http://rss.desiringgod.org/link/10732/16008272/s-l-o-w
We all want to help when our friends are hurting, but we may not be sure where to begin. Do we give them space and tell them to call if they need anything, or do we dive in and try to fix everything? Do we ask questions, or do we wait for them to initiate and speak? While the answers are unique to each person and situation, I’ve learned a great deal from my ministry to suffering people (as well as from my own experiences of loss).
The first thing God calls us to do for our hurting friends is to pray. It may be helpful to divide our prayer into three areas — their spiritual, physical, and emotional needs. So, we can pray that they would turn to the Lord Jesus and find peace in him even in their trial. We might pray for daily strength, physical healing, and financial provision. And we could pray that they not feel anxious or afraid, and that they’d be surrounded by caring friends.
We can also pray for ourselves. I ask the Lord to prompt me to pray for hurting friends regularly and to show me what to pray. I also ask him to help me fulfill my good intentions and to make my efforts toward them fruitful (2 Thessalonians 1:11).
In addition to prayer, though, there are other tangible ways to minister to hurting friends. Four ways that I’ve found particularly helpful are represented by the acronym SLOW. That acronym reinforces that God is working even though change seems slow, and it reminds me that I need to be slow to speak and quick to listen (James 1:19).
Show Up
Having people show up is critical in the early days of loss and even long afterward. God created us to live in community. It is not good for us to be alone. We need each other, and wanting company is not a sign of weakness. Even Jesus wanted friends with him in his anguish, asking them to wait, watch, and pray (Mark 14:32–35).
In Job, we see the importance of this presence. When Job’s friends first heard of his enormous suffering, “they made an appointment together to come and show him sympathy and comfort him” (Job 2:11). They didn’t remain at a distance. “They raised their voices and wept” with him (Job 2:12).
“Just being there can give people strength to move forward, knowing that they are not alone.”
Sometimes we don’t show up because we don’t know what we’ll say. But we don’t need to have eloquent words, or any words — just our presence and love. Personally, I always welcome dark chocolate or salty snacks, but we don’t need to bring anything. Just being there can give people strength to move forward, knowing that they are not alone.
Listen
Few people are anxious to hear mini-sermons in the midst of their pain. Most would prefer to have friends listen or just sit with them in silence. On this score, Job’s friends were a good example (at least for seven days) when they sat with Job without saying a word (Job 2:13).
For the rest of the book, however, they berated him till he begged, “Listen closely to what I’m saying. That’s one consolation you can give me. Bear with me with me, and let me speak . . .” (Job 21:1–2 NLT). Rather than compassionately listening, Job’s friends kept offering advice and cliché theology.
Job knew his words were raw. He wanted his friends to listen as he processed his questions and losses aloud rather than arguing with him. He asked, “Do you intend to rebuke my words, when the words of one in despair belong to the wind?” (Job 6:26 NASB). Part of listening well in moments like these is patiently letting people speak without interrupting or judging them, prayerfully listening to their pain, and letting some of their complaints be as words to the wind. Listening allows people to lament and sit in the dark parts of their grief without trying to fix it or expecting them to rush through it.
The best counselors actively listen, not immediately giving advice or critique, but rather offering space for people to process their emotions and experiences. They ask thoughtful questions, pay attention to verbal and nonverbal responses, and offer reflections on what they notice. Offering that type of listening to our friends may be more healing and life-giving than anything else we do.
Offer Specific Help
Offering physical help is time consuming, and it’s easy to assume other people are taking care of those needs. But God calls us to care for our brothers and sisters rather than just telling them to go in peace without providing for their physical needs (James 2:15–16). Pray about what God would have you offer, considering the person’s needs as well as your own abilities and limitations. Sometimes our Lord calls us to give beyond what feels comfortable (2 Corinthians 8:3–5), but he also promises to supply the strength we need (1 Peter 4:10–11).
For our suffering friends, everyday tasks may feel monumental. Yet they often don’t know what they need or even what might be helpful. When we offer specific ways that we can help, we are serving them in multiple ways.
“While offering help requires forethought and sacrifice, the value to our friends often far exceeds our effort.”
Often, what they need is as simple as walking their dog, dropping off a meal, or babysitting their children for a few hours. Offering gift certificates for food-delivery services is also a great substitute for homemade meals. If you enjoy doing yardwork, are good with computers, or like folding laundry or doing anything else, offer your help in those areas. Or consider offering a block of time by saying, “I have Thursday from 2:00 to 4:00 free. Can I run some errands or help you with anything then?” While offering help requires forethought and sacrifice, the value to our friends often far exceeds our effort.
Words of Grace
Offering words of grace at the right time, spoken or written, can encourage others in their faith just as Jonathan helped David find strength in God (1 Samuel 23:16).
Timing is important, and there are some words that are better to avoid. Saying anything that begins with “at least,” offering false assurances, or encouraging people to “look on the bright side” can feel minimizing. Even sound advice or Scripture offered at the wrong time can feel insensitive. Romans 8:28 has deeply shaped my theology, but it felt heartless hearing it from a friend at my son’s funeral. That day, I longed for sympathy and understanding.
