“Let fire and cross, struggles with beasts, tearing bones apart, mangling of limbs, crushing of my whole body, and tortures of the Devil come upon me, if only I may attain to Jesus Christ!” – Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch
As an avid social media-comment reader, I get to hear a lot about what the common American thinks. If you really want to get a good look at the state of our world, just spend five minutes reading through the comment section on a recent public post. It’s honestly astounding. After five minutes of that hell (that does at least include an occasional laugh), you will realize that the rock of Biblical morality which we stand on has been all too easily replaced by the sinking sand of a subjective moral code. The devastating effects of this kind of thinking are clear in Scripture (Matt. 8:24-27, Judges 21:25).
One of the subtle ways we can see this happening is in our society’s thirst for survival. Movie after movie, show after show, book after book, is engulfed in this theme of survival. This can certainly make for an exciting plot line, but it also has some serious theological implications. Take the top cable TV show of our day, for example, The Walking Dead. Every week, the characters are left asking themselves one question: “What must we do to survive?” Sometimes, the answer to that question isn’t pretty. **SPOILER** You may have to shoot an innocent man in the leg and leave him to be eaten by Walkers in order to save yourself and your best friend’s son. You may have to leave a man alone on the side of the road because you can’t take the chance of trusting him and bringing him back to camp. Or perhaps you’ll have to develop a “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality, rather than offer up a chance at redemption. **END SPOILER** Sometimes, it seems, the answer to that question can leave our morality in shambles. And sadly, most of our culture has given into this secular, selfish, and evolutionary mindset that survival is more important than our character. Naturally, this leads to a new question: What is the most important thing? As usual, the Bible helps provide us with an answer.
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” – 1 Corinthians 15:3-5
In summation, Paul tells us that the truths of the Gospel are most important. It is vital that we trust the Gospel with all of our hearts. We must take up our cross and follow Christ, whatever the cost. The Son of God is not just a nice add-on to life; He is Life. More important than pursuing survival is pursuing Christ. While our society becomes increasingly obsessed with learning to survive at all costs, Scripture speaks of something much different. In fact, Paul even says “to die is gain” (granted, in the same verse Paul also says, “to live is Christ”, but that phrase will be the subject of part 2 of this post). The gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection ensures us that there is another life after this one. We don’t have to be obsessed with survival in this life, because it is only temporary.
“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens…He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” – 2 Corinthinas 5:1,5 (emphasis mine)
For those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ, this life is only the beginning. There is so much more waiting for us on the other side. This is a guarantee. Not some commercial for a new workout program that is “guaranteed” to give you six-pack abs in a week. No. This is a guarantee from God Almighty. So while the rest of the world continues to stress as they ask themselves “what must I do to survive?” let us find peace as we fall on our knees and weep, asking “what must I do to have Christ?” Nothing. It is a gift. The gift of Christ’s blood pouring out onto the earth as God’s grace poured out onto us. So let us only sit under the waterfalls of His grace as we trust in the cross and the cross alone. We don’t need to fight to survive, because Christ has already offered us eternal life. I find it interesting that the people who are willing to give up anything for their survival are the very same people for whom Christ gave up everything – even His own survival.