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On your last day of life on earth, what will have really mattered? In the face of a myriad daily demands for time and energy, what is most worthy of our attention? "My faith," you say. "Spiritual matters. Things that last for eternity." But what is the core of our faith? What is the essence of Christianity? Not in a theoretical sense but in terms of every-day life. What does God want most from us? Can we possibly get a handle on human existence at its best -- an earthly life that brings joy to God and satisfaction to us?
Edward Fudge
THE ESSENCE - 1
What about a life devoted to others, a charitable life of good deeds? Unquestionably that is very important. Jesus said that when he comes as Son of Man to judge the world, those he approves will be those who have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, relieved the sick and imprisoned and showed mercy to strangers (Matt. 25:31ff). Jesus warned against the vanity of forfeiting one's very self through a life spent pursuing material possessions (Mark 8:34ff).
The Old Testament prophet Micah charged ancient Judah to do "justice" and love "mercy" -- Hebrew theological terms describing fundamental fairness and lovingkindness appropriate within God's covenant community. The New Testament prophet James summarized pure religion first of all as caring for orphans and widows -- symbols of the most powerless and vulnerable victims in any society (James 1:27). Like Dickens' early Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, the self-centered person who regularly ignores the needs of others will face death miserable and unfulfilled.
Yet benevolent deeds do not necessarily please God or bring joy to the doer. Jewish tradition acknowledges this fact by ranking good deeds on a scale from negligible to meritorious. For example, the person who does an act of kindness, but who does so to be praised by other people, finds very little favor with God. Jesus affirmed the same truth to those who would follow him (Matt. 6:1-4). Even giving one's entire possessions to feed the poor, unmotivated by love, finally amounts to nothing (1 Cor. 13:3). A charitable life is not in itself the essence of human existence.
When we come to life's end and look back over a lifetime, what will have really mattered? What is most worthy of our attention now? What is the core of our faith? What is the essence of Christianity in terms of every-day life? Can we possibly get some handle on human existence at its best? What does the earthly life look like that brings ultimate joy to God and lasting satisfaction to us?
Is it a religious life centered on church activities and meetings, holy rituals and sacred ceremonies? Indeed, many Christians under-value the discipline of set meetings for worship, fellowship and study. Western individualism and the consumer mentality have little appreciation for community. Yet in Old and New Testament Scriptures alike the faithful person locates his or her personal identity as a part of the larger People of God. God was Israel's Shepherd; because David was part of Israel, God was his Shepherd as well (Psalm 100; Psalm 23). Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, so each man or woman who is part of that church can say that "Christ loved me and gave himself for me" (Eph. 5:25; Gal. 2:20).
Ironically, in the name of grace many Christians today forget that God regularly and graciously encounters earthly people who come humbly with faith in such earthly elements as water and wine and bread. Whether understood as sacraments or as ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper (and to a lesser extent the anointing with oil) either convey or signify spiritual benefits of which these physical things themselves are either instruments or reminders.
Yet a religious life does not necessarily please God or bring joy to the religious person. In Isaiah's day, God denounced the sacred assemblies of a people whose work-week was marked by injustice and selfish living (Isaiah 1:10-20). Jesus pronounced woes on meticulous tithers who neglected the things that mattered more (Matt. 23:23). Paul told one fractious church that their Lord's Supper meetings did more harm than good (1 Cor. 11:20-31). A religious life is not in itself the essence of human existence.
Looking back over life at its end, what really will have mattered? What deserves our greatest attention today in the face of countless clamoring demands for time and energy? If we answer, "our Christian faith," what does that really mean in practical terms? What does God most want from you as a human being redeemed by Jesus? What does the earthly life look like which best brings joy to God and satisfaction to us?