While throwing Bible verses and theology at people can be overwhelming at times, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t share our faith. We should be eager to tell people the reason for our hope, but we should do it tenderly, with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15–16). And after we share how God has met us in our own struggles, we can trust that the Holy Spirit will use our words. We needn’t belabor the point or press for a response.
When I talk about my faith, I often share three truths that have encouraged me in the pit. The first truth is that we have God’s presence. We know that Jesus is always with us — preparing us, strengthening us, and upholding us (Isaiah 41:10) — and nothing can separate us from his love (Romans 8:38–39). The second truth is that our suffering is not meaningless. God is using it both for our good and for his glory (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28), and nothing and no one can thwart his divine purposes (Job 42:2). The final truth that I cling to is that my real home is in heaven (John 14:2–3), where there will be no more tears or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4).
Come Close
If you have a friend who is struggling and don’t know how to help, perhaps start by getting together. Be prepared to come close — not standing on the edge, waiting to be asked, but willingly entering the messiness of pain. It probably means listening and praying more than speaking, along with offering specific help as you are able. It also means being willing to share the hope and comfort that God has given you, confident that your witness will not be in vain.
Your friend’s healing may seem slow, but trust that God is using your efforts in ways that will one day shine in glory.
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The Uncommon Virtue of Humility
Before I try to define what I mean by “the uncommon virtue of humility,” let me give three clarifications that limit and direct my effort.
Clarification 1: Only uncommon humility is virtuous.
First, I want to get in step with the direction that President Rigney set for us on January 19 when he began this series of messages. During his talk, he explained to us what he meant by “the uncommon virtues.”
First he defined virtue as the habitual exercises and inclinations of the heart for good things. He said that virtue consists in the beauty of those heart-exercises and of the actions that flow from them. Then he described what he meant by uncommon virtues. First, and least importantly, he said that these virtues are uncommon because they are in short supply both in our culture and in the church. But mainly, and most importantly, what he meant is that uncommon virtues are those habitual exercises of the heart rooted in what makes us Christian. In other words, the uncommon virtues flow from our union with Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, by definition, no unbeliever exercises any uncommon virtue. They exercise common virtues, which have external similarities to the uncommon virtues, but they are radically different because they have no roots in a person’s relation to Christ. They are like a shell of the virtue, with the virtue’s soul removed.
Common Virtue
Most of us have learned to distinguish God’s “common” grace from his “special” or “saving” grace. God’s common grace enables unbelieving people to perform common virtues. At times the New Testament calls these common virtues “good” — that is, good with respect to the temporal, horizontal benefits that they are intended to achieve.
For example, in 1 Peter 2:14 it says that the emperor has sent governors “to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.” Well, “good” in the mind of the pagan emperor is not what we mean by uncommon virtues, which are truly good, in every sense. The Bible is very radical in saying, for example, that “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).
In other words, even though from a human standpoint there are common virtues, from the ultimate standpoint of what is truly virtuous in the eyes of God, all common virtues are sin. They do not flow from union with Christ by faith through the Holy Spirit. They are not done in reliance on Christ. Christ’s word is not their guide. And they are not done for his glory. They are sin.
‘Good Sin’
Therefore, in all our ethical thinking about and all our moral assessments of culture and daily life in this world, we must have a category for “good sin,” or “sinful good.”
If you think carefully and biblically, that’s not double talk. It is a “good” thing that my Muslim neighbor does not burn my house down. I am thankful for that “good.” But a Muslim does nothing out of reliance upon Jesus Christ and his work, nor is a Muslim guided by his word, acting for his glory. And so Paul says it is sin. It brings about a temporal good, but it dishonors the most glorious Person in existence — Jesus Christ.
So, in accord with President Rigney’s direction, I am riveting my focus on the uncommon virtue of humility, not the common virtue of humility. I am seeking to define humility in a distinctly Christian way — namely, in relation to Jesus. That’s my first clarification.
Clarification 2: Humility flourishes when we do not fixate on it.
Here’s my second clarification. In an article for Christianity Today in 2008, Tim Keller said, “Humility is so shy. If you begin talking about it, it leaves.” If you took that literally, it would mean it is impossible to talk humbly about humility. I don’t think that’s true, and I don’t think Tim Keller thinks that’s true. Jesus and Paul and Peter and James — indeed, virtually every biblical writer — talks about humility in one way or another, and we would not want to impute to them arrogance in their effort to say true things to us about humility.
“Christian humility flourishes in the human soul when we stand before the Himalayas of Christ’s grandeur.”
What I think Tim Keller is trying to communicate instead is this: Christian humility flourishes in the human soul when we are standing in front of a window that looks onto the Himalayas of Christ’s grandeur. And Christian humility vanishes when we close the window and stand in front of a mirror, trying to see the authenticity of our humility. It flourishes when we are looking away from it, to Christ, and it hides when we are looking directly at it.
