Heaven as a Benefit

I apologize for not blogging this week, it has been a busy one. It's not a good thing to be up writing after 1:00a.m. when you are supposed to preach in the morning, but I'm having trouble sleeping for a couple of reasons. I'm really excited about the sermon for tomorrow on Romans 6 and so I keep running through it in my head. It is usually not a good thing when I'm excited. The sermons I have low expectations for usually come out better than the high expectation ones.

Second, I made the mistake of opening my email right before heading to bed. I received an email that asked a really good question, but it also made me think, "How many more people are not real happy with me about this and are asking that same question?" Paranoia and sleep don't mix.

So here is the question that was asked and I follow with some attempt at an answer and catharsis. The question:

I just listened again to your message on 2-17. Why didn't you give an invitation on how to "get in". In other words, how to get saved. It seemed like all you had to do was say "I'm in", whatever that means? Jesus said, "You must be born again" (John 3:3). I go to... (a certain place to serve and minister)... and we give an invitation to be born again and pray the sinners prayer with them. I don't understand a message that does not give this instruction.

And I feel that heaven is more than just a fringe benefit, it is where we will spend eternity (or not)! Since our life is like a vapor, that is pretty important.

I hope you do understand my concern. Maybe someone that day would have accepted Jesus as their Saviour but was confused as to how to do that.

I really appreciate that question and I do struggle with that concern. In fairness (to me) I did open the altar on the 17th and invited people who wanted to "get in" on what God is doing to come forward to pray as a response of faith to God's call - and there were a good number of folk who came forward.

Nevertheless, I'm sure that my understanding of what it means to be saved is a little irritating to some folk. I don't think that getting saved is exclusively (or even primarily) about going to heaven. I'm glad that believers do have the assurance of eternal life with the Father, but I don't think that getting to heaven (or escaping hell for that matter) is ever the primary biblical motivation for following Christ. It is interesting that in Romans (the book I'm preaching out of during Lent) that Paul only mentions heaven twice. In 1:18 he uses the word heaven to describe where God sits in judgment and in 10:6 he uses it to describe where Jesus ascended, but there is nothing close to Paul describing salvation exclusively in terms of going to heaven.

Again, I'm sure Paul is convinced that to die is not a bad thing because to die is to be with the Lord, but his emphasis in Romans is on the transformation of life today, the Spirit's ability to restore us in the image of Christ, and the renewal of the entire creation.

As far as the language of "getting in" goes, it may be different than what some of us who grew up in the church are used to, but for now, I like it better. Jesus came to lead a people from the way of darkness into the way of light. His invitation to people was not to pray a prayer or to recite a creed it was to follow him, take up your cross, and join the movement called the Kingdom. I think that is why I like baptism so much, because it is a public declaration that we have allowed Christ to put to death one way of life and bring into existence a whole new way of living. I think my problem is that I know more Christians (people who cognitively believe that Jesus is the Son of God) than followers of Jesus (people who are following the Way of the Christ). I would like to be more the latter than the former.

The emailer is correct, I need to help people fully understand what they are "getting in" to and give people a clearer opportunity to respond. (Although sort of like marriage even the best prepared people don't completely understand what they're getting themselves into when they say "I do"). I will admit that part of my problem in calling people to respond is that I felt so manipulated by evangelist types growing up that I probably fail at times to be as bold in calling people to respond in an attempt to avoid those forms of manipulation.

Forgive me for probably trying too hard at times to balance what I believe has been an over-emphasis on "other worldliness" by emphasizing so strongly the hope that Christ's kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. I certainly don't want anyone to miss out on heaven, but I sure don't want them to miss out on the upside-down transformational revolution called living in God's Kingdom right now either.

Peace, and now hopefully rest.

Comments

[Richard Sears]

Hi Scott,

Heaven as a "fringe benefit" bothered me as well. I actually started to write to you about it, but changed my mind thinking you were probably just overstating the point to drive home your case that we need to live in the Kingdom here and now (which seems to be your intent from your comments above). I am glad you took the time to write about it.

During church this morning while we were singing Amazing Grace, I was thinking about the line "we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun." When did we first begin? It could be thought of, not as at our death, but at our conversion. I think of heaven as the extension of our life with Christ in the here and now. It is more than a "fringe benefit."

But it may be best not too look at heaven as a "benefit" at all. When we focus on how we are going to "benefit" from following Christ, we can lose sight of Christ.

Focusing on how we will benefit in the here and now ultimately leads to name-it-claim-it Christianity or a completely social Gospel. Focusing on how we will benefit for all eternity leads to waiting for God to get us out of this mess and ignoring our real lives and the real lives of those around us. Either way focusing on how we will "benefit" can take our focus away from loving Christ and our neighbor.

Richard Sears

[Shawna]

I'm glad I'm not only one who still has a problem with evangelistic manipulation. I really don't have to worry about it now as I pastor a home church and we have not altar perse. But I'm going to eventually run into it.

I do agree with both you and Richard that eternity starts in the here and now. The older I get the more I see salvation as a process with a lot of decisions and turning points. So I also have problems with the whole one time prayer and you're in thing.

[Laura Rector]

I'm glad you got to preach something you were excited about:) That sounds fun. Holy Spirit will take care of the rest. Sometimes weeks after your sermons God brings something to mind and I "get it" or integrate it into some lesson He's teaching me or an issue I encounter in life. Hmmmm... maybe it doesn't matter how good you think things went, just how God uses it later, but somehow I think it probably went pretty well. Anyway, I wasn't at PazNaz yesterday, so I'm sorry I missed it. I'll catch it online this week.

[John Coombs]

If Pastor tried to cover everything he could, every time, we wouldn't have to worry about beating the lunch rush at El Torito's - it'd be over! :)

(And how do I write an email that'll get Pastor Scott to reply to mine?)