Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10
Last year, at a doctor’s appointment, a nurse asked me if I was a runner. Don’t get the wrong idea: it wasn’t because she looked at me and wanted to know what I did to take such good care of myself! Rather, it’s because I had a minor foot-related injury! But when she asked me if I was a runner, I told her, “No one would mistake what I do for running, but I do jog… very slowly.” Since last June, almost every day of the week I jog first thing every morning. Some of you have seen me.
And my favorite place to jog—I’ve told a few of you this—is in the city cemetery. There’s a nice road around the perimeter that’s about two-thirds of a mile. It’s really quite beautiful and peaceful… and safe. There’s rarely anyone there. Aside from the ghosts… And yes, I do it nearly every day. So every day I see these grave markers and headstones and tombstones—and I’m reminded of the following words from our traditional Ash Wednesday service—the very words that Pastor April and I will recite when we impose ashes on your foreheads: “Remember that you are dust. And to dust you shall return.”
These words come directly from Genesis 3:19—after Adam and Eve commit humanity’s first sin. God informs Adam that from now on, things will be different—that he, his wife, and all humanity will die.
Scripture makes this point in many places. Ecclesiastes 3:20: “All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.” Psalm 103:14: “For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.” Job 34:14-15: “If God were to take back his spirit and withdraw his breath, all life would cease, and humanity would return to the dust.”
The New Testament also picks up this theme, for instance, in James 4:14: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” The apostle Peter quotes Isaiah in 1 Peter 1:24 when he says, “For ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’”
Why is it helpful for us to be reminded of the brevity of life?
Because it reminds us that we have a time limit on our lives in this world.
Gosh, about fifteen years ago, some company was selling a watch that purported to count down the days, hours, minutes, seconds of our lives. I think it first estimated how long you would live—what your life expectancy should be—based on actuarial data. At every moment you’d look at it and be reminded: “You’ve only got 9,843 days left. Don’t waste time! Make it count!” It seems a little morbid, even depressing. I can’t imagine many people bought that thing!
But of course even a “countdown watch” may instill within us a false sense of security. Like… “9,843 days? Not bad! I got plenty of time!”
But we don’t know that we do have much time! My mom often told the story of a cousin of hers who came home safely after a couple years fighting in the Korean War—only to die in a car crash within a week of returning! Maybe you know stories like this.
But here’s the thing: As tragic as Mom’s cousin’s death was, every day of the 22 years or so that he was allowed to live was nothing other than a sheer gift from God—every heartbeat and every breath… a gift of God’s grace to which none of us is entitled. God doesn’t owe us a single second. And none of us knows when God has decided that our time will be up.
But make no mistake: God has decided already… we know that from scripture: Psalm 139:16: “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
In the Book of James, the apostle criticizes people for saying seemingly innocuous things like, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.” 1 James’s point is not that it’s wrong to make plans, to work hard, and to make a profit. HIs point is the presumptuousness of being confident about the future—for thinking that the future is in our hands, rather than in God’s hands. James 4:15 and 16: “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
If the Lord wills…
That’s why—in Victorian England, for instance—people often used to write “D.V.” At the end of letters to friends and associates. It’s a Latin abbreviation, Deo volente, meaning “God willing.” As a way of reminding themselves and their readers, “Here are my plans, if God is willing for them to come to fruition. He may have other plans for me. But in the meantime, here are mine.”
So… It’s good to be reminded that we are dust, and to dust we will return!
But I don’t want this reminder to depress you or make you feel gloomy. For one thing, if you are a Christian, you can be confident that the very moment you pass from life to death, you will be transported—like the criminal on the cross next to Jesus in Luke 23… transported into the direct presence of the Lord, which Paul says is “far better for us” than living in this world. See Philippians 1:23.
Far better for us… But first… God wants us to fulfill his plans for us right here, on this side of eternity.
So more than anything, in a few moments, when we hear the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” I want us to be reminded that because our time on earth is limited, we are to live our lives with urgency.
Not fretful panic! Not without plenty of God-ordained Sabbath rest—which I talked about last week! And—as I’ve preached over the past six weeks—certainly not with fear or worry or anxiety… That would contradict so much what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6!
No… We continue to “fear not, therefore,” which is our church’s vision statement this year…
But we are to live with a sense of urgency.
Where do we see urgency in tonight’s scripture from 2 Corinthians 5 and 6? First, in the message of verse 20: “Be reconciled to God,” and in verse 2 of chapter 6: “For God says ‘At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.’ Indeed, the ‘right time’ is now. Today is the day of salvation.”