So my goal is not primarily to focus your attention, in a mirror-like way, on your humility, but to provide you with an understanding of humility that will drive you to the windows of God’s word, which reveal the greatness of Christ. That’s my second clarification.
Clarification 3: Context determines meaning.
Here’s my third clarification. Words are dumb things. They communicate nothing clear or distinct until they are used in a context. When I say, “. . . until they are used,” I am implying a user. Therefore, when I prepare to talk about humility, I have to ask first: “Who’s the user of the words about humility, and what is the context?” Because there is no clear, distinct meaning of the word humility — or in any words about humility — apart from the user and the context.
For example, the false teachers at Colossae use the typical Greek word for humility in the New Testament, tapeinophrosunē, to promote asceticism and harshness to the body. So Paul says in Colossians 2:18, “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism [tapeinophrosunē] and worship of angels.” In other words, Paul is saying, “Don’t be tapenophrosunē — don’t be humble — according to that use of the word!”
Then in Colossians 3:12, Paul says, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, tapeinophrosunē [humility].” Now Paul is saying, “Do be humble according to this use of the word — according to my use of the word, in my defining context.” So before I can give a talk on the uncommon virtue of humility, I have to ask: “According to who’s usage?”
Also, as an important aside, here’s another clarification about words. When I am trying to understand someone’s use of a word in a context — and I will talk about context in just a moment — I don’t care ultimately about the word. I care ultimately about the reality that the user of the word is trying to communicate by the way he uses his words. Not only are words dumb things, but they are penultimate things, not ultimate things. They are signs. They point away from themselves to realities.
What we want to know when trying to understand words is the realities they are pointing to. My wife is named with a word, Noël. I care very little about the word Noël. I care ultimately about the reality, the person, that the word is pointing to — my wife. I care very little about the word love, but I care ultimately about the reality.
Now the last thing I have to ask is, “In what context?” My aim in this talk is to communicate to you my understanding of the reality of the uncommon virtue of humility as communicated by God, through inspired writers, by the way they use words, in several biblical contexts. So I’m going to commend to you a composite definition or description of the uncommon virtue of humility. I believe it is a faithful portrayal of the reality of humility according to the inspired usage of words in several contexts.
This is risky, because I’m drawing on dozens of passages of Scripture for this composite definition, and I can only take you to a couple of these passages. So I invite you to test this definition whenever you read all the other texts relating to humility. As you read, ask: “Is this definition the essence of humility, and what makes it distinctively Christian? What makes it uncommon?”
Defining ‘Humility’
Let me give you my definition or description of this reality, and then I will take you to some biblical texts. The uncommon virtue of humility is the disposition of the heart to be pleased with the infinite superiority of Christ over ourselves in every way. And because we still have a fallen sin-nature in this world, that humility also includes the reflex of displeasure toward all the remnants of our old preference for self-exaltation, with all its insidious manifestations.
Notice carefully, I am not defining humility primarily in terms of our response to our self-exalting, sinful nature. I am defining humility primarily in terms of our response to the superiority of Christ over us in every way. The way we respond to our sinful love of self-exaltation is a reflex of our awakening to the beautiful superiority of Christ — or it’s not Christian. The greater our pleasure in the superiority of Christ over us, the more sorrowful our awareness that there remains in us the ugly craving for self-exaltation.
And the reason this is important to stress is that someday we will be completely delivered from every remnant of the love of self-exaltation. We will be finally purified to sin no more! And in that day, when there is no sin whatsoever to regret — to humble us — we will still be humble.
“Pleasure in Christ’s superiority will last forever.”
For our humility consists not essentially in brokenheartedness over preferring self-exaltation, but rather in being pleased that Christ is infinitely superior to us in every way. And that pleasure in his superiority will last forever.
Roots and Fruits
Notice also that I’m not locating the uncommon virtue of humility in the roots or in the fruits of humility. The roots of humility are (1) the infinite superiority of Christ and (2) the spiritual perception of that superiority by the eyes of the heart.
And the fruits of humility are the endless overflow of attitudes and words and actions that come from being glad that Christ is superior to us in every way. For example, Paul says in Philippians 2:3, “But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.” He does not equate humility with its fruit. The fruit is counting others worthy of your lowly, sacrificial, self-denying service.
So between the roots and fruits of humility, I’m saying that the uncommon virtue of humility is the disposition of the heart to be pleased with the infinite superiority of Christ over ourselves in every way. It’s the heart’s gladness that Jesus is infinitely greater than we are in every way, mingled in this life with the groaning that self-exaltation still competes for our affections. For now in this life, the uncommon virtue of humility will always be a groaning gladness and a glad groaning.
Humility in Scripture
Now let’s turn to some passages of scripture to see if this description of humility represents the mind of God in those passages.
Isaiah 2: Gladness in God’s Exaltation
We will start with the prophet Isaiah, in the second chapter. I know this passage is not directly about Jesus Christ. But I’m going to argue that what the prophet says here about God and pride and humility are intentionally transferred over to the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, in the New Testament. Let’s begin in Isaiah 2:8, with the indictment of Judah.
Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.So man is humbled, and each one is brought low — do not forgive them!Enter into the rock and hide in the dustfrom before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty.The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up — and it shall be brought low;against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan;against al the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills;against every high tower, and against every fortified wall;against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft.And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.And the idols shall utterly pass away.And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground,from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.
In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold,which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats,to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs,from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty. when he rises to terrify the earth.Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he? (Isaiah 2:8–22)
I draw out two inferences from these words. First, God’s purpose in the world is that his splendor and majesty be exalted as superior over all human power and beauty and manufacture and craft, and over everything that man has made as a means of his own self-exaltation. Three times Isaiah refers to God’s thrusting forward “the splendor of his majesty” (Isaiah 2:10, 19, 21). Twice he says, “The Lord alone will be exalted in that day” (Isaiah 2:11, 18). This is the purpose of God in creation and history: to see that the splendor of his majesty is exalted above everyone and everything.
The second inference is the effect of that purpose, namely, as Isaiah says twice, “The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled” (Isaiah 2:11, 17). And we can hear in Isaiah 2:22 the cry for this not to be the end of the story. The ultimate goal is not the punishment of pride, but a return to humility: “Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?” In other words, “Stop the insanity of being so pleased with what your fingers can make, and be pleased with the splendor and majesty of your God. The Lord alone is going to be exalted. Everything else is coming down.”
So when Isaiah writes, “The haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low” (Isaiah 2:11, 17), essentially he is saying, “Repent. Turn from your love affair with the work of your hands. Bemoan your arrogant idolatry. The Lord alone will be exalted. Be pleased with his exaltation! Be pleased with his infinite superiority! Let his exaltation be your gladness, your boast. ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’ (2 Corinthians 10:17).”
Philippians 2: Joy in Jesus’s Superiority
Now let’s go to Philippians 2:9–11, where this divine purpose to be exalted over all reality is transferred to Jesus for the glory of God the Father, with the aim that every knee will bow — in other words, with the aim of Christ-exalting humility.
Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9–11)
God exalted Christ “above every name.” That is shorthand for Isaiah 2:11: “The Lord alone will be exalted in that day.” That is, Christ alone — now God incarnate — will be exalted in that day. And the implications for man? “Every knee will bow.” Everybody is going down. Everybody humbled. But not everybody saved.
So who then will be saved? Which of the knee-benders will be saved? Answer: Those who go down gladly. Those who are pleased with the superiority of Christ — pleased with the universal Lordship of Jesus. Those who say with Paul in the next chapter: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” — of knowing Christ Jesus my infinite superior (Philippians 3:8). Paul’s treasure was to know Christ as superior to him in every way, his infinite superior.
You can begin to sense the practical implications of this if you simply name some of those superiorities that we love, that we are glad about: Infinitely superior in grace and mercy and love. Infinitely superior in knowledge and wisdom. Infinitely superior in power and governance. Infinitely superior in goodness and righteousness and holiness. Infinitely superior in authority and freedom. And penetrating through all of these is his infinitely superior greatness and beauty and worth. He is infinitely superior in glory.
2 Corinthians 4: Treasure in Jars of Clay
To have the uncommon virtue of humility is to see Christ’s glory and to be pleased that it is infinitely superior to our own. According to 2 Corinthians 4:4–6, this is how it happens: Our blindness is taken away, and we see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” We see the infinite superiority of Christ in greatness and beauty and worth.
“If you long for humility, beware of standing in front of the mirror to test your authenticity.”
And then in 2 Corinthians 4:7, Paul calls Christ’s glory our treasure. The glory of Christ is what we cherish. It is what pleases us. “We have this treasure [this glad sight of the glory of Christ] in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God.”
So I am commending to you a definition of the uncommon virtue of humility for you to test. Take it to every text on humility and see if this is not the essence of what is being said and of what makes humility distinctively Christian, uncommon:
The uncommon virtue of humility is the disposition of the heart to be pleased with the infinite superiority of Christ over ourselves in every way. It’s the heart’s gladness that Jesus is infinitely greater than we are, mingled in this life with the groaning that self-exaltation still competes for our affections.
If you long for this uncommon virtue, beware of standing in front of the mirror to test your authenticity. Go to the windows of God’s word, fling them open with everything you are learning in this school, and gaze on the all-satisfying superiorities of Christ.
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Everyone Is Everlasting — But Where?
The title of this message is Everyone Is Everlasting — But Where? Where will everyone be beyond death, forever? I would like us to think together for a few minutes about your everlasting future — your future beyond this earthly life — including how your life now relates to the everlasting future of other people, especially those groups of people who, as we speak, have no access to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the good news of everlasting life through him.
