that Tolkien is not confined to the body of his incarnate character in Middle-earth; that is true, but that is just about the least significant thing one can say about him. Supposing the incarnated Tolkien is sitting in Frodo’s home in the Shire for a meal; this does not in the least hinder the Tolkien in Oxford from going to sleep, or traveling to India, or putting the book down for twenty years. His incarnate existence in Middle-earth does not diminish him in the least or even distract him. He is not merely extra but completely and fully extra. In other words, it is not that he reduces himself to an incarnate life but leaves a tiny bit left over that is not exhausted by his incarnation; rather, that which is extra continues without the slightest downgrade or even interruption during the incarnation.

We all talk about how much do you trust God? Do you trust God in all circumstances etc? But now how about we flip the question around?

The Great Exodus

I was in my Christianity in the Secular Age by Tim Keller RTS class this year and he was talking about God giving the law to the nation of Israel. It is really interesting on the timing of the giving of the laws by God to Israel in relation to the Exodus, the greatest miracle of all times in humanity when Moses brought 3 million Jews walking through the dry Red Sea by a mighty East wind. The thing is when did God give them the law for them to obey?

Usually, we expect you want to give the laws to your people before the mighty deliverance or exodus. You want to make sure that they all line up. But apparently it is not the case!

When God took Israel out of Egypt, religious thinking will be that God will require them to obey the 10 commandments to be qualified in the exodus out of the slavery of Egypt. But what happened was, the laws was given to them AFTER they walked out to freedom! How?

Exodus14  ²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, ²² and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Exodus 14—God told Moses to stretch forth his hand with his staff towards the Red Sea and a strong east wind blasted the sea and turned it dry!

Exodus 19 ³ Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ⁴ ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 

God carried them on eagles’ wings. A metaphoric language, God literally carried them , 3 million Jews, on dry ground of Red Sea, to their freedom! WHile all those Egytian army of Pharoah all went drowned as the Red Sea closed upon them. One of the most dramatic real life saga ever recorded in human history. That’s what God did. That’s what God would be doing for us as we believe in him. He would carry out through our difficulties, hardship.

⁵ Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶ you^[a] will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

In order words, God sets the condition to be God’s treasured possession (which means protection, love, holiness etc), after He took them out from slavery to be a treasured people of God. There was no preliminary selection process. No qualifying match to get in. He brought you in first and then He deals with you. How unlike the world’s way of doing things! WHo does that, selecting you on a blank check with no conditions, and then lay the conditions after the fact?

What a mighty God! You have to love that kind of God. Full of grace.

I have never believed it before coming to RTS, and also now been following Reformed teaching, it has opened my eyes to see the significance and blessing of infant baptism.

Our infant children are also covenant children and should receive the sign of the covenant. Baptism is one of the two sacraments in the protestant faith, Catholic has seven. Sacrament by definition is a sign and seal of the covenant promises of God towards us. Baptism is a dynamic equivalent of circumcision in the Abrahamic covenant with God. The Jewish believers in Jesus do not get circumcision but baptism as a sign of being part of the covenant with God in Christ. Same applied to Gentile believers.

Circumcision was not only given to children of promise of Abraham, Isaac, but also to non-promised child, Ismail.  It was administered to Abraham and his children. Circumcision pointed to belonging, discipleship, covenant obligations, and eventually to the future faith of the child. [1] Water baptism has the same spiritual meaning. Children are to be marked to be part of the covenant of God, just like Abraham’s children, didn’t necessarily believe in Yahweh yet, but they were circumcised. 

Col 2 : 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Baptism and circumcision carry the same spiritual meaning.

Not only that, God deals with households as a unit and welcomes whole families into the church. Acts 16:13-15, 32-34, 1 Cor 1:16. Household concept is precious and beautiful. Would you like to consider your children outside of the covenant of God growing up in a Christian family and believing parents, you? So, don’t exclude your kids. The whole idea of repentance and believing first before baptism is only found in Peter’s preaching in Acts…repent and be baptized, you & your family shall be saved. Repent and baptism can be independent, nothing here binds one to the other. Its just a sequence.