In verse 21 Paul describes why it’s the case that today is the day of salvation: Because, on the cross, for our sake, God made him—that is, his Son Jesus—to be sin, who knew no sin… That is, even though Christ was without sin, he took upon himself our sins—he exchanged his righteousness for our unrighteousness. He suffered the penalty for our unrighteousness, thereby, as Paul says elsewhere, “canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.” 2 He did this so that, in Christ, “we might become the righteousness of God.” In other words, a “great exchange” took place through the cross: We give Christ our sins; he gives us his righteousness.
So that we Christians, at this very moment, stand before God as perfectly righteous. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” 3
We receive the benefits of what Christ did on the cross only through faith.
So… Talk about urgency… We don’t know what the future in this world holds for us. And as I’ve said none of us knows for sure that we have much of a future in this world. But we know this for sure: we have this moment… this moment to be reconciled with God… which means, to get in a right relationship with God, to have all of our sins forgiven, to become a “new creation” in Christ,4 to be born again, to receive eternal life, to receive the Holy Spirit, to possess power to overcome sin, to look forward to future resurrection.
We have this present moment to do that! No future moments are guaranteed.
So if you are not reconciled with God, I encourage you to please act with urgency while you still have time. “Behold,” Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
Christ could be knocking on the door of your heart right now. Open that door… tonight, while there’s still time. Act with urgency.
And, second, for those of us who are already Christians, I encourage us to act with urgency to fulfill not our own future plans, but God’s plans for us!
And of course, in verses 3 through 10, with great eloquence, Paul describes ways in which he, Timothy, Silas, and others are fulfilling God’s plans and accomplishing God’s mission for them.
And of course when we read these words—about the great affliction that Paul and his fellow missionaries experienced—we likely feel… unworthy?
After all, we can’t help that most of us were born within this wonderful Constitutional system of laws that guarantees religious freedom. That simply by virtue of being born in America, we’ve hardly had to suffer much persecution. Meanwhile, Paul describes some of the consequences of his persecution: “afflictions, hardships, difficulties, beatings, imprisonments, dishonor, slander.”
He suffered all that because of his faith in Christ! What about us?
Most of us, at least of a certain age, are no strangers to affliction—for example, affliction from illness, disease, and infirmities, from the lasting consequences of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse in our past, from chronic and at times unbearable pain, from addictions, from ongoing stresses—in our families, in our marriages, in our careers—from the pain of losing children or siblings or other family—and especially from watching loved ones suffer and feeling helpless to stop it—from a whole host of money troubles or financial troubles… We’ve all experienced some degree of this kind of suffering… If we haven’t we will… Or we will again.
But still… unlike what Paul describes, the vast majority of us have never experienced afflictions related to persecution… In other words, we haven’t suffered for the sake of our faith in Christ.
Or have we?
See, I actually want to gently challenge the idea that we don’t endure hardship, suffering, and affliction for the sake of Christ… or because of our faith in Christ. I want to give you three reasons why this is the case.
First, spiritual warfare… In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul describes a “thorn in his flesh” that was given to him by the devil himself—“a messenger from Satan [sent] to harass me,” he says. 5 Most commentators think that this “thorn” Paul isn’t persecution so much as a physical ailment of some kind. As with Job, the devil is given some limited power to cause harm, even physically. And if by doing so the devil can make shipwreck of our Christian faith, well… Mission accomplished, right?
Besides, simply by virtue of being a Christian, every one of us is enlisted to fight in a war, a spiritual war. Paul says in Ephesians 6: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Even when it seems like we’re merely wrestling against “flesh and blood” humans, God’s Word says we have another, deadlier Enemy fighting against us.
This Enemy, Satan, doesn’t even need some official policy of legal persecution—like Paul and the apostles faced—in order to cause intense pain and suffering in the lives of Christians. The devil is far too resourceful to be limited by the First Amendment, for instance.
So we have an Enemy attacking us because of our faith in Christ all the time…
Reason number two all affliction is for the sake of Christ… God’s glory…
It’s because the Bible says we do literally everything for one ultimate reason: to glorify God. When we pray the words “hallowed be thy name,” we are asking our Father to be glorified.
1 Corinthians 10:31: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Do “all”… Do all, including enduring hardship, pain, and affliction… Endure hardship for the glory of God… using the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control… relying on the full armor of God.
Even if no one else sees you, God sees you. And God is glorified by the way you respond to affliction. And God is pleased with you.
Reason number three that all suffering is for Christ… Witnessing…
If others see you enduring affliction the way I just described… you’re bearing witness in a powerful way to your faith in Christ! Let someone see you enduring like that and say, “I don’t understand where this inner strength is coming from! I don’t understand where you’re finding this inner peace that you have. But I want that for myself.”
And that, too, will be glorify Christ!