Everlasting God
God is everlasting in both directions, past and future.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalm 90:2)
That’s where we start. We start with God. Because everything starts with God. Little children will always ask, “Daddy, who made God?” And their eyes get wide when you say, “Johnny, nobody made God. He was there before everything. He was always there. He never had a beginning.” Glen Scrivener recently said, “Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Materialists believe in the virgin birth of the cosmos. Choose your miracle.”
I remember at a critical point in my life pondering the mystery of the existence of absolute reality and thinking, Something has existed forever in eternity past; otherwise, we wouldn’t be here, because nothingness produces nothing. So is the eternal reality some kind of gas, or is it a Person? It struck me with tremendous force that there is nothing before that reality to make it more or less likely that it is a person or a gas. In other words, there’s no reason to think that it’s unlikely that ultimate reality is a person.
Since we can’t think forward from causes to the nature of ultimate reality, because there are no causes of ultimate reality (nothing existed before ultimate reality), therefore we must think backward to the nature of ultimate reality from what we see now. And what do we see? We see the order and design and beauty of the creation declaring the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). And our own human personhood bears witness that the image of God is stamped on the human soul. And we look at the witness of Scripture as Jesus Christ stands forth compellingly from its pages and wins our confidence, and we know that he, and his Father, and the Holy Spirit are one God — ultimate reality. That’s what is everlasting — in both directions.
Before the mountains were brought forth . . . from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalm 90:2)
Everlasting People
But we are not everlasting the way God is everlasting. We are everlasting only in one direction — namely, toward the future. We came into existence; God didn’t. But like God, you will never go out of existence. That’s breathtaking. In Acts 24:15, Paul said, “There will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.” That’s everybody, the good and the evil. And Jesus said,
An hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28–29)
Nobody stays in the grave — nobody. Everyone is everlasting. But where? In the resurrection of life or in the resurrection of judgment? Cut off from God in everlasting misery or with God in everlasting ecstasy? Will you be in the new world of everlasting happiness or in the hell of everlasting torment?
Path of Eternal Misery
Why do people use the word hell the way they do? “Hell no, I won’t go.” “What the hell is going on?” Hell has become a linguistic intensifier. Why? It’s not because modern people don’t believe in it, but because we once did.
Jesus uses the word hell more than anyone else in the Bible. It wasn’t made up by the church to scare people. It was given to the church by Jesus. And he uses it to refer to everlasting misery. He refers to it as fire, outer darkness, wrath, and eternal punishment.
Jesus says, “If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire” (Matthew 18:9).
In the parable of the wedding feast, Jesus said about the man without the proper garment, “Cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13).
In John 3, he shows that this fire and darkness is God’s wrath: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).
And in describing the final judgment, Jesus says of the disobedient, “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).He speaks of the hell of fire, outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, divine wrath, and eternal punishment.
And the apostle John adds in Revelation 14:9–10 that this everlasting punishment is conscious torment. It’s not the punishment of annihilation. Annihilation wouldn’t be punishment; it would be relief.
If anyone worships the beast . . . he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. (Revelation 14:9–10)
That’s one path of everlasting existence, the path of misery. That’s one answer to the question “Where?” The other path is everlasting ecstasy.
Path of Eternal Ecstasy
The ultimate purpose of God for his people is the exaltation of his glory in the everlasting happiness of his people. God’s glory and our happiness climax together, because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. God created the universe for the happiness of his people in him, because nothing shows the greatness and the beauty and the worth of God more than a people who are completely satisfied forever in him.
Jesus said in the middle of his ministry, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). And at the last day, when we stand before him, he will say to all his faithful followers, “Well done, good and faithful servant. . . . Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21).
Jesus Christ, our Savior, died for this — for your joy in the presence of your Creator. The apostle Peter said, “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). And what do we find when we enter the presence of God clothed in the righteousness of Christ? We find this: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). There is no greater joy than full joy. And there is no longer pleasure than forevermore. The presence of God, with Jesus Christ, is the place and the source of happiness beyond imagination. It cannot be otherwise for the children of God, if God is infinitely glorious.
The Bible itself reaches for the best possible language to help us to feel that our everlasting life with God is the greatest and everlasting happiness. Psalm 36:7–8 says, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! . . . You give us drink from the river of your delights.” Why a river? Because great rivers have been flowing for thousands of years, and they never stop. I live within walking distance of the Mississippi River. I stand there and watch this mighty river flow. There are ninety thousand gallons per second flowing at St. Anthony Falls near my house. And I ask, How can this be? Century after century, and it never runs dry. That’s amazing. That’s what we are to feel when we read, “You give us drink from the river of your delights.” God’s resources of happiness are inexhaustible. And the result?
The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing;everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35:10)
Everyone is everlasting. But where? It’s either everlasting misery apart from God or everlasting ecstasy with God.
Life in the Son
You have heard in all these messages what makes the difference between those two outcomes of your life.
The Creator of the universe — no beginning, no ending — sent his eternal Son into the world so that “whoever believes in him should not perish [not experience everlasting misery] but have eternal life [experience everlasting ecstasy]” (John 3:16). How did he do that? “He bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). “All of us like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
“The ultimate purpose of God for his people is the exaltation of his glory in the everlasting happiness of his people.”
