How Can I Change?/Living for That Final Day

From Gospel Translations

Heaven is a much more popular subject, but even that is often ignored these days. The trend in contemporary preaching is to focus not on our eternal future, but on our current “felt needs.” And while such messages may succeed at drawing crowds, they fail to develop maturity and build the Church. Listen to this excellent observation by Darius Salter from his book What Really Matters in Ministry:

Lack of rootage in the eternal may be the greatest shortcoming in the evangelical preaching that attracts large numbers of people...The ultimate aim of preaching should not be accruing benefits in this life for parishioners but preparing individuals to stand in the presence of Christ. There is no greater goal or motivation than the knowledge that all of us are headed for eter- nity, and that shortly.^[2]

If anyone was rooted in and motivated by the eter- nal, it was Paul. Without disregarding the practical needs of those he served, he constantly drew their atten- tion to the life that was to come. And he tells us why in his second letter to the Corinthians: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2Co 5:10).

This verse reveals one of Scripture’s most compelling —and most frequently overlooked—incentives for sancti- fication. It speaks of a day when we will be judged for the way we have lived in response to God’s grace. On the basis of that assessment, Christ will give each believer “what is due him.” One need not meditate for long on the implica- tions of that verse to develop an appetite for godly living. We have one short life in which to determine our eternal rewards...or eternal loss. It’s this urgency Paul sought to impart to the churches he served.

Living by a Two-Day Calendar

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. (Eph 4:1)

Every genuine Christian has received a calling from God. This call was conceived in eternity past. Before creat- ing the world, God had already chosen us for himself (Eph 1:4). At the moment of our regeneration we experience the effect of that choice. This isn’t a result of human effort, nor is it a reward for good works—it is entirely a work of grace. And yet in response to God’s call we are responsible to live a certain way.

This is an often misunderstood point, so please follow carefully: We never were and never will be worthy of this call. Paul is not exhorting us somehow to qualify for our calling. That would be impossible and a denial of grace. He describes it to the Ephesians as a calling “you have received”—not something they had achieved. The “riches of God’s grace that he lavished upon us” (Eph 1:7-8) by way of election, adoption, redemption, and regeneration are unconditionally and freely given.