Understanding the Futility of Your Existence
The book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible is a paradox among many other things. It declares the vanity of fallen humanity. Because it is God’s Word of truth, it should be heeded. Its message, however, is rejected by sinners because of human pride.
The Bible reveals that the god of this fallen world is a demon, Lucifer, who is the God-created adversary of Christ and His people. Satan is a liar, and his children believe his deceit and serve him through mimicry. The whole world is deluded by his influence as the prince of the power of the air.
The subjects of Satan are the sons of Adam. He was the first man created by God, to bear His image. In succumbing to the temptation of the evil one, Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden paradise prepared for them by God their Maker. Having sinned against God, our first parents subjected themselves and their progeny to futility. They became slaves to sin (Rom 6:6).
Sin is lawlessness (1 Thess 3:4). It is the nature of rebels (Eph 2:3). It results in death (Rom 6:23). This death is the state of the human soul at conception (Ps 51:5). Each person is born spiritually dead by way of inherited sin (original sin). Death is looming for each body, too. No matter the period of one’s life, the end for the natural man is death of both body and soul. Regardless of power, position, fame, or fortune all people die.
This observable reality does not change the human mind or human heart. It has no power to change the affections of sinners, who love darkness and the corruption of the world system (Jn 3:19). People lust for more of the world (1 Jn 2:15–17). They set their eyes on the things they covet in the world. They live for sensual gratification.
Satisfaction is always temporary because the material world is fleeting. Decay is the future of everything made new. Death is the future of every living thing. The world has been judged by its Maker (Jn 3:18). His final judgment has been decreed and a day has been appointed for the judgment of the living and the dead (Jn 5:28–29; 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Pet 4:5).
My dear reader, your life is but a vapor (Jas 4:14). You will soon be gone from this earth, as your soul departs at the death of your body. You will soon be forgotten, and your accumulated possessions will belong to others. Your works will be remembered no more. The world, regardless of its notice of your death, will move on with another day. Those who were dependent upon you will find another way to survive in their generation. When your photo albums take up the last available space, they will be discarded by your posterity who know little or nothing about you.
Now, it is time to examine your placement of hope. If you live for this world, only, then you are hopeless at the inevitability of death (Eph 2:12). Death of the body is not the end for anyone. It is appointed once for each person to die and then comes the judgment (Heb 9:27). Each person must give an account of himself and the deeds that were done by that person, both good and bad (2 Cor 5:10).
Criminal deeds are sins against the holiness of God, the Lawgiver and Judge. Sins must be punished as every prisoner knows this about his crimes. Sinners are easily deceived by the devil or distracted from seriously contemplating the necessity of payment on one’s debt of sin. God accounts for every sin. Sinners, in contrast, are lax in their tally of offenses against Almighty God. Simply put, you will have no defense as you stand before the great white throne of God’s judgment (Rev 20:11).
It is utterly futile to imagine that God grades your life on some curve of earnestness. He is not impressed (Gen 6:5; Jer 17:9; Rom 3:10–12). The standard is merely one sin, and it is an eternity to pay. The invaluable majesty of God is incomprehensible to sinners. This is why sinners take sinning so lightly. Most people simply deny the existence of sin, death, judgment, eternal hell, and the lake of fire. Delusion is no deliverance, however.
Only the intervention of divine grace disrupts the futility of one’s existence. When God chooses to save someone from eternal death, He is demonstrating His mercy on guilty sinners (Rom 9:15–16). This select group of mercy and grace recipients are a remnant from the whole number of people who have lived, are living, or will live in the future (Rom 11:5). These are the redeemed of the Lord (Ps 107:2).
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the exclusive Savior of chosen sinners given to Him by His Father (Jn 6:37; Jn 17:2, 6, 24). He saved us (Titus 3:5). Our hope is in Him who died, was buried, and rose again from the dead by the power of God. He is the one Mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5), and He ever lives to make intercession for His own people (Heb 7:25), who are said to be “in Him (1 Cor 1:30).”
The hopeless, godless sinner without Christ wishes to suppress the truth about himself and his eternal home (Rom 1:18; Eph 2:12). He denies the Person and work of Christ and his own need for the one and only Savior of sinners. This, too, is part of His futile existence.
In love, God the Father sent His only begotten Son to actually save us (Jn 3:16). His perfectly executed death on the Cross. His precious blood shed on Calvary delivers sinners into becoming saints by forgiving them all their sins (Ps 79:9; Mt 9:6; 1 Pet 1:19). This transfer from the domain of darkness and into the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son is eternal life for those who hear the Gospel and believe it (Jn 1:12–13; Col 1:13; 1 Jn 5:11–13).
Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from the Word of Christ preached in the demonstrable power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 10:17; 1 Cor 2:4). By the preaching of the man of God, the Lord calls those who are His to come to His Beloved Son (Mt 11:28). By grace, they come to Him who loved them and gave Himself for them (Gal 2:20). This results in a new life, abundant and eternal, thus ending the futility of their existence.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
September 19, 2021
