19 Jack’s story - The Leveller

Jack is an elderly grazier with a large property up north. He has been badly treated by the Government and its public servants. He has also been wronged by other landowners. Jack is resigned to the fact that he will never be compensated for his losses. But he would like to see justice applied to those who have wronged him.

When Jack told me the stories of his problems with the Government and difficulties with other land-owners, he took some comfort in what he described as “the Leveller”. He said “the Leveller will get them”. It is true that however you live your life, you will end up in the same situation; death happens to everybody, it levels us all up in the end.

But for Jack there was more to it than the end of life. Jack was also worried that the Leveller would have a score to settle with him. He suspected that after he died, he would have to give an account to the Leveller for all the things done in his life. He took comfort from the levelling that might happen to his persecutors but he was worried that he might also be on the wrong side of the Leveller. He might have his own debt to repay.

I was able to give Jack some really good news, but I’m not sure whether he was willing to take advantage of it. I told him that God was the Leveller and that every living human being was on His wrong side. Our relationship with God was broken because we have all sinned.

And God took that personally. If we cheat on the tax department, if we kick the cat, if we have bad thoughts about somebody, we actually wrong God. We have all sinned. We are all alienated from God.

You may ask 'How can alienation from God be Good News?' It is not; until you hear that God has done something about it. We couldn’t do anything about righting the wrongs we have done against God, because it would be like trying to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, and that is impossible.

God is love, so in theory He could just forgive our sins, but that wouldn’t be fair. Imagine how Jack would feel if the people who wronged him were let off scot free. As well as love, God is also absolutely fair; He is the source of both love and justice. So how did God deal with our sins and meet the requirements of His love and of His justice?

Here is the Good News that I gave Jack, God did the most amazing thing. He paid the penalty for our sins Himself by sending Jesus to die on the Cross for us. Jesus’ coming to this earth and His death on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem is a real historic event.

But Jesus’ death is only half the story. After he lay in a tomb from Friday till Sunday morning, God brought Jesus back from the dead. And that is good news because it proves God has power over death. Death is no longer the final enemy. Death is not the Leveller, God is. God determines where we go after death, those who are His followers to live with Him forever, the rest to eternally lonely and painful isolation.

What do you need to do to be on the right side of the Leveller?

Admit your sinfulness. Accept God’s offer of forgiveness and decide to become Jesus’ disciple, his obedient follower.

This is both the easiest and the hardest thing to do. Easy because He is God and surely God can be trusted to do what He has promised and look after you. But hard because it involves humbling yourself and letting God control your life.

18 The story of reality – the road to nowhere

If you want to understand our culture, one of the best places is in popular music. The pop song “Road to Nowhere”, first released by Talking Heads in 1985, and recently re-released by others, sums up the true feelings of many.

We're on a ride to nowhere, Come on inside
Takin' that ride to nowhere, We'll take that ride

Maybe you wonder where you are, I don't care
Here is where time is on our side, Take you there, take you there.

The music is upbeat and the lyrics try to be the same, but they really are a message of despair. We are on a road to nowhere.

This song is an accurate reflection of how many people feel today. They try to kid themselves, try to keep busy, to live a whirlwind of good times, fill their lives with noisy distractions, but ultimately, underneath, there is despair.

For all the excitement of new things, of adrenalin rushing experiences, of fantastic opportunities to travel the world, of amazing medical discoveries, and many others, the modern Western world is on a road to nowhere.

I have described the Christian Story of Reality in the last few articles; it is a coherent and holistic understanding of life. It is in contrast to the most common worldview in our society, a view well expressed in this song, a worldview that says there is nothing beyond the grave, nothing to hope for.

The Christian story of reality tells us that God made a very good world, and the people in it were blessed with a close communion with their maker. But they rebelled and mankind has been in rebellion against God ever since and the world is a mess because of it. It cost God dearly to provide a way to restore the world to the way he designed it. The way back to God is a one-person-at-a-time process, it requires each of us to turn back to let God run our lives.

Instead of a road to nowhere, this puts all who are willing to trust God, on a path to an eternal new heaven and new earth, where peace and harmony will be restored. This will be the case for all who believe. While we wait, we have the confidence of our hope in God. This hope will not disappoint, it will pick us up when we are down, and it shows us the road to take, a road to somewhere much better.

17 The story of reality – part 4. Resurrection

Except for atheism, every belief system I can think of has a final accounting which happens after we die. Our innate sense of justice demands this. We want to believe that those who kill the defenceless and go unpunished in this world will face a final justice. For this reason, Atheism is not a satisfactory system of belief.

Australians are confused about life after death. In my article No 8 in November, I described the common view that all the departed are up there somewhere watching over us. This is really only wishful thinking. It doesn’t satisfy the need for justice. There is no basis for it in the Bible.

The Bible describes a two stage process. When we die, we first exist as souls without bodies in an intermediate state. We don’t know what it will be like to experience this state.

The Bible does say there is an inseparable gulf between this state and earth and it will continue until God decides to end this current world order. Nobody except God knows when that will be.

On that final day of God’s choosing, Jesus will return to earth as judge of all who have ever lived. Everyone will be resurrected from the grave and everyone will stand before Jesus to be judged.

The Bible is clear that Jesus will judge us on the basis of our faith or trust in Jesus as our lord and saviour. Our salvation will not depend on doing good works; rather it is a free gift from God.

Two convicted criminals were executed with Jesus. Before he died, one of them insulted Jesus, but the other told him that Jesus was innocent and said to Jesus “Remember me when you come into your kingdom”. In his own way, he acknowledged Jesus as Lord. Jesus reply was amazing “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

This conversation shows an amazing truth. Jesus forgave this sinful man and accepted him, not because of the good things the man had done, but because the man, by his actions, showed that he trusted Jesus to rescue him.

Those, like the thief, who have trusted Jesus in this world will be given new bodies, similar but different from our present bodies, to live with Jesus forever in a new Heaven and a new Earth. Our new souls and bodies will be changed in many ways, including to be united with God’s spirit in a way that excludes possible rebellion and provides for a beautiful eternal existence.

Those who have turned their backs on God in this world will be sent to a place called Hell. The worst aspect of Hell will be that God will not be there to protect people from the consequences of their own evil actions. Hell has been prepared for the devil and his wicked angels, so it will be a place where these evil beings have free reign. It will be hell to be in their company.

The Bible tells us not to judge others, that is Jesus’ role and we can be sure he is absolutely fair, loving and just. We may think of many hypothetical cases, but one issue is clear. If you have heard and accepted God’s call to follow him, and if you continue living for Him, then you can be assured of the heavenly reward.