Satisfied with Life (Part 2)

This most elusive and incomprehensible desire of humanity, God summarized in one verse: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Beyond Raising a Hand

In my previous article, "Satisfied with Life," I wrote this:

Just because you and I raised our hand or murmured some words about being saved does not make us true disciples of Jesus Christ. For most of us who grew up in evangelical churches, it was just fire insurance. We all learned early: heaven is good, all those who loved us and died are in heaven; hell is for all those bad people. Who wouldn't raise their hand or murmur a few words they asked us to repeat? For most of us, it is called cheap grace. We convinced ourselves and others that we are Christians. That explains why some of the most selfish and pompous people are in the churches — but they are also the most miserable.

Many of us came to faith out of fear of hell, or simply because we grew up in Christian homes — but we've never really understood that God Almighty, who created heaven and earth, had to die the most cruel and torturous death on a cross to redeem you and me. Salvation is far more than raising a hand, signing a card, or getting baptized, and then proclaiming ourselves Christians. Salvation is knowing who you really are, and understanding the kingdom you are now part of.

Salvation is the life of God in the soul of man.

"You may be baptized with water, you may be a member of a church, you may take the sacrament, and yet be a child of the devil. Except you are born again of the Spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God." — George Whitefield

A.W. Tozer put it sharply: the modern church has too often substituted "reformation for regeneration" — trading the transforming power of the Holy Spirit for a pleasant, socially acceptable religious program. A person can be thoroughly religious, baptized, and active, Tozer warned, while remaining completely dead in their sins.

A New Kingdom

Saying goodbye to that old kingdom and entering the new one, where Jesus Christ is Savior, King, and Lord, is what makes us children of God. We have gone from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of life. That understanding — that God made me for Himself, and I will be restless until I find rest in God through Jesus Christ — is where it begins. That old person we once were is dead and gone.

Marriage offers a real analogy here: a man and woman stand before God and others and take a solemn vow to love and cherish each other for as long as they both shall live. A born-again believer takes a similar vow — to make Jesus Christ the center of life, and to live in obedience to God's living Word, the Bible.

Francis Schaeffer captured this well: whether life is going wonderfully or life is most difficult, a true Christian should, in every circumstance, live a life marked by joy, peace, and contentment. As a child of God — husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, citizen, employer or employee, neighbor — we are called to shine brightly for all to see, in every role we hold. A light in a dark world. A Christian home should be the most joyous home, regardless of plenty or want. A Christian marriage should be the most delightful experience of this life. A Christian worker, whatever the occupation, should be the most honest and exemplary employee there is. A pastor or a plumber should carry out their responsibilities no differently, if both are true Christians.

Charles Colson once observed that the world is "awash in relativism" — noting the striking irony that a majority of self-identified evangelicals say they don't believe absolute truth exists, even while claiming to follow the One who calls Himself the Truth. Despite decades of Schaeffer's influence, Colson argued, his worldview teaching remains poorly understood in most evangelical circles — with a significant share of professing Christians even embracing New Age ideas like reincarnation.

So let's explore a bit more of this deepest craving of human life: being satisfied with life. To arrive at that inner place in the heart that no one can truly see except our Creator. Peace that transcends understanding — if for no other reason, what else is really worth having during this short life each of us lives? A life that is totally at peace, regardless of this crazy world each of us now inhabits.

Tolstoy's Warning

Leo Tolstoy wrote about his own life in his book A Confession. He was one of the greatest writers who ever lived. He knew his Bible so well that he made every effort to practice and teach the Sermon on the Mount. Mahatma Gandhi applied Tolstoy's writing in India's struggle for independence. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. applied those same principles to the civil rights movement in the United States — both men learned from Tolstoy.

You'd think that as he got older, Tolstoy would have lived a peaceful, serene life. The truth is just the opposite. In his later years, by his own account, he grew utterly bitter about life — his family hid away any sharp object, anything they feared he might use to harm himself. Eventually he died alone at a remote train station, having fled his wife and home in one last, desperate attempt to find spiritual purity.

Timothy Keller summarized the gospel with a memorable paradox: we are far more flawed and sinful than we ever dared admit to ourselves, and at the very same time, far more loved and welcomed by Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

Brennan Manning put it this way (paraphrased): those who are truly filled with light are the ones who have first looked honestly into the darkness of their own imperfect lives.

Finally, a warning from Jeremiah: The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Stupid on Stilts

Many of us who've sat in church pews our whole lives have never taken a dose of Paul's medicine. Take a good look at the fruit we actually bear. First, the fruit of the Spirit:

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22–23)

Then Paul has another list — the fruit of the flesh:

Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19–21)

What a wretched man that I am; who will deliver me from this body of death? Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — and I am the worst of them all (Romans 7:24; 1 Timothy 1:15).

Many of us, as children raised in evangelical churches, raised our hands or repeated a phrase — and knew nothing about the price God Almighty paid to make us His children. Many of us have been walking around ever since like that performer at the circus or the state fair: "stupid on stilts."

I invited a friend from my gym to church once. He responded: "Church? Last time I went to church, all I heard was electioneering for 'our kind of people.'" Who are we kidding? How foolish is it to bring politics and the prosperity gospel into church? How much longer will we walk around like "stupid on stilts," living and behaving just like the people of the world — chasing fame, wealth, power, popularity, and reputation? Just "stupid on stilts" performing for the circus.

Just crying out: Look at me — I've finally made it! Finally, someone likes me! Did you see how many likes and hearts I got the second I posted about my fabulous life? This need for more and more — whatever your "more" happens to be — comes from an empty soul that has no idea why Jesus Christ died the most gruesome death on a cross.

