Walking With the Word

Of all the things that mankind seeks after, what would be the ultimate quest? Money? A good car? A big house? A home cinema with the ultimate sound system? A life partner; soulmate? Meaning and Purpose? A meaningful career? Fulfilling our dreams? Peace? Safety? Security? A completed bucket-list? What’s the one thing that we seek, yet know we cannot attain?

Egyptian pharaohs, Persian and Macedonian Kings, Roman Emperors – all ancient god-like rulers of empire – would seek immortality by achieving great deeds. And history has born this out, because we can still read about them today; their names and deeds live on.

We all have favourite, famous people from history that we remember: from musicians and sports personalities to kings and people who made great reforms. But just like the immortal god-like rulers of antiquity – including every other religion’s founding figureheads – all of them have the same in common: they are all dead. Gone. Buried. Dust and ashes. No longer alive!

So what is the quest ‘mankind’ has still to conquer? We have achieved so much as humans, but are still really only scratching the surface of what’s possible in this amazing world. But we still haven’t figured out how to live forever. To live forever; to achieve immortality; to obtain eternal Life – or at least enough time to achieve all that we have set our hearts to do – this must be mankind’s greatest quest!

“God has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11

There is a philosophy called trans-humanism that says that the mind is the only thing that matters. Keeping the mind alive by Science, the body would become obsolete, and we can live on in artificial intelligence. Well thats all well and good for the sci-fi movies, but in reality, what hope does that have to offer us? Who benefits from that?

There is a religious philosophy that says that when we die we all become part of some sort of cosmic one-ness, and the movies portray this as something wonderful – but again, what hope is there really in that for us, to be part of some mindless force!? What would be the point of us existing at all in the first place?

Is there a way which we can satisfy all that our hearts truly long for, where our lives have real meaning, hope and benefits for now and for all eternity? Is what we all yearn for from deep down inside our lost, broken and fractured hearts possible? Is life, real life in the way it was originally intended something we can get? Or is this life all there is and we simply have to make the best of it?

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Luke 19:10

Well, there is one man in history, the man Jesus who lived the perfect life and provided the means to achieve this quest. In Him we can have life: abundant life now – and in its fullness in immortality. He did this by dealing with the two main sticking points: Sin and Death. Sin is caused by our disobedience and our tendency to think we know better than God. It keeps us from entering into Gods perfect presence when we die. Death was the consequence of that sin (all wrong must be punished right? – it’s a universal law that we all tend to agree upon and keeps us from a chaotic and lawless society).

So what is the hope of Easter? It’s that Jesus died on the Cross to solve the problem of sin (literally taking it’s necessary punishment upon Himself instead of us), and that He rose again solving the problem of death (He literally defied death by coming back to life). Jesus solved our greatest quest by overcoming both of these problems on our behalf, enabling us to follow in His footsteps.

“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this comes the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Hebrews 9:27-28

There is no real dispute among serious historians about the validity of the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. The only real dispute is whether you believe that it is sufficient to solve the quest for life or not. If Jesus proved His claim that He is the Son of God by His resurrection, by rising from the grave, logically, His other claims of Himself, including the claim that He came to take away the problem sin from the world, that He came to give us life to the full, must be true too.

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies”

John 11:25

If these claims are true then we must do something about them. If we admit that we are sinners and by faith believe in Him for the forgiveness of our sins, He solves the problem of sin (thus removing the barrier that keeps us from God). He has also solved our quest for immortality by defeating death, so that now you can inherit what should have always been yours: eternal life. Jesus has gone on ahead to prepare a place for us. But first, we must admit that we are sinners, turn from our sin, trust in Christ, the Son of God and ask by faith that God forgive us. Then we get to begin our new life.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father [in heaven] but through Me.”

John 14:6

So while we are filling our lives with stuff; trying to fulfil all our desires; enjoying these temporary distractions; following vain unsatisfactory philosophies, eternal life – as opposed to eternal death – is slipping us by every day. We all know, if we search our hearts, how unfulfilling all these distractions are, since we can never get enough of them. Our real quest is for so much more. There is out there something we all need but can’t quite articulate, which seems to be just beyond our grasp: true, fulfilling and satisfying life in all its intended fullness. The good news is that it is actually available through Jesus if only we would reach for it. If you obtained it, it would be yours forever, beyond death, because you have been saved from it and gained immortality.

Why not head to a church this Easter to explore these claims? Or follow a link below to discover more…