History of early church been baptizing infants. They have been doing that through big names Augustine, Iraneous, etc. Not until the 16th century, the whole thing is called into question. [2]

Finally-baptism is a sign of inclusion in the covenant community just like circumcision was. Children are holy by believing parents.

1 Cor 7 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

[1] Kevin DeYoung https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/a-brief-defense-of-infant-baptism/

[2] Ibid

Many times, David writes psalms in a way facing the attacks of the enemies while we in our modern day and age, do not relate that much to spiritual warfare, but focuses more on the sinfulness of our own lives. Vulnerability of oneself seems to trump the day for some strange reason, I believe it is cultural. The western culture is much more self focused, self ego centric too, but the East and Global south, is much more community based, and supernatural sensitive and connected culturally. Having said that, I would call it a combination of internal sinful life, with the external spiritual warfare against us, God’s people.

This is a powerful psalm. In that when we face enemies in life, they are not only fighting against us, but they actually touching the anointed one of the most high, the Lord our God. Therefore when we pray for solutions and God’s help against all these enemies attacks of darkness in this spiritual warfare, we should take note that this is dealing with our God directly as well, not just us. So they are actually challenging the Lord our God, not just wrecking our lives.

Our prayer about the forces of darkness that attack our families, or opposing the righteousness, holiness of God in our lives, families, and churches, cities, nation should be as follow: For example, we face rebellion, self centered lifestyle, sicknesses, or searching for what’s wrong among our children being influenced by the winds of doctrines that are liberal in campus and the city, instead of us pleading God to protect our children only, which we should, but also embark on Psalm 83 mighty prayer, taking out the hammer, and crush the enemy.

The point to note is that it’s not about just crushing our enemies who invade our vineyard, our folks, our loved ones and even ourselves too,  but really so they will know our God alone is the most high above all the earth. This is just not for them to know, and therefore bow, but in all respect, it is transforming us as we make that kind of prayers, as we see how an attack on God’s people, is really a challenge towards the mighty sovereign God who alone is the highest.

Unless we have it clear in our mind, the Lord our God inhabits the highest in this world, in our lives, we will have missed the point of facing and responding to the attacks of the enemies, forces of darkness. It’s a warfare beyond us human level, ultimately, its God to be glorified alone when the devil wants to take his glory.

 

It is fascinating to read about whether deep down the hearts of every man & woman, there is an awareness of the divine God. No matter how much a person denies the divinity, somehow, there is always a crack when he or she will show the fear of God existentially when he or she falls into trouble or danger.

In New York or most city folks, men and women are chasing after careers, money, pleasures, sex and forgetting God. God is a marginal issue. But Calvin argued prolifically that deep down every person heart, there is an awareness of God. Lets see his argument applied to our situation. To prevent anyone from taking refuge in the pretense of ignorance, God himself has implanted in all men a certain understanding of his divine majesty.[1] He went on to say that there is no eminent pagan, no people or nation so barbarous, savage, and remote that they have not a deep-seated conviction that there is a God. Interestingly how do you compare that with the urban city folks? They are not remote, not savage, but educated, but extremely worldly. Essentially they love for themselves, and their families or loved ones. That probably rings true for all countries in the world today. Actually, the world that we see today in the big cities especially like New York, the trend is definitely towards what’s written in :

2 Tim 3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ² People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

Lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, abusive, disobedient, slanderous, no self-control, etc.…all the virtues are lost. Why? That’s the prophecy for the end time. So if you balance these two together, there got to be an intentional denial, of the deep conviction that there is a God. That sense is usually ignored or intentionally marginalized. Unless the Spirit of God moves in their hearts, they are essentially gone! The direction of life will be marching towards the bottomless abyss. It is a sense of helplessness and fear as we witness the civilization falling in front of our eyes. Yet, Calvin argues fervently that sense of the knowledge of the divine has not been gone altogether. My article today is what do people do with that tension in their hearts? That’s a really good tension, and I believe the stronger the tension towards the divine God, the stronger the pull by the Holy Spirit, the better chance does a person have in coming into the family of God. Calvin argues that there is no city, no household, since the beginning of the world, which could do without religion; there lies in this a tacit confession of a sense of deity inscribed in the hearts of all.[2] So well written by Calvin! In other words, no civilization through human history throughout the whole world has been able to survive without a religion. That’s true, because I have never seen an atheist civilization that grown massive in history. Look at Rome, the Roman empire calls Caesar god even! In China, the emperor is called king from heaven, same as Japan too. Indeed every idolatry is ample proof of this conception. Talking about idolatry, you can see that everyday in the world we live in today, no matter which year, which country. We all have idols in our hearts. A lot of times, we idolize money, career, sex, women, power, greed or even children. This just shows these idols actually take the place of God in our lives.

