Resurrection Rules For Living Tomorrow

You may have heard the phrases, “Eat, drink, and be merry” or “Life’s short, eat dessert first” or “Life stinks then you die.”  All of those buy into modern ideas that human beings are no different than leaves on the forest floor.  We have a season of life, living for today, and then we return to dust as soulless physical beings on our way to being tomorrow’s compost.  In such a view, there is no other being to hold you to account, no other life to live for as tomorrow.  No rules, just right…in your own eyes…and your right to do what you want. 

The obvious result of such ideas would be enjoy life to the hilt and don’t let anyone else’s rules get in your way of your good time.

Kind of like that scene from Groundhog Day in which Bill Murray’s character, weatherman Phil Connors, realizes that his death in a cycle of Groundhog Days doesn’t matter.  Therefore he can live life without rules and without consequences:

I’m not going to live by their rules anymore … It’s the same thing your whole life: “Clean up your room. Stand up straight. Pick up your feet. Take it like a man. Be nice to your sister. Don’t mix beer and wine, ever.” Oh yeah: “Don’t drive on the railroad tracks.”

In a similar way, that same kind of “logic of no rules” is used by the Apostle Paul in today’s passage:  1 Corinthians 15: 29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour?  31 I die every day– I mean that, brothers– just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

Paul’s answer, as he builds his cyclical case, is that the dead ARE raised.  Therefore you’ve got an eternity ahead of you with your decisions prior to your death determining where that eternity will be spent.  And moreover, whether heaven or hell, each of us will have our earthly lifetime flash before our eyes.  We’ll recall all the decisions that we made and all the rules we disobeyed.  And justice means there will be consequences.  Most of us quake at that thought.

What Does It Mean to Be Resurrected?    It means this life has consequences beyond today.  We will all experience consequences for what we have done (Revelation 20:12-13, Revelation 22:12).  Only Christians have received forgiveness and the grace of Christ who paid for our sins on our behalf.  Other people wanting a do-it-yourself project of earning their way will find that receiving wrath really isn’t a job for amateurs and eternity is a hell of a long time to pay for breaking the rules.

If you find yourself presently in the do-it-yourself category and you don’t know how to get started on a relationship with Christ and the forgiveness He offers, please contact me and I’d love to explain why it’s infinitely preferable and requires nothing from you but surrender to God and agreeing with Him about who you are and what you’ve done.  He already knows it.  He’s just waiting for you to admit it.  

 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)