So, he will deliver us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10). You do not have to perish. I offer you, in the name of Jesus, everlasting happiness in God. Jesus said (and I say to you), “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36). Everlasting happiness.
And the connection with world missions, world evangelization, is Romans 10:13–15:
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
You have the best news in all the world. Virtually all of you have it in your heads because you’ve heard it. And many of you have it in your hearts and are saved by it from everlasting misery. You are destined for everlasting happiness no matter how much you suffer in this world. You have the news that saves from eternal destruction. And there are thousands of peoples, tribes, and languages where the church has not yet been planted and the news has not been spread.
And the Bible says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). There is one God over all, one mediator for the world, one message for salvation, and one plan for the nations: You. Us. Missions.
Here’s what Jesus said to Paul, the Christian killer. Perhaps you will hear it as a call to you:
I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26:17–18)
Implications of Existing Forever
As we move toward a close of this message and this conference, let me draw out five implications of this truth that everyone is everlasting, in misery or in ecstasy.
1. No Ordinary People
Everyone you know and everyone you will ever meet will one day either shine so brightly that, if you saw them now with your natural eyes, you would be blinded, or they will be so deformed that, if you saw them now, you would shrink back with loathing. Jesus said, “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43). And he said of those who are thrown into hell, “Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). That’s a picture of maggots feeding on flesh.
Someone will surely say, “You don’t take that literally, do you?” To which I respond, “What difference do you think that makes?” If it’s literal, it’s horrible. And if it’s metaphorical, it’s horrible. Because that’s why you use horrible metaphors. You grope for words to describe a horrible reality. Jesus chose the words. We didn’t. You are sitting right now beside future kings and queens or future devils. C.S. Lewis put it like this:
It is a serious thing . . . to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. . . . There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization —these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. (The Weight of Glory, 46–47)
If you believe that, it changes everything.
2. Life as a Vapor
This life is very short, a vapor. James 4:14 says, “You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Psalm 103:15–16 says,
As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field;for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
If you devote your entire life to making your life on earth more comfortable and more secure, and to helping others do the same, without any vision for how your life counts for eternity and how your life helps other lives count for eternity, you’re not only a fool — you’re a loveless fool. Love seeks its happiness in what is the greatest and longest happiness of others, and God has shown where that is: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
3. Future Dominion
Your life after this earthly life is infinitely long and, therefore, infinitely significant. You may feel very insignificant now. You may think presidents of countries and CEOs of big corporations are significant — that people with power and influence, like kings and rulers, are significant. Here’s what John said about ordinary Christians in the everlasting age to come:
They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:4–5)
You think ruling now on earth, like a vapor, is significant? Actually, reigning with God forever is significant. And as if we could add anything to that, Jesus promises to those who conquer the evil one and keep the faith in this life, “I will make [you] a pillar in the temple of my God” (Revelation 3:11). I don’t know all that that means. But this I know: if you remove a pillar, the temple collapses. That’s not going to happen. And that is significant.
4. Eternal Significance
This short life on earth determines how we spend our everlasting future. Therefore, this life is infinitely significant. You can waste it by following blind, famous people who make millions of dollars and don’t know their right hand from their left. Or you can lay up treasures in heaven by pouring out your life for the temporal and eternal good of others. The apostle Paul said,
We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Corinthians 4:16–17)
How you spend this life, with all its possibilities for love and afflictions, prepares an eternal weight of glory. Your life now really matters. It’s a gift. Don’t waste it.
5. Sending and Going
One of the most significant ways not to waste your vapor-like life is for the next sixty years to seek your happiness in helping others be eternally happy in God, even if it costs you your life. You enlarge your own happiness in God by drawing others into it. The apostle Peter said to the early Christians, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). This is our life. We say to everyone who will listen, “Here are the excellencies of my Savior, my God, and my Friend. There is no happier place than to be in his forgiveness, his fellowship, and his everlasting joy.”
Don’t misunderstand. This is a missions conference, but none of us who speak here believe that all of you should be missionaries. You shouldn’t. You are not walking in disobedience if you become a God-centered, Christ-exalting, people-loving sender. There are three kinds of Christians: goers, senders, and the disobedient. The vast majority of you are not called to cross a culture, learn a language, and plant the church where it doesn’t exist. You are called, rather, to display the excellencies of Christ in all you do — to magnify his worth in the way you study, marry, raise a family, run a business, do your job, build relationships, enjoy your food and God’s other good gifts, love your neighbors, and serve your church.
The Bible says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17). “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). Every Christian centers on the glory of God, exalts Jesus Christ, and loves people. That is our pathway to everlasting happiness with God.
But this is a missions conference, and God has been at work in hundreds of you to loosen the roots of your tree so that it could be pulled up and planted in a place, and among a people, where there’s no gospel. That’s the main reason why this conference exists. That’s why many of you are here. He brought you here. These messages have been awakening in you, or solidifying for you, a sense that God’s call on your life is to be a missionary. When you hear the Bible describe a missionary by saying, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:15), your heart says, “God, I want feet like that.”
