Redeeming the Time Amidst the Fading Glory
Besides the local obituaries and daily Facebook birthday announcements, God has warned us of our fleeting existence, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away (Jas 4:14).” Man casts the lot, but every decision is from the Lord (Prv 16:33). This includes the number of our days (Job 15:20). Moses prayed, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom (Ps 90:12).” Solomon wisely recognized there is, “A time to give birth and a time to die (Eccl 3:2a).” We cannot dipsy-doodle around death. The apostle Paul was familiar with these temporal issues, so he warned the Ephesians to make good use of their time because the days are evil (Eph 5:16). So how should we use our brief time upon the earth?
First, the Bible teaches us to fear God and keep His commandments (Dt 6:2; 8:6; 13:4; Eccl 12:13). Christians know we should acknowledge Him in all our ways, so to submit to His directing our steps (Prv 3:5–6) on the path of righteousness (Ps 23:3). Jesus taught His disciples to, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you (Mt 6:33).” What were the disciples seeking instead of God’s kingdom? They were fearful of their livelihood in this world (Lk 12). They were seeking security in the world.
Second, be careful/anxious for nothing (Phil 4:6). We live in a fear-filled world. Terrible things are set before us each day. These things happen to others, but could they happen to us? We live in fear of calamity. We use our resources to insure everything, presumably removing risk. Sometimes the government forces us to buy insurance, and we wonder why we do not feel free.
Our vocabulary is filled with words to perpetuate the risk removal industry: luck; chance; accident, odds; probability; actuarial; etc. Then, of course, after we have spent all of our money and all of our lives on insurance of every kind, we fear we did not actually live. Is there a remedy for fear? When the disciples were rocking in the boat, filled with fear, Jesus queried them, “Where is your faith?”
Third, it is impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6). Faith is a neutral word. People use it, and its twin sister, “believe,” all the time. Without an object, it is simply a meaningless word. “Faith in Christ,” is what the writer of Hebrews is alluding to with his statement of requirement. God rewards those who diligently seek Him through Christ, and He judges and punishes those without faith.
Some people object to God punishing a person with misdirected or no faith; but the objector misses the intimate link between faith and obedience. God has called all men everywhere to repent of their rebellion and disobedience against Him (Acts 17:30). Men demonstrate their love of sin, by continuing in it (Jn 3:19). They display their total disinterest in seeking God (Rom 3:11), and they certainly live like they do not fear God. Men should fear God, but only God can make that happen (Eccl 3:14).
God’s Word reveals God’s Law, which tells us how God wants us to live holy, as He is holy (1 Pet 1:15–16). Obedience to God’s Law exhibits faith. Christians know the Law was given to expose sin and disobedience (Rom 5:20). It serves to drive us to the Cross of Jesus Christ, where the One who perfectly fulfilled the Law (Mt 5:17), being the sinless sacrificial Savior (Heb 4:15; 7:26), has accomplished what sinners could not do by their own will or works (ie. redemption; reconciliation, righteousness, etc.).
Our first task in life is to place our trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and hope of eternal life. This is faith, it is important for us to note that faith is a gift of God (Eph 2:8–9). It has been granted for us to believe in Him (Phil 1:29). No one comes to the Father except through Christ (Jn 14:6), and no one comes to Christ unless the Father, who sent Christ into the world drags him (Jn 6:44). All who come to Christ are never cast out (Jn 6:37), and no one can pluck them out of the hand of Christ, which is the hand of God (Jn 10:28–29), because there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:39).
Fourth, having been baptized into Christ (Rom 6), being baptized by the Holy Spirit (Mt 3:11), the new believer is to live in a manner worthy of her being called by God unto salvation in Christ. What the God-fearer was commanded to do, but could not do, has now become possible with God. Walking in faith pleases God, and it requires our walking by the Spirit (Gal 5:25), that is, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of God is working out each born again believer’s sanctification (Rom 15:16; 1 Thess 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13). This is the process by which sin nature is cauterized by the fire of God’s Spirit. Sinful thoughts, words, and behavior are lessening; while the Spirit-filled saint is becoming more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, the God/man (Rom 8:29). He has new affections for Christ, and these compete with his former affections for sin in the world (Rom 7; 8:5–7). Christ has begun a good work in the new man, and according to His predetermined plan (Acts 2:23), Christ will bring faith to completion in perfect alignment with the will of God for the elect, regenerate, called, justified, believing, and the soon-to-be-glorified child of God (Phil 1:6).
