God promises that there is a good place waiting for those who honor him…..for those who love him.
I can understand those who reject the promise because they don’t accept the existence of God. That is, at least, rational.
What I struggle with is those who recognize God but still ignore the promise. Typically, these are Christians who have replaced God’s promise with a transaction.
The transaction goes something like this:
I will try to do good things and try to avoid doing bad things. In payment for this, God will provide me with paradise. The subtext is that if I do enough good and avoid enough bad, I earn paradise. God is obligated to me because I have paid in advance for admission to paradise. The transaction is flawed on several levels. First, it assumes a threshold. There is a cut-off in the ratio of good to bad. The problem is that we don’t know where the cut-off is. So…..we make one up. Typically, we decide that the cut-off is low enough that we are safe……no matter how much good we do…..no matter how much bad we do. Ask a Christian if they are going to paradise. The reply will often be, “Of course……I’m a good person”. And perhaps, if you tally up the good and the bad, they are. The second problem, the bigger problem, is that the transaction puts us in charge. We earn paradise. God is obligated to give us eternal bliss once we have crossed the threshold, once we have done enough good. God serves us. A transactional relationship is based on obligation. You can even have a transactional relationship with an enemy. Governments do this all of the time. You can detest God……and still do a lot of good. In a transactional relationship, it is possible to detest God and still earn paradise.
The promise goes something like this:
God loves you. God hopes that you will love him; but, he does not force you to love him. God wants a reciprocal relationship based on love. Eternity in paradise flows out of that two way, love based, relationship.
In the end, our relationship with God is a marriage. It is very much like a marriage between a man and a woman. Your marriage can be a transactional deal based on obligation or it can be a promise based relationship founded on love. It is the same with God. Marriages based on obligation often fail. Marriages based on enduring love last.
If your relationship with God is transactional…….based on obligation…….you should not expect it to be eternal.
If your relationship with God is founded on a promise…….based on love……..it will be eternal.
This is the heart of Christianity.
This is God’s promise.
So…..the question that you must face is this:
“Is your relationship with God transactional…….or is it based on promise and love?”
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Jesus explaining the promise, John 14:1-3, ESV
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Peter explaining the link between love and paradise,
1 Peter 1, 8-9, ESV
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16, ESV