Do You Have An Eternal Perspective? Part 2

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be….” 2 Peter 3:11.

Nothing On Earth Lasts!Passing on from the brevity of life, a second perspective is found in 2 Peter 3:10.  “The heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the world that are upon it will be burned up.” This truth of Scripture hangs a sign on every material thing; it reads “for temporary use only.” It puts a bumper sticker on every car, saying, “It’s all gonna burn!”

The fact is, nothing lasts. Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich was to be built to last a thousand years. It did not even celebrate its fiftieth birthday. The ruins of Caesar’s Rome are eloquent testimony of the unending quality of the things we build. The forces of rust, wind, water, fire, theft, and moths reduce everything to dust eventually. A famous medieval king knew this, and when he died, he had himself buried sitting up with an open Bible in his lap, his finger on the text, 1John 2:17, “And the world passes away…”

Nothing lasts! Not your car or your business or your clothes or your books or paintings or friends. They will all pass away.A few years ago at a youth retreat in the mountains I got involved in a Monopoly game with some students. I used to love to play Monopoly when I was a kid and it all started to come back to me as I counted my money and bought up Boardwalk, Connecticut Avenue, the Electric Company, and the railroads. Pretty soon I had all the property but little money. Things grew tense. But greed was coursing through my veins as green houses and red hotels went up all over my land, and then in five minutes, with a roll of the dice, it was all over. I’d won everything!  And my fellow players were all angry at my greedy gloating. Scott, John, and Susan all stalked off to bed leaving me to put away the game. And while I was replacing the game, I had no joy. Sure I’d won. But it didn’t really mean anything for long, because now I was having to put it back in the box. And I was feeling kind of empty with my friends gone. And then suddenly it hit me! Such is life! The greed, the work, the scheming, the careful planning, the acquisition of all sorts of material things is fine, but there will come a time when the game is over and you’ll have to put it all back in the box!

“But what is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while, then vanishes.” “The world passes away…”Heaven Is Forever

The brevity of life, the impermanence of all material things, these are mature perspectives on life. But note with me also how scripture clearly teaches that heaven will last. Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, nor do thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20).  Hebrews 13:13 says, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.” And in Revelation 21 this new eternal city of heaven is described in great detail, a city in which God’s people are of supreme value and gold is used as paving stones.

Have you ever poured yourself a Pepsi, thought you had a full glass, but when all the foam settled down, it was only half full? Life is like that. It’s mostly froth and bubble, and when it settles down, only three things remain. The Bible is clear, only three things are eternal: God, His Word, and His people.  This is said quite succinctly in 1 John 2:17, “And the world passes away, and the lusts of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

Some years ago in the lab of scientist Michael Faraday, a workman accidentally knocked over a silver cup into a vat of acid. The cup was immediately dissolved. The scientists questioned if it could ever be found again or if it was lost forever. Faraday then put a chemical into the vat, and soon every particle of the lost silver had collected on the bottom. The silver was then sent to a craftsman and the cup was completely restored. And the Bible is saying that because God is eternal, because His Word stands forever, those of us who believe in Him, though we be drowned in the sea, lost in war, or burned by fire, will still be made new by God to live eternally in heaven. We, in Christ, last! “We abide forever!”

Benjamin Franklin’s grave marker has this self-written epitaph: “Revised edition, the body of Benjamin Franklin, printer (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and gilding), lies here food for worms. Yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will (as he believes) appear once more in a new and beautiful edition corrected and amended by the Author.”

Perspective—that’s what we’re after. To back up, open our eyes and see the truth of our existence written large in Scripture. Fact one: life is short. Fact two: nothing on earth lasts. Fact three: Heaven is forever. Now the questions. What difference does all this knowledge make to us? Well, it should make heaven our focus. It should cause us to spend our time and energy on the things of eternity. It should help us to discern what is important and what is frivolous, and cause us to so number our days that we get a heart of wisdom, that is—we realize what is foam and fizz, and what is of real substance. It should cause us to seriously question whether we are living for things or God, whether we love things and use people, or use things and love people. It should cause us to so live that time cannot destroy what we are living for!

It is so easy, men, to give softball six hours a week and Bible study one hour, isn’t it? It’s so easy to fix your hair, shop for hours, clean the house, and miss your children, isn’t it, ladies?  It’s so easy to decide you’ll share Christ with a friend next year, but next year somehow never arrives. It’s so easy to settle down in the waning comforts of our degenerate western materialist culture and begin to feel like we’ve got all the time in the world to live and that our things will always be with us.

Yes, it is so easy to lose our perspective. But “you are a mist that soon vanishes.” And “the world passes away.” “But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”