All to Jesus

Growing up, I ran into more than one person who made the following argument to unbelievers:

"Well, if Jesus isn't real and this all turns out to be false, I will still have lived a good life."

No. No you won't have. Paul argues it this way in 1st Corinthians 15:

¹² Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.  (Emphasis mine)

Most pitied. Why would Paul say that? Because the Christian life is not merely one of following good moral codes and elseways living as one wishes. Paul continues:

²⁹ Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? ³⁰ Why are we in danger every hour? ³¹ I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! ³² What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” ³³ Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” ³⁴ Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

Burn that last verse into your memory, for it is for our generation. Paul sacrificed his whole life for Christ. Everything he did was for Jesus. He endured persecution, beatings, trials, dangers, perils, and even execution all for the sake of Christ Jesus. Truly, if Christ was only a myth, Paul would have wasted his whole life when he could have been doing something else more useful and lived far more comfortably.

And that is the point. We should all live in such a way that we would be wasting our lives if Christ is not real. If you could take Christ out of your life and still find something worth living for, you are not living the way God desires.

All to Jesus we should surrender.

An Unexpected Sermon

In 2009 I sat in a classroom at University under the teaching of a certain professor. The last thing I ever expected was a sermon on the ways of men versus the way of God, but midway through a lecture on public speaking my professor broke into this speech (paraphrased):

"You have your way. God has His way. God's way don't seem to work, it don't seem to make sense to us. But it does work. I can testify to that. I've walked His way for many years, and it always works. Then you've got your way. It seems to work. It makes sense to you. But listen to me, it don't work at all. You won't get anywhere with your way, no matter how good it looks to you. It will leave you unsatisfied, but God's way won't. That's the truth of it. You can do it your way, ain't nobody gonna stop you, but it won't work. It just won't. Anyways, back to the lesson."

Simple, true. I have never forgotten it.