7 Eternity
I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not, but there are no spoiler alerts in the Bible. God puts the final chapter, the final end of all things, and the forever that will follow before us throughout his narrative. He does this so that we will interpret the entire content of his marvelous revelation to us with eternity in view. And he does this so that eternity would shape how we live in the situations, locations, and relationships of our daily lives. God intends for us to live eschatologically, and when we fail to do that, bad things happen. You will never live the way you were designed to live if you fall into thinking that this moment is all you have to be sure of. So God, in the goodness of his grace and the practicality of his wisdom, invites us to look into and eavesdrop on eternity.
Now this is yet another place where the gospel helps us to understand and properly guard ourselves against the toxic reactivity that distorts so many conversations, harms so many lives, and damages the witness of the church. I am persuaded that much of the toxicity that we daily deal with, not just outside of the Christian community but inside of it as well, is the result of a subtle but widespread epidemic of eternity amnesia. Sure, every believer has the doctrine of eternity as part of his confessional theology. Every Christian believes in eternal life, but not nearly as many live with eternity in view. And not many understand that when you do, it changes the way you react to everything in your life. God unfolds the final chapter for us not just so we’ll be prepared, but so that we will know how to live right here, right now. So let’s view our reactivity culture through the lens of eternity.
The first and perhaps most foundational thing the biblical teaching of eternity does is give us a hermeneutical tool for making sense out of our lives. I have written and spoken much about the fact that every human being is an interpreter. We all live, act, react, and respond based not on the facts of our experience but based on our particular interpretation of the facts. Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation and, for Christians who have built their lives on the truths of God’s word, eternity is a very important interpretive tool. Truth of the eternity that is to come alerts us to the fact that the Bible is much more than a set of truths to be read, understood, believed, and defended. The Bible is a narrative, that is, the ultimate grand story. The Bible has a main character, the Lord Almighty, it has a plotline, and it has a conclusion that is glorious beyond description.
Living as a Bible believer means much more than getting your doctrine right and searching for those who seek to reshape or negate it in some way. Living as a Bible believer means embedding your story in the larger story of redemption. If you’re God’s child, then his story, by grace, is your story. His presence and power are your hope; where the story is going is where your story is going, and the final victory at the end is your victory too. The Bible is rich with counsel on how to live in the middle of the plot of God’s story, because we live in the messiness between the promise of the glories that are to come and the actual arrival of those glories. Eternity comforts us with one amazing truth: everything is going to be okay because God is going to make all things new again. So, we don’t need to live in a state of panic. We don’t have to fear that the enemies of what is right will ultimately win. We don’t have to ride the rollercoaster of all the ups and downs and twists and turns of the unsettled mind of the culture around us. We don’t have to be political vigilantes who think that political leaders will guide us to the hope and security we seek. We don’t have to fear what others think of us, how much they misunderstand us, or how aggressively they react to us. We know who we are, we know what we have been graced to be part of, we know where God is taking us, and we know how it is all going to end. We are in the middle of an unstoppable grace narrative, and it will be okay.
Could it be that much of the fearful, defensive, angry, and anxious reactivity that lives in the Christian community and in our social media conversation is the result of a God’s-story forgetfulness? Could it be that we have lost sense of the plot? Could it be that we’ve reduced the most precious story ever written, the only one that can give life to the dead, into a set of truths to be argued about? Could it be that we have lost sight of what the biblical story tells about where true and lasting hope, security, identity, and rest can be found? The pastors I mentor have told me again and again that the angry reactivity which now lives in their congregations is driven by fear. What if our liberties are taken away? What if this leader doesn’t win? What if my pastor isn’t politically conservative? What if this view of gender wins the day? What if this conspiracy is true? I am deeply persuaded that much of the toxicity that is interrupting and corrupting our communication, our relationships, our ministries, and our witness is driven by a God’s-plot amnesia, and the result of this amnesia is fear.
Fearful people come to family gatherings, to church, to elections, and to social media defensive and loaded. We seem to be way too fearful and way too ready to react in an instant. And we appear to have forgotten that we have been included in a divinely instituted movement that cannot and will not be stopped. God will win, and his children will celebrate that victory with him and share in its spoils.