History tells us of a Roman emperor after Caesar, Gaius Caligula, who showed unbridled contempt of deity (God) ; yet he trembled miserably when any sign of Gods wrath manifested itself-albeit unwillingly, he shuddered at the God whom he professedly sought to despise. He who is the boldest despiser of God is of all men the most startled at the rustle of a falling leaf. [3](Lev 26:36) ³⁶ And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.

So question is where does this arise but from the vengeance of divine majesty, which strikes their conscience all the more violently the more they try to flee form it. [4] He is saying that even though men try to run away and hide themselves from the Lord’s presence in some disguise, love of boy or girlfriend, or money, and to efface it again from their minds. But deep down, they are always entrapped. Although sometimes it may seem to vanish for a moment, it returns at once and rushes in with new force. There is no respite.[5] In other words, there is always a sense of emptiness in their hearts, even though in the surface, they seem to be happy and fulfilled, but their hearts are far from being in rest. This is the attitude and result of an impious mind, non-reverence to the mighty God, and this exemplifies the seed of God is alive in all men’s minds.

 

[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol 1, Westminster John Knox Press 2011, p 43

[2] Ibid p44

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matt 10: 37-29)

Jesus said if you love your mum or dad more than him, you are not worthy of him! That’s a strong statement, and who can say that? Only the Savior of the world, the Son of God himself and also who loved you enough to die for you, is qualified to say that. Seriously your parents didn’t die for you, for the eternal salvation of your soul. Therefore he is worthy is having such allegiance from us, because He is talking about eternity. Recently I heard about the struggles of folks holding onto something he or she loves in life, to such an extent that, he/she lost the life that Jesus promised. That’s exactly what Jesus says here in v39—whoever finds his life will lose it. Some cases of real life examples: Some have pursued financial prosperity so much that he gives up on his walk with the Lord. Some have been so influenced by the world’s liberal views that, it’s questioning even his own faith in the salvation of Christ. Some have been so swept away by girlfriend or boyfriend that, it overshadows the relationship with God, and plunged forward to what’s ‘gained’ in this life.  Now if you want something or somebody so strongly that is against God’s will, you just gained your life in your worldly desire, so to speak, but you just lost the real life, the eternal life in Christ! (v39). In other words, those who go all out to get what they really want in life, but against your own deep conscience as a Christian and hence God’s will, will lose it altogether. That’s like you build your identity on something or someone you love so much that, it’s becomes yours eventually but you will go down. The only way out of this, is to continually look to the Lord for his deliverance, for his captivation of your heart of his love, beauty and what he can do for you instead. Only the Holy Spirit can convict you to come back. Think of the all the patriarchs and folks that held on to Christ in their persecuted life, some were extremely persecuted to death even, and especially in the early church era during emperor Nero in Roman empire for instance. Christians suffered persecution in China, Iran etc now in this 21st century, and they persevered to the end. But we are nowhere near that now. The point is the Lord is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

¹³ No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1 Cor 10)

Then it talks about this: ²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

This is a realistic and practical question but deadly serious that we will really need to answer from the bottom of our hearts. Just exactly what’s important to us really? People who rush into foolish decisions in life may wreck their eternity forever. This is the darkest thing one ever will encounter in your entire life! How would anyone trade that heritage in Christ? For what? This is certainly not a decision to be taken lightly.

But those who lose what they love much in life for the sake of Christ, will gain the real life like a zillion times better. This is big. What a victory in sight. What a joy set before him. That’s how Jesus endured all the pain and shame & sufferings on the cross. (Heb 12) And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Lastly consider these verses: Heb 12: ¹⁶ See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. ¹⁷ Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

Don’t sell your birthright, no matter what you do!