If we open our hearts to God Almighty with real, honest truth — acknowledging the real truth about our hearts, that they are the most deceitful of all things, desperately wicked, so much so that no one can fully know how bad they are — the reality is that in our fallen state, no stilt can fix us. Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, is our only hope. If the doctrines of God's Word bear no resemblance to our lives, we are not Christians.

The Christian life is a daily transformation. Every new day, we become less and less — daily transformed into the image and character of Jesus Christ as He lived on earth. We become a very different person than we used to be. If there's no hunger for God's Word, and no desire to obey the Holy Spirit's prompting in your life, you are not a Christian.

Throwing Away the Stilts

When we begin to understand Paul's words —

I want to know Christ — yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10–11)

— when that becomes the cry of our heart, we no longer need the stilts of the circus. The circus is over. The worship of politicians is done. The prosperity gospel is finished.

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. (Psalm 51:17)

David wrote that verse after sleeping with another man's wife and then ordering her husband killed on the battlefield. A king gets what a king wants — if only he'd known the price he'd pay for his lust. The prophet Nathan confronted him one day: "You are the man, David" (2 Samuel 12:7). David learned a hard lesson about that:

Where can I go to escape from God? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. (Psalm 139:7–8, Amplified Bible)

No — the stupid-on-stilts game we play on the circus grounds will never get us to that place: satisfied with life. It all begins with remorse, repentance, and new beginnings — through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, now seated as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Once you throw away those circus stilts and open God's living Word, the Bible, you'll begin learning the kingdom rules Jesus Christ taught. And once you begin that journey toward your eternal home on kingdom rules, you'll be on a road with one ultimate destination: satisfied with life.

The Price He Paid

Until you understand the price God paid to redeem you and me, there's really no hope for any of us. All four Gospel writers chronicled the price Jesus paid on the cross. Here are a few verses from the Gospel of Mark, in order:

Jesus told His disciples, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." (Mark 14:34)

"Abba, Father," Jesus cried out, "everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine." (Mark 14:36)

Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. "Prophesy to us," they jeered. And the guards slapped him as they took him away. (Mark 14:65)

They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified. (Mark 15:17, 19–20)

Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. (Mark 15:24)

The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. "Ha! Look at you now!" they yelled at him. "You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!" The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. "He saved others," they scoffed, "but he can't save himself! Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!" Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him. (Mark 15:29–32)

Unfortunately, we Christians don't get to grade our Christian life on a curve.

God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, left the glories of heaven, took on flesh, was born in a manger, and died on a cross by the cruel hands of the very people He came to save. His soul was crushed to the point of death. His prayer: if it's possible, take this cup from me — but not my will, Yours. Men spit in His face, beat Him with their fists, guards slapped Him, and finally they nailed Him to a cross, mocking Him with the taunt: "Come down from the cross so we can believe in you."

This isn't just a story that happened two thousand years ago. When we quit playing churchy games — Oh, what a good boy or girl I am! — and take a hard look at our actual lives: the lies, the gossip, the half-truths, the reputations we ruined, the greed, the pride, the jealousy, the endless need for more, never satisfied. The list goes on. Worst of all: no remorse whatsoever. We'll never repent. We'll never look the person we wronged in the eye and take responsibility for our sins and failures.

The blood of Jesus Christ, shed on that cross, was for our lies, our greed, our jealousy, our pride, our selfishness — all our sins, past, present, and future. All the sins we've quietly made acceptable inside our churches — every one of them was a nail hammered into the hands of Jesus Christ.

Becoming a New Person

A truly born-again child of God hungers and thirsts for righteousness. The way a baby hungers for its mother's milk, every born-again child of God hungers and thirsts for God's Word, and lives in obedience to it — eager to do what John asked:

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. (1 John 1:8–10)

Why did God the Father allow His Son to endure the cruelest, most reprehensible death on a cross?

God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. (Ephesians 1:4)

Holy, blameless, pure — a state of perfect harmony for the children of God. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70. Our bodies are now the temple of God. We have one responsibility: walking with God in all the days of our life.

First and foremost, salvation is a right relationship with God. Sin is separation from God. Salvation is all about becoming a new person in Christ. A born-again person is justified, and stands at the beginning of the journey of sanctification — a lifelong journey for each of us who has surrendered our life to Jesus Christ, being daily conformed more and more into His image. No longer living for the passions and desires of this world.

We must say "no" to a great many things in this world: no more prosperity gospel, no more worship of politicians, no more craving people's admiration, no more lies, greed, pride, and jealousy — those very sins we've quietly made acceptable inside the church. No matter how long we've been playing churchy games, a good hard look at ourselves is the place to start:

What a wretched man that I am; who will deliver me from this body of death? Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — and I am the worst of them all (Romans 7:24; 1 Timothy 1:15).

Satisfied With Life

Now we can unstrap those circus stilts and be awed by verses like these:

Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God; and he was not, for God took him [home with Him]. (Genesis 5:24, Amplified Bible)

I myself will see him with my own eyes — I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:27, Amplified Bible)

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1, Amplified Bible)

If satisfied with life is what you hunger and thirst for, the first step is to throw away the stilts of "stupid on stilts" and be done with the circus of this life. A real, truthful, honest conversation with Jesus Christ. His invitation is always there, as long as we breathe:

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]. (Matthew 11:28)

There is no other place but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, for your sins and mine — and no other book but God's living Word, the Bible, for each of us to become satisfied with life.

If we too can echo Paul:

None of these things move me (we all have a list of things that moves us), nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24)

Satisfaction in life comes from knowing why God allows you and me one more breath, and one more day.