Death and Taxes

Two things are for sure in this life: death and taxes!

These are the two things even the most resolute skeptics get religious about. What’s your money being spent on? What’s the government giving or taking away from you and why? What are the benefits from all this meddling? What is just and what is not just. Would you just take a look at that debt ticker? We all have a deeply religious opinion on these things and it would take quite a bit of persuasion to change anyone’s mind.

The same thing can be said about death. When someone dies, especially a celebrity, take a look at how people grieve. “Rest in peace” , “they’re in a better place”, “they’re reunited with so & so in heaven” and it goes on and on. A vast majority of skeptics would like to believe when someone they love or admire dies, they’re going to “a better place”, yet they mock the person that lives consistently with this belief day in and day out.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

“Will you have an answer when your clock stops? Tick tock. Tick Tock. Who knows when the seconds hand stops?”

This is a question I pondered aloud on my Facebook wall. Every time a celebrity dies, I ask some variation of this question. We’re all going to die. We all have to punch that ticket. We all have to once and for all pay the piper. I’m not talking to Christians right now, though I do appreciate it if I have your ear. You skeptics, I’m talking to you. 

You say you don’t believe Jesus.Why do you say the things you do? Why do you mourn your dead? Why do you herald any good deed or condemn any bad deed if this is all that there is? Why do you suddenly agree with Christians when it’s someone that you love that’s being laid to rest? You may not know the answer, but it was written millenia ago.

“For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly percieved, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

Your heart longs for relief and you speak of a post death relief because deep down, you know that some will have it. You long for justice when someone’s life is taken away from them because deep down, you know there is a judge, jury and executioner that will execute perfect justice.  You long for “a better place” because deep down, you know there has to be something better than this sin filled decaying existence that we know.

You know this is a reality that you have to face. You know that you and everyone you love is going to die someday. I ask you again, this time audibly, “Will you have an answer when your clock stops?” What will you say to the God that requires perfect obedience to His law? What will you say when everything about your life from the actions you took to the actions  you didn’t take to your very thoughts are put up against perfect righteousness? You’re not gonna win. No one possibly could. Any of us would be completely crushed by weight of God’s holiness, without exception.

There’s a way out. There’s a way you can be declared innocent in this inevitable court of true justice and true law. There is a way where you can enter this “Nirvana” that you can’t escape the idea of. It’s not a secret and it’s not complex. It’s not some fancy prayer and it’s not an alter call. It’s not “inviting Jesus into your heart”. The way is this: repent and believe.

No matter what you’ve done, this invitation stands. No matter how you feel about yourself and what you do or don’t deserve, this invitation stands. No matter what happens after the fact, this invitation stands. The way of salvation of our souls is a rocky road. Daily, we repent of our sins and believe the gospel.

What is the gospel? The gospel is the good news of salvation. God wrapped Himself up in flesh and lived among us as one of us. He died as the perfect and holy sacrifice needed to atone for our sins. Because of that sacrifice, we are spiritually wiped clean and are seen as innocents when we inevitably face judgement day.

That is the only path to the peace we dream of.