People and things

Published 6:52 pm Thursday, November 9, 2023

Stephen R. Covey (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) said, “People are more important than things.” How right he is! All people are created in God’s image. That means man has many of the attributes of God. We are all like Him in many ways. However, our enemy, Satan, does his best to hurt and destroy man and everything else God has done in the world. The devil has been given temporary power in the world today, and it is very obvious.

But God loves His creation, especially man. And He knew from the beginning that we could never be obedient and holy the way He is. So, in His mercy and by His grace, God sent His only Son to earth to take the form of man in order to save people from their sins and restore them to a right relationship to God. God Himself, as the Son, came down and visited earth to teach us how to live. He also died that we might, through faith in Christ, secure a righteousness that makes us fit for Heaven.

We are never fit for Heaven because of anything we ever do on Earth. It is only through the blood of Christ, God’s Lamb, that we are forgiven and justified before God. Satan, the great deceiver, has convinced most people that his lies are what they should believe. For example, probably the most common lie is that one must be good enough while on earth to qualify for Heaven. The truth is that no one on earth, except for Jesus Christ, has ever been good enough. That is where God’s grace (unmerited favor) comes in.

Man is totally incapable of earning in any way his right to see heaven. Our righteousness is as “filthy rags” in God’s sight. (Isaiah 64:6). Believing Satan’s lies, people grasp at things. The problem is that things seldom last, and even if they could, people do not last. Everyone dies eventually and leaves behind everything he has accumulated and cherished. Many have stolen or even murdered for money. Obviously they have no belief in God. These people see this life as all there is. They thus try to “grab all the gusto,” “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” That is their thinking.

But die they will, probably sooner than later. And the things they fought to get will remain on top of the ground while their bodies will either rot in a grave or be scattered as ashes over the ground. But what about their souls? Jesus asked, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). The soul never dies. It must live on either in heaven or hell. The lost soul will live on in hell, separated from God and tortured day and night forever and forever. What a horrible fate to contemplate!

However, it does not have to be this gruesome. The soul that has trusted Christ for His righteousness and salvation will also live forever, but in the bliss and sheer happiness of heaven. All who trust Christ are, as the Apostle Paul tells us, new creations, born again or regenerated.

But choosing Christ must be done on Earth. Physical death ends all opportunity to ever be saved and see Heaven. And the problem is that no one has any idea when his life on Earth will end. I often preach, “You don’t have to be old to die.”