Sometimes when I am doing the most normal of things, it is as if my eyes are suddenly opened and I see through the thin veil of reality that hides the truth of our existence. Too metaphysical? Let me try this: a great example of what I am talking about is a typical television commercial. The company sells you a reality where only their product can make your life complete. Whether it’s a new car, which will wear out and be discarded, or a new house, which will eventually succumb to nature and decay, everything they try to sell you veiled in a fantastical reality pointing to a singleness of thought: buy our product. It is easy to see through a commercial, but the difficultly comes when we must break through the veil we place over our own eyes. How we perceive ourselves and how we think others perceive us is often a false reality that we create to comfort ourselves, and when the veil is lifted, the realization of the truth can be very disillusioning and painful. The fact that life is fleeting and that one day all that we’ve accomplished will fade and we ourselves will be forgotten can be very unsettling and even depressing. So what is the point of earthly existence?
Consider this verse from Hebrews 8:27-28 (NAS): “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” So each of us will at some time die, but none of us face oblivion. There is One who remembers us and everything we have done on this earth. That same One will judge us based on our actions. By what standard? His righteous standard. What does that mean? Consider these verses found in Romans 3:10-12:
as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
So if no one is righteous, what hope do we have? Consider this final verse found in Romans 5:8-9: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” This thinly veiled reality is for but a moment, and then…eternity. Where will you spend it? Eternal judgment or in eternal grace and mercy?
R. S. Gullett 