Discerning God’s Leading
Here’s how we are going to close. We’re going to pray for a couple of minutes in quietness so that you can deal with the Lord about these things. And then I’m going to have some of you stand up so that we can focus our prayers on you and so that you can drive a stake in the ground, saying, “Lord, I mean this.” What you would be saying by standing is this:
I am not infallible, but to the best of my knowledge, I believe God is leading me toward a life devoted to him in cross-cultural missions. And by my standing, I simply indicate that when I go home or back to my campus, one of my next steps will be to seek out the leadership of my church and ask them to help me discern God’s leading and, if they see God’s hand on my life, to help me forward in my sense of God calling to be a missionary.
Simply put, it’s two parts: I believe God is at work in my life to lead me toward vocational missions, and I will seek the counsel and help of my church.
Some of you find yourself in the situation where you are not tied into a healthy church where you could do that. We don’t think that’s a healthy situation for you. But if you sense God leading to vocational missions, and you commit to finding a church where that kind of counsel and help can be given, I want you to stand also after we pray.
All of us have serious things to talk to God about at the end of a conference like this: your own salvation, your own holiness, your own compassion for lost people, and the glory of God.
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Balrog on the Bridge: Cultivating the Courage of Gandalf
“You shall not pass!” Is there any other line in literature that better captures the virtue of courage?
You likely know the scene. The Fellowship of the Ring has journeyed through the long dark of Moria, and now they are fleeing before a host of orcs — and Durin’s Bane. Gandalf sends his friends toward the exit before turning to face the Balrog on the bridge. With the cold white of Glamdring in one hand and his staff in the other, the grey wizard faces down the foe of fire and shadow.
“You cannot pass,” he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell. “I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.”
The Balrog heeds him not but steps onto the bridge. Gandalf is just visible before him, “glimmering in the gloom; he seemed small, and altogether alone: grey and bent, like a wizened tree before the onset of a storm.”
A sword of flame flashes out. Glamdring rings in answer. The Balrog falls back a step.
“You cannot pass!”
Again the foe ignores the command, leaps full onto the bridge, and brandishes his whip of fire. Gandalf raises his staff — the white light hovers for a moment, a single star in an abyss of night — and smites the bridge. Light blinds. Bridge cracks. Staff shatters. And the Balrog falls.
But in his final malicious act, the enemy lashes his whip around the wizard’s knees, dragging him to the edge. Gandalf meets Aragorn’s eyes — “Fly, you fools!” — sways for a moment, and then disappears into the heart of the earth (The Lord of the Rings, 330–31).
Tree Before the Tempest
For many of us, this scene is part of the permanent furniture of our imagination. The grey wizard stands strong against the Balrog on the bridge and, in the end, lays down his life for his friends. Here is a fortitude that deserves celebration. A Christlike courage worth imitating.
With Gandalf’s defiant cry echoing in our ears, let’s delve down to the roots of this courage by asking two questions. First, what motivates such courage? What steels him to stand firm, a tree before the tempest? And second, how can we cultivate that same indomitable courage to face down our own Balrogs?
The Deep Roots of Courage
To begin, what is the root of courage? What separates Gandalf’s fierce fortitude from Smeagol’s small-souled cowardice?
In his little book on courage, Joe Rigney defines the virtue as “a stable habit of the heart that masters the passions, especially the passion of fear, through the power of a superior desire” (Courage, 32). There are three facets to that definition:
Courage is a habit of heart — something we must practice and cultivate.
Courage governs our passions — it reigns over our snap reactions and instinctual responses, especially those of fear.
Courage governs by the power of a superior desire.Notice that desire is the root of courage. But not just any desire — superior desire, “a deeper desire for a greater good” (30). Both “deeper” and “superior” imply that our desires are ranked and ordered rightly.
“The taproot of Christian courage is a tenacious treasuring of Christ.”
Courage flourishes within a proper hierarchy of desires — what Augustine calls ordered loves. Fittingly, in Scripture, courage is closely associated with the heart, the home of our loves and desires (e.g., Psalm 27:14). English makes this connection even more explicit, where courageous is synonymous with hearty, lionhearted, and the like. Courage reveals that you have rightly ordered desires and loves. Fortitude shows you put first things first.
We see this clearly in the example of Gandalf. Ordered desires held Gandalf on the bridge. Yes, he valued his own safety. (That’s why he didn’t throw his life away fighting innumerable orcs.) But his desire for the safety of his friends and, more importantly, his desire for the good of all Middle-earth went far deeper. His ability to face down the Balrog on the bridge was the fruit of those deep roots. To borrow a description of history’s greatest act of courage, we might say that for the joy set before him Gandalf despised death and defeated the Balrog. And that joy in a greater good was the source of his courage.
