There is no tomorrow. Literally. Something that has no existence cannot be, and not just from a materialistic standpoint, either. Tomorrow is not only something we cannot depend on, but something that isn’t even real! You know what we do have? This moment. But not anymore- now we have this one. Get it? We have right now, and that’s all. So why do we treat the call to discipleship, the call of Christ Himself, as an option meant for tomorrow, Spiritual Emphasis Week, or even “after I graduate…”?
The immediate problem with obedience is we can only do it right now, in this present. We cannot obey in the future… that future becomes the present. We can do things in this moment that affect that theoretic future, but we cannot act in that time- we have only now. So again, why do we continuously live as if we have forty years, thirty years, twenty years, ten years, five years, of even this coming week to walk with Christ in the way He has called- that is, in love with Him and with obedience flowing from that love? Jesus has said that they who come after Him MUST deny their self, take up their cross, and FOLLOW HIM. The call to discipleship begins and ends with obedience to the law of Christ Himself. It is about His WAY, His WILL, and His LIFE all for HIS GLORY (why? Because He is GOD and He DESERVES IT, therefore WE ARE NOT and DO NOT). Why do we ignore it as if tomorrow were a sure thing? He is okay with how you are living, you say? Sounds to me like we’re cheapening His death even more. I don’t believe my God died so I can do whatever I want at His expense. His grace is not a ceilingless credit line for sin; it is a payment on what I have done and thence a calling to live differently by His power. It is the unthinkable trade of my life for His.
Maybe you’re thinking that even though He has called us to blamelessness and perfection it is unreasonable because we’ll never escape sin? Is that really your decision to make- or is your decision to make one of obedience for right now? Truly your decision always involves the chains you’re shackled to, because you put yourself in them and He freed you- is it also your decision to make conerning His ability to keep you out of them? True enough, He’ll let you head right back for them once you don’t like the life He demands- is that His fault? Again I think it sounds like His death (and more so His life) didn’t mean that much. I must confess I don’t understand this… why do we babysit the unrepentant and disobedient as if Christ’s word is unauthoritative? Somehow we’re missing something, and I think it’s either the call itself or the fact that this is God we’re snubbing.
How then do we depend on tomorrow to repent and obey? How do we depend on tomorrow for the opportunity of another altar call or another collective prayer? If Jesus is Lord of my life and it is by HIS blood that I have been saved then it is not only my obligation by all logic but also my desire and purpose to LIVE HIS LIFE as a hope to nations, as salt to this carnal sphere, even as light to darkness- and it must be done RIGHT NOW. We are called to something beyond the crowd where people looked on and asked themselves “who is this man?” We are called to intimacy with Him, but the call is on His terms. Either we accept them or we do not, but can we please stop this charade of potential obedience? Can we please end this vomitous promise of repentance as if it were on OUR terms that we follow? We have been given a gift, one of grace.
The gift was more expensive than any of us can imagine paying- so why do we demand He pay it over and over and over and over again as if He were a genie? At the acceptance of the gift of grace and its incredible freedom, we are given the second gift of His glorious presence- to walk in, to cry in, to live in, and to grow in, yet again, the acceptance of this gift is on His terms. It is only by recklessly losing ourselves to see nothing but HIM in the mirror and living the unthinkable exchange out as one of His own that this world will begin to see HIM. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him ‘come and die.’” He lived it out once in front of the world. He died as it jeered and rose as it cried. He sent His disciples out to multiply themselves (not the crowds) among the world; to baptize them in the name of His Father, Himself, and the Holy Spirit; and to teach those who were being multplied to obey everthing HE had COMMANDED- all with the promise of His presence to the very end. What He did not do was promise tomorrow.
We obviously cannot pay the price of our own sin debt. Can we claim obedience for tomorrow? Can we claim repentance for next week? Can we claim discipleship for anyone but ourselves? Can we claim any other cross than HIS? Can we live for anyone but the one who gives life? Is tomorrow actually there… or is the only moment for action this one?