Fifth, Christ lives and works within me for His glory (Gal 2:20). Men do not carry their glory with them when they die (Ps 49:16–18). Their progeny must live in the fading glory of their greatness, no matter how great they actually were in their own minds or in the recollection of others.
Men strive for glory, and then labor to establish their legacy (Gen 11). They leave trusts and foundations of hoarded resources and give money for buildings to bear their names. They do not understand riches in this world make wings and fly away (Prv 23:5), and so does the glory of men (Hos 9:11), who built houses on sand which get washed or blown away (Mt 7:26–27). There is no foundation to be built on other than Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:11). It is important for Christians to understand, “God is one” (Dt 6:4). There is no god beside Him (Is 45:5). God does His work, and He does not share His glory with another (Is 48:11). He is the One who accomplishes what concerns the believer (Ps 57:2; 138:8).
If God is in me, willing and working for His own glory, then what is my part? This is where the Bible needs to be understood as a collective whole, and proof texts must be set aside. When God gives His people a command, it comes in the imperative verb form. When we discover God accomplished what is required of men, it is in the indicative verb form. To separate the imperative command from the indicative accomplishment is sure to lead to misinterpretation of the Scriptures and misapplication in the life of a saint. How then should we live?
Paul answered that for the Philippians, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil 2:12–13).” We work the good works prepared for us (Eph 2:10) because God is at work in us.
Finally, whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men (Col 3:23). Christians must labor (Eph 4:28). The laborers are few (Lk 10:2), and we enter the labors of others (Jn 4:38), earning our own wages (Lk 10:7; 1 Tim 5:18) and reward (1 Cor 3:8). We labor together in God’s vineyard (1 Cor 16:16; 2 Cor 10:15), for Christ to be formed in others (Gal 4:19).
Paul labored in the midst of suffering (2 Cor 11:27), working night and day (2 Thess 3:8), continuing to produce fruit that remains while he lived on in the body (Phil 1:22). Paul humbly confessed he labored more than others (1 Cor 15:10; 2 Cor 6:5; 11:23), and he was concerned about the fruit of his labors (Gal 4:11), which was the spiritual growth and understanding of those to whom He taught Christ. He worked to see Christ formed in them (Gal 4:19). He knew some of his labors may have been in vain (Gal 4:11; 1 Thess 3:5); but he commended other Christians when He saw their faith and labor of love (1 Thess 1:3), which they learned from his own example (1 Thess 2:9). He pressed on toward the goal and encouraged others to do the same (Phil 3:14).
Christians labor in their prayers for others (Col 4:12), and we appreciate those who diligently labor among us and for our benefit (1 Thess 5:12). Paul labored in the pursuit of godliness for himself and others, which is great gain (1 Tim 4:7–11). There is rest soon coming to the saints, as learned from Revelation 14:13, “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”
Therefore, let us store up treasures in heaven (Mt 6:20), making friends for our eternal habitations (Lk 16:9), through our labor of love as unto the Lord Himself. The deeds of the wicked are left in the earth to fade away and suffer destruction by melting fire (2 Pet 3:10–12). The deeds of the righteous are tested by fire to see what they are made of, being precious or worthless (1 Cor 3:11–13; 1 Pet 1:7). Examine your own works and consider the day of accounting in which all the works done in the flesh, both good and bad, will be judged (2 Cor 5:10).
Moses glowed with the glory of the Lord, having spent time with Him atop Mt. Horeb, but that glory faded with time (2 Cor 3:7). The prophet carried the stones engraved with finger of God. It was a temporary, fading glory for Moses. The glory of our labors in Christ, performed in us and through us by the Spirit of Christ, surpass the fading glory of all deeds done in and by the flesh. This is the glory that remains, and it is never fading and forever glorious. To be God the glory, great things He hath done!
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
February 18, 2021
