Apart from the reality of the God of the Bible.
“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.” – Ecclesiastes 1:1
More than ever, thoughts concerning the monotony of life, work, and conversations have been very weighty on my heart and mind, especially when compared to the focus in it all that should be pointed and focused on God and yet is not.
I am distraught, trying to go through the day: finding things to do at work, interacting with the ridiculous gossip and conversations with just about everyone, everywhere or even thinking about what next we can do in our lives in order to find some form of happiness or satisfaction.
It is absolutely disturbing when I try to envision myself living in this world today without the hope I have in Christ.
How do people live? At the root, without that hope, everything seems to truly be meaningless. I can see where the thoughts of Ecclesiastes or Nihilism come from. The more we try to figure things out or make sense of this life, apart from God, the more meaningless it becomes.
So what if you get a good job? So what if you improve your community living standards? So what if you created a perfectly moral and just society? So what if you married the perfect woman of your dreams? So what? So what if you cure cancer and dive to the deepest depths of scientific knowledge?
What happens after death and what our purpose here on earth is, if aimless and meaningless, makes everything else that could/does happen or that we strive for in this life completely trivial.
People around the world have so been deceived to believing that money, business, superficial happiness and things of this world are so important, that to think about God or even really consider a hell or punishment for sin, would be an inconvenience. Rather, they have their ideas in their head of what the Bible is and what Christianity is and that it’s not for them because what Christianity, the Bible, and Jesus are to them is NOT the only path from eternal damnation and perfect happiness, they are simply religion.
I might go as far as to say that even many who claim to be Christians in America are deceived and only see Christianity and Jesus as their religion. Nothing more.
Our televisions, sports, jobs, jewelry, guns, politics, houses, and everything else are immensely more valued than a possible eternity in hell.
I understand that yes, people have/use Christianity, other religions, and science as coping mechanisms to escape the possible reality of the God of the Bible. Which is why people can live without Christ and escape the ideas of everything being meaningless. But what is forgotten in all of this, apart from the truth of the Bible, is God and his requirement of perfection; holiness and that none of us can meet that requirement. Apart from holiness, we will be separated from God, in hell forever. Therefore God made the greatest sacrifice imaginable and sent His only son, Jesus Christ because of His love for us.
Do you understand the power of sin? Apart from the reality of the God of the Bible, the inevitable conclusion is that everything in life is meaningless. Yet, sin can so blind people that they can cope with, essentially worshiping the things of this life, when such an important, dangerous reality exists.
Sin blinds people who are walking towards a cliff so they are worried about the daisies, clouds, shoes they are wearing, and what phone they have, oblivious to the idea that there could be anything important in front of them. It feels cliché to say and most people would most likely refute the idea they are oblivious, but this concept is what makes sin so powerful! The fact that this is true! People are actually blind to this!
We as Christians cannot save people souls. We cannot make people believe in God, -in Christ Jesus- only the Holy Spirit can. We can though, share this reality with people; with everyone! We can pray! We can’t expect to make sense of this world to people but in our sharing, we can trust, as the writer of Ecclesiastes pronounces, the wisdom the Creator of the world has and cleave to Him above all else.
Only through coupling the reality of the God of the Bible, which is the unfathomable love of God, in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that overcame sin and the inevitable punishment of hell, with our part as followers of Jesus Christ to spread the news of this reality, does this life become truly meaningful.