"Do you know for sure that you are
on your way to heaven?" - that was the question with which we
started on the first Sunday-morning of this month. Not that we
wholeheartedly agreed with the wording of this question. But it gave
occasion to speak about what seems to us the most-important question
for every human being: where are you going, what is your ultimate
destination? And thus, Where are you coming from, what is your
origin? And thus, Who and What are you? We directed these questions
to the Only One who can tell us and did tell us, God our Creator Who
revealed Himself in His Word, that is in His Son Jesus Christ. The
answers He gave us boiled down to this: 0 man, I Created you for
Myself; I created you that I might take pleasure in you, and that's
why I created you as My image and gave you dominion over all things,
so that you might develop creation, not in the first place for your
own benefit, but to honour and glorify Me. And when man rebelled and
ran away from God, God "so loved the world [His creation] that He
sent His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him
shall not perish in everlasting darkness, but be saved: saved from
his sins and death and restored to his original position and
calling." That is the Gospel! Not man-centered, or "souls for
heaven" but God-centered, man created for God, man redeemed for God!
This morning we will conclude our
talks by considering the aversion that many people have against the
Gospel, against those 'pious Christians! Alas, we must admit that
reason has been given for such aversion. I feel the same aversion
against a Gospel that is soft-soap rather than the masculine~ ,
strongmuscled message of the Bible.
If the Word of God would only be
interested in picking a 'soul' from here and there and grant them a
place among His angels, turning their backs upon this earth, this
creation, - yes, I would reject that too. People who. are fully
engaged in their work here and now, must despise people who act as
though creation is only something to get away from. The Gospel, as
we have tried to present it to you, is quite different. Not only
because it awakened your hope, so we pray, for the wonderful world
that is coming, but also because it gives you a renewed interest in
life, here and now. In the fourth Commandment of His Law the LORD
tells us "to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." We as
Canadian Reformed Churches understand this commandment this way,
"First that the ministry of the Gospel and the schools be
maintained." That's first. If we do not support the ministry, nor
such schools where God's Word governs all subjects, how can we then
hear the Gospel for ourselves and pass it on to others? Then we
continue in our Heidelberg Catechism, "and that I, especially on the
Sabbath, that is, the day of rest, diligently [!] attend the church
of God [!], to learn [!] God's Word, to use the sacraments, to call
publicly upon the Lord, and to give Christians alms." Although the
Lord Jesus once said, Mark 2:27, "the Sabbath was made for man, not
man for the Sabbath; so the Son of man is Lord even of the ~ one
should not forget that he said this against people who had made the
Sabbath a heavy burden, in fact a miserable day. He wants it to be a
joyful day. But that does not contradict the great truth, that it is
the Day of the Lord: a day for Him.
Then the Catechism continues [and
we want to stress that], "second, that all the days of my life I
rest from my evil works, let the Lord work in me by His Holy Spirit,
and thus begin in this life the eternal Sabbath." All days days of
rest, rest from evil works. And thus: begin eternal life here and
now. As much as hell is a continuation of a life-here without God,
without Jesus Christ, so the eternal Sabbath is projected back into
our life here and now! "Begin in this life the eternal
Sabbath."
Already the prophet Isaiah [66:23]
proclaimed this, "from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come to
worship before Me, says the LORD." And our Saviour, in His moving
prayer for all who believe in Him, said to His Father, "Father, thou
hast given thy Son power over
all flesh, to give eternal life to
all whom thou hast given Him. And this is eternal life, that they
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I
glorified thee on earth." [John 17]. Eternal life, here and now, in
glorifying our heavenly Father on earth! It starts here. If it does
not start here, it will not be continued later. Sure - we have said
that before - it starts here only as a small beginning, but it
starts nevertheless!
How does it start? That can only
be answered when we know what eternal life is. Some have suggested
that the root-meaning of 'eternal' is: 'different'. Whether that is
correct or not, it is good to keep in mind that Christian life is
different from non-Christian life. To begin with, "I rest from my
evil works." The twin-sister of this saying farewell to my evil
works is, "let the Lord work in me by His Holy Spirit." Let Him;
permit Him, by obediently listening to God's Word, to do what He
already promised me when I was baptized as a baby, "that He will
dwell in me, and sanctify me to be a member of Christ, imparting to
me what I have in Christ, namely the washing away of our sins and
the daily renewing of our lives, till we shall finally be presented
without spot among the assembly of the elect in life eternal." -Form
for Infant Baptism]. Thus "begin the eternal Sabbath in this life."
Again, "How?" By receiving every day out of my Father's hand as an
occasion to please Him. To look around in creation, at the trees and
the flowers, the moon and the stars, and say to myself, "look! all
that belongs to my Father, and I am His child!" To receive children
as a heritage of the LORD. To do my job, whatever it be, in such a
way that He is pleased with it and I do it, not just for making
money, but according to that original mandate in Genesis 1: "to have
dominion over all things," to help develop Father's creation. And so
on. Too much to mention here in a few minutes. Two people may do
exactly the same thing, and yet it is not the same. The one does it
for himself, the other does it for God. And be sure that God knows
the difference.
Believers should, therefore, be
very much interested in this creation. They should be the vanguard
of making this a better world to live in, and that will only happen
if people will listen again to God's Word. All other attempts will
fail, as you can see all around. We have heard so many promises
already about 'The Great Society', 'The Just Society' and so on,
that I, for one, cannot understand why people still believe in such
promises rather than putting their trust in God's
promises.
Why not open your heart and life
for that wonderful gift of God, the renewal of life, starting here,
perfected when Christ comes back, and all this on the basis of
Christ's sacrifice on the Cross?
"Why are you called a Christian?"
Because you go to church sometimes? Or because you sit waiting that
your soul may go to heaven, because it is no good here anyway? We
have a better answer [Catechism answer 32], "Because I am a
member of Christ. by faith, and thus a partaker of the Holy Spirit,
that I may confess His Name, present myself a living sacrifice of
thankfulness to Him, and with a free and good conscience fight
against sin and the devil in this life, and hereafter reign with Him
eternally over all creatures." Yes, indeed, I know my eternal
destination! Do you?
G. VanDooren
October 30, 1977