Now, those of us who are Christian Hedonists know what our deepest roots should cling to. The triune God is the highest good in the hierarchy of goods. He is most beautiful and desirable. Thus, the taproot of Christian courage is a tenacious treasuring of Christ, a treasuring that rightly orders all lesser goods in relation to God, our first Good.
Too Easily Pleased
Before discussing how to cultivate these deep desires, it’s worth asking what makes us cowardly. What makes us flee when we should fight? What makes us surrender the bridge?
Well, if ordinate loves produce courage, the opposite must be true of cowardice and the opposite vice of rashness. Both vices, but especially cowardice, come when the taproot — which should sink down to the bedrock of the greatest good — remains shallow, just beneath the surface. That tree will be blown over by the first strong breeze. That man will flee when the Balrog steps onto the bridge. Shallow roots produce craven men.
In his sermon “The Weight of Glory,” C.S. Lewis helpfully exposes the source of these shallow roots:
Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (The Weight of Glory, 25)
That final line should haunt us: we are far too easily pleased. That is the habit of heart that breeds cowards and the foolhardy, “half-hearted creatures.” When our desires are too weak, when we are too easily pleased, when our longings for lesser things become disordered, we will not stand when we should — or even stand when and where we should not. Instead of a tree before a tempest, weak desires leave us like tumbleweeds, blown and tossed by the slightest breeze.
Gritty Habits of Heart
Now we return to our second question. If ordered desires make the difference between the virtue of courage and the vices of cowardice and recklessness, how do we cultivate deep desires? How do we develop Gandalf-like grit?
1. Look to the greatest Good.
When James teaches us how to combat the kind of disordered desires that form the soil of cowardice and death, what does he do? He orients our desires Godward:
All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. (James 1:17 NET)
James draws our attention to the greatest Good and connects all other goods to the Giver. He sends our roots deep. He puts the Sun at the center. This is the key to cultivating ordered loves and, thus, the key to courage. To have “a deeper desire for a greater good,” we must know and love the greatest Good. And all lesser goods must be loved for his sake, as his fatherly gifts.
Like James, Tolkien saw light and fire as powerful images of God. And so, in his legendarium, the Secret Fire is Tolkien’s name for the Holy Spirit. Thus, when Gandalf says, “I am a servant of the Secret Fire,” he is, in a sense, looking to the Father of lights, and that glance puts steel in Gandalf’s spine.
We see a similar galvanizing of Sam’s courage. At his lowest moment, crawling across the plains of Mordor, desperately needing courage, Sam sends his eyes heavenward, where he sees a white star:
The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. (The Lord of the Rings, 922)
Sam’s vision rose higher than the danger around him. The gravity of good and of high beauty helped him govern the passion of fear, and he found the grit to carry Frodo up Mount Doom.
When we dare to look up at the Father of lights, the High Beauty, all his good gifts will fall into their proper place. Our souls will be shaped. Our desires will become ordered. Our roots will run to the right depths.
2. Imitate those who refuse to be far too easily pleased.
If you want to be courageous, mimic those who have stood against the Balrog on the bridge. Imitate Sam. Imitate Gandalf.
Imitate Moses — a greater wizard than Gandalf (Exodus 8:16–19). A man whose insatiable desire for the greatest Good led him to dare terrible things and face down mighty foes.
“By faith Moses . . . refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” He relentlessly refused to be far too easily pleased because “he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward” (Hebrews 11:24–27). Moses had deep roots. He looked toward the high beauty of the promised Christ. And that strong desire fortified him to face down a Pharaoh, win a wizard battle, and endure the scorn of Egypt.
“The courage of Gandalf, Moses, and Jesus is not made in a day or a month or a year.”
And imitate Jesus. When offered all the kingdoms on earth, his desires were too strong to settle for a handout from Satan. When the virtues of our King came to the testing point, he applied his courage to the sticking point and performed the most valiant deed the world will ever know — because his desires ran deeper than death. “For the joy that was set before him, [he] endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). No dragon can stand before that strength of heart! Imitate him and those who do likewise.
3. Make your stand on little bridges.
The courage of Gandalf, Moses, and Jesus is not made in a day or a month or a year. Courage to stand before Balrogs or face down dragons or take up crosses grows slowly out of mundane, day-to-day decisions to refuse to settle for mud pies. Oaks of righteousness grow from countless Hobbit-like choices — choices not to click what you shouldn’t, choices not to join in ungodly laughter, choices not to be pressured into that third drink, choices not to say peace when there is no peace, choices not to call him a her, choices to defend the downtrodden, choices to initiate conversations, and a thousand others.
By the power of the Spirit, our Secret Fire, the stands you take on those little bridges will enable you to hold firm when the Balrog comes. You will acquire fortitude for long love in a hard marriage. You will have the stability to embrace the challenging blessing of children. You will gain the tenacity to put your own sin to death and lovingly confront the sins of others. You will develop the boldness to leave familiar comforts for costly missions — whether next door or across the planet.
Over time, you will grow deep roots. You will be “like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8).