Not only does the biblical truth of the eternity that is to come provide us with a way of making sense out of and living within the messiness of the middle of God’s great story, it also provides us with a much needed values clarification. I find myself going back again and again to Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 6. This is one of the most significant values passages in all of Scripture. Here Christ uses a provocative word for the values that come to control our hearts. He calls them treasures (Matt. 6:19). The word paints the scene of a chest of gold and jewels. A treasure is something that rises in importance in your heart until it controls what you think, what you desire, and how you act. Jesus is alerting us to the fact that we are all treasure oriented, that is, we all live for some kind of treasure. But this word confronts us with something else. Most of the treasures we come to value and that end up controlling us are not things of intrinsic value but assigned value. Think of a twenty-dollar bill. It’s not worth twenty dollars because it is twenty dollars’ worth of ink or paper. The paper bill itself doesn’t have intrinsic value, but it does have assigned value, value assigned by the Department of the Treasury. So, you can take your twenty-dollar bill to the grocery store and buy twenty dollars’ worth of food.
Christ is warning us that we will have treasures and they will control our hearts and, because they do, they will shape our words and behavior. But he is also alerting us that many of the things we have named as treasures are not so valuable after all because they lack true, intrinsic, or eternal value. It is here where eavesdropping on eternity can be so helpful in clarifying values. When you listen to the celebrations of the saints on the other side, it’s important to take note of what they are celebrating. The constant theme of the eternal celebration is God—the awesomeness of his power, the finality of his victory, and his generous grace along the way. No one in eternity will be celebrating how big their house was, how successful their career was, or how much money they had. No one will be celebrating how many debates they won, how influential their tribe was, how many social media followers they had, how many important leaders they took down, how their political movement won, or how successful they were at defending encroachments on their personal rights. No one.
Could it be that proving we are right has become more important to us than living and reacting in a way that is right? Could it be that political movements are too important to us? Could it be that secondary issues, those that have been and will always be debated, have become too important to us? Could it be that theological-always-rightism has become too much of a heart-controlling treasure to us? Could it be that we treasure winning more than loving, controlling more than serving, and judgment more than encouragement? Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 what is truly valuable: his kingdom and his righteousness. Could it be that we have lost our minds when it comes to what is really worth living and fighting for? Could it be that if we live inside of the warnings of Matthew 6 and the values of Revelation, much of the fearful and toxic reactivity that lives in the church and in the conversations of Christians on social media would be no more? Everything you text, email, speak, or post reveals the true values of your heart. Since this is true, it is important to confess that there is daily evidence in our churches and on the internet that we have lost the plot of what is truly valuable, truly worth giving our hearts to, and truly worth living for.
Eternity gives us one more thing: lasting spiritual rest. Reactivity never comes from hearts at rest. It simply doesn’t. Rest of heart comes when you are blown away by the fact that your destiny is unalterably secure. If you are guaranteed this future grace, then you are guaranteed present grace as well. Without present grace you would never make it to receive the future grace that is yours in Christ. A restful heart is the product of gratitude. When your heart is filled with gratitude, it alters the way you see your world, it changes the way you experience each day, it shapes the way you see other people, and it changes the way you understand and deal with difficulty. When your heart is at rest, you aren’t easily irritated, you aren’t overcritical, you aren’t gunning for a fight, you don’t personalize things that are not personal, and you aren’t frantically looking for acceptance or devastated when you don’t get it.
On the other hand, a life of forgetfulness, ingratitude, and complaint will unsettle your heart. It will cause you to be weaker and less resilient. It will cause you to be irritable and critical. Complaint means you are dissatisfied and, because you are, you will find more reason to be dissatisfied. You will be quicker to get angry, quicker to take offense, and less patient with others. Complaining people don’t have much joy and aren’t quick to sympathize with the plight of others and extend mercy to them.
The tone and character of much of the social media conversation in the current cultural setting depicts a whole lot of personal, relational, and cultural unrest, but so does the social media conversation of believers. The church, which should be an earthly picture of the rest that is to come, is clearly now a place of spiritual unrest. Complaint seems to speak more loudly than praise. We are too easily angered. We are too easily offended. We are too easily politicized and tribalized. We seem to lack patient empathy, a willingness to think the best of others, and the commitment to be slow to judge motives or question one’s character. Have we lost sight of the unstoppable and eternal grace that is ours in Christ? Have we forgotten how important it is to count our blessings? If the eternity that is ours in Christ, along with all the gifts of grace along the way, doesn't capture your heart and make you overflow with gratitude, then you will find it very hard to resist the toxic reactivity that seems to be everywhere you look. As God’s people, we are in desperate need of a gratitude revival and the vertical and horizontal rest that results.