Is the answer to these questions a life committed to detailed study of the Bible itself, perhaps particularly the New Testament Scriptures? Indeed, far too many professing Christians invest far too little time and interest in reading and understanding the Bible now. Every Scripture inspired by God is useful for godliness and ministry (2 Tim. 3:16-17). In the Bible's longest chapter, Psalm 119, David overflows in praise of the practical benefits of God's commandments contained in the Torah. David loved God's law, not because he was a legalist, but because he loved God who lovingly revealed it. Throughout history, ignoring God's word has led to lives of ruin (Hosea 4:6). The stories preserved in Scripture were written for our education to give us patience, comfort and hope (Rom. 15:4).
We do well to pray, as the Book of Common Prayer so classically puts it, "Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life . . . " (BCP, 236). Jesus himself stored the ancient Scriptures in his heart and drew from them freely to meet present spiritual needs. In this, as in all else, he is our great example and model. There is a clear and important link between the right use of the Bible and our growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:14-18).
Yet Bible study itself does not necessarily please God or bring joy to the student. The Scriptures point us to Jesus (2 Tim. 3:15). If we study the Bible but miss Jesus, we miss the point of Scripture and indeed life itself (John 5:39-40). The early church did not even have that part of Scripture we call the "New Testament" for several decades and then only gradually and disconnected. For most Christian centuries, most believers have had no personal access to a Bible -- and most could not have read it if even if they had. The key to Scripture is Jesus himself. The goal of Scripture is a life of faith and a faithful life. Unless the Spirit gives light and life, mere biblical head-knowledge is only fleshly and ultimately worthless (John 6:63). The mere academic study of Scripture is not in itself the essence of human existence.
When we look back over life at its end, what will we say has really mattered? As we face each new day now, what deserves our greatest attention and commitments of time and energy? We might respond to both questions by saying, "our Christian faith," but what does that really mean? What does God most want from you as a human being redeemed by Jesus? What does the earthly life look like which best brings joy to God and satisfaction to us? As we have seen already, it is not merely a benevolent or charitable life. Church meetings and religious activity cannot give ultimate meaning. Diligent Bible study does not assure God's approval or fulfillment as a human being. As good and important as all these things are, none of them is the essence of our existence on this earth.
That essence is found, I suggest, in what the Reformers called a life coram Deo -- literally a life lived "before the face of God." This was how God created humans to live from the beginning. The Creator formed us from elements of the earth and endowed us with breath of life. We are mortal beings made in God's image, created to live in joyful and fulfilling relationship with our Maker. When we remember what we are, to whom we owe our existence and the reason for which we are made, life is very good. We know, more surely than we know anything else, that God is great and God is good. God is as near as our very breath; he loves us and we are safe in his presence and love. That sense of creaturely dependence generates gratitude, humility and praise. This is life as God intended it. It is life as it once existed in Paradise. It was human life before the entrance of sin.
Uniquely honored among all God's creatures, we humans are made in the Creator's own image. Sin, which at its core is a denial of creaturely dependence, and therefore of our created identity, obscures God's presence and removes the source of ultimate human fulfillment and joy. By dealing with sin, Jesus brought us back close into God's presence now, and he promises to make us immortal in a new universe where there will be no more sin or death.
This, then, is the essence of life, the highest goal, the greatest good, the path to our fulfillment and to God's joy -- that we live each moment coram Deo, "before the face of God." David, the man after God's own heart, earnestly pleaded for this blessing when he prayed: "Your face, O LORD, I shall seek; do not hide your face from me" (Psalm 27:8-9). Jesus described it when he promised: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
This life is accessible to God's ekklesia, the community of believers, the body of Christ. It is fed by the Scriptures, when received in faith and focused on Jesus Christ. It is enriched through the sacraments or ordinances, when by faith we encounter the risen Savior through these physical elements. This life is expressed and strengthened in loving deeds of benevolence and charity. But back of all those things, undergirding it all, giving it all meaning and purpose, making all those things useful and powerful and effective, is the core and the essence. It is life coram Deo -- "before the face of God."