Did you get the message?
Your life is ultimately meaningless.
There are no benefits for righteous living. The same lot befalls us all so enjoy yourself
during this brief life you have. At the
end of it there is nothing but death and Sheol where you won't know
anything. The Jewish idea of afterlife
took a long time to work itself out, there was a focus on this life and not so
much on what happens after. At the time
of Jesus, remember, there was the party of the Sadducees who did not believe in
the resurrection from the dead. Solomon
obviously believed the same, as, apparently, did his father David. The Psalms make clear that the dead have
their own shadowy place that isn't well defined. Sheol is neither life nor death in many ways.
Thankfully, Jesus made clear that there
is indeed life after death for those who believe in Him, life was the most
important thing He gave us. As the
Father gave us life in beginning, so do we have life in Him eternally.
Sometimes we seem to have the idea that this whole
Christianity thing has everything to do with the afterlife. Solomon had it wrong in one direction and we
get it wrong in the other. Jesus went up
to the mountain and crowds came brining all those who had physical infirmities
and He healed them. Then, He also fed
them, all four thousand of them. The
incarnation and all that Jesus did in the flesh tell us that this life matters
also. He dealt with physical problems
and restored health to people. His life
in the flesh shows us the way to live in this life and that what we do here has
some value, life is indeed a gift from God to be used to make Him known. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says,
the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Paul uses a metaphor that is, if nothing else, offensive to
Jewish people. It is amazing that a man
so deeply embedded in Judaism most of his life could write such things. To compare the Judaism of his day with Hagar
and Ishmael and the Christian church with Sarah and Isaac is nearly
unconscionable. He sees Christianity as
freedom and Judaism as slavery as only one who has been under the law can truly
see things. In Galatia he is dealing
with a group who have come into the church and are imposing the law, or at
least a portion of the law, on the believers.
Grace and law are two different things with two different outcomes in
mind. The law has been fulfilled in
Jesus and that has both a present and eternal effect on believers. The resurrection from the dead is intended to
change the way we live here, we are secure in eternity and therefore free to
live this life to His glory, risking everything if necessary.
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