Philippians 4:4–7 speaks to everything we have been considering:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:4–7)
This important and helpful passage makes a direct connection between the present condition of our hearts and the future coming of the Lord. It also connects gratitude (“rejoicing always”) to the way we respond to literally everyone. “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone” is a power-packed sentence. If taken seriously and lived out with discipline, it would alter the Christian social media landscape for good. The original Greek word that we translate as “reasonableness” is a multilayered and provocative word which is almost impossible to translate with a single English word. It carries the meaning of patience, gentleness, softness, modesty, magnanimity, moderation, and forbearance. If these traits were to control our hearts as we sit down with our phones, tablets, and computers, we would no longer be part of a reactivity culture. God has given us everything we need to be free of anxiety, to be filled with thankfulness, and to have hearts that are protected by peace, so that we would be known for our gentle and forbearing reasonableness. This is a game-changer passage. Paul is not giving us his opinion on how nice it would be to be nice. No, he is confronting us with the truth that if we meditate on everything we have been given and on our inclusion in the glories that are to come, this then is how we should live. It’s wrong not to rejoice. It’s wrong not to be thankful. Something is wrong if you are not experiencing peace of heart. And it is wrong if your reactions to everyone are less than gentle, forbearing, and reasonable. These are the foundational character qualities of gospel living, and they are made possible for us by grace.
Something is wrong if these glorious truths produce in us big theological brains, proud and judgmental hearts, and reactions to others that lack gentle, patient reasonableness. A heart filled with gospel gratefulness will not produce a Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook troll. A heart that is resting in present and future grace won’t be easily dissatisfied or quickly critical. A heart that is filled with thanksgiving will use words to edify, comfort, and encourage, not to slay the next, nearest enemy. But gospel amnesia, which forgets what we have been given now and what is guaranteed to come, leaves us vulnerable to the seductive call of the reactivity culture that has drawn and continues to draw too many of us in.
One last thing. The existence of the eternity that is to come calls for all of us to use our time well. As we are waiting for the sure return of our Lord and the establishment of his final kingdom, there will be a rise of false prophets and all the evils that result (see Matt. 24:11–12). While we wait in this broken and groaning world, we are not hopeless, anxious, angry, or fear-ridden. And we surely are not passive. As we have already been considering, we are told how to live. Ephesians 5:16 tells us: “Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” This needed and helpful directive comes in the middle of a section of counsel on how to live between the “already” and the “not yet.” Unfortunately, this passage is regularly misunderstood and misapplied. The confusion has to do with the word time. Paul is not using the word time in a chronological sense, like “hurry up, we don’t have much time.” He is using the word time in a point-in-time sense. He is directing the Ephesians believers, and us, to make the best use of this time. His counsel to believers is to capture all the opportunities that God will give them to live as children of light in a darkened world, to display the glory of God in a world obsessed with other glories, to show forth God’s truth in a world captured by falsehood, and to resist temptation in a world where so many give way to its seduction.
The point of this passage is that as we embrace the hope that is to come, we have a calling. We are to live, act, and respond with a sense of mission. We are called to a greater purpose than whatever our purpose would be for ourselves. We have not just been invited into God’s family, but we have been drafted into his mission on earth. We are to actively live with a commitment to the greatest, most important movement in human history—redemption. We are to live for things that are eternal and transcendent. We should never view the world through the small lens of what we have or don’t have, how we are or are not being responded to, what is or is not making us uncomfortable, or what we do or do not think we deserve. We must not allow ourselves to shrink the field of our concern, motivation, or reactions down to the size of our little lives. We have been welcomed to something infinitely greater, and we have been called to live with these things in view. Toxic reactivity is the result of a life shrunk down to the size of our wants, our needs, and our feelings. It is about making ourselves more important than we are and our opinions more significant than they should ever be.
In a moment of toxic reactivity, there is no past, there is no future, there is no grand glorious movement, and there is no transcendent mission. As we are taking someone down in ridicule, mockery, and dismissal, we have forgotten who we are and the grand thing that we have been called to do. We have lost sight of the fact that we are children of light in the midst of darkness, and we have sadly become part of the dark reactivity of a world gone mad. When we put our fingers on our keyboards and let it rip, we have forsaken the call that is on us to capture every opportunity to point to God’s glory and the eternal hope of his grace. When winning becomes more important, our tribe more significant, and the takedown more fulfilling than God’s work is, we have lost our gospel minds and forgotten that our little stories have been embedded by grace in the transcendent story of the glory of God, his redeeming grace, and the eternity of peace and righteousness that is ours as his children.
May God give us the grace to live, act, and react in light of the mercies that we have already been given and the glories that are to come. May he help us to make the most of the opportunities he will give us. And may our gentle and patient reasonableness be evident in every conversation, every reaction, and every post, because it really is true that the Lord is near.