Life is about attitude, and attitude is a matter of perspective. I propose a radical way of life for anyone who has accepted the radical offer of eternal life in Christ. Radical claim: Christians are people who actually believe that they will rise from the dead in glorious refashioned bodies in an “end-times” event called the Resurrection. We believe this because God has promised it, and we have read that promise in the Bible.

Colossians 3:3–4 says, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” This is one reference to the Resurrection, described as the “revelation of Christ.” We find another more explicit statement in Philippians 3:20–21: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

The all-powerful Christ will conform our bodies to the likeness of His glorious body. It’s a promise. We need to think on it and claim it. You will never grow spiritually beyond the applicability of this promise. It is our Hope.

This radical belief is foolishness, of course, to those who reject Christianity. Notice that I did not say, “to those who have not heard.” I mean those who reject the offer of eternal life in Christ. Those who have been invited and turned it down. Yes, the world considers this message to be total foolishness.  Advancing something so barbaric and embarrassing as the Cross of Christ as the only path to eternal life is just absurd (1 Cor 1:18). But Christians should build their whole day on this idea. Every day. Every hour. Every minute.

We should regularly think these thoughts: when we die, our soul and spirit will be separated from our body, which is the only part of us that actually dies. Then WE will be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Face to face. Forever.

2 Corinthians 5:6–8 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

The Command

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

Of course I agree that joy is an emotion derived from a state of mind. I believe that joy is actually the appropriate response of the heart’s emotions when the thinking of part our heart encounters favorable information. Think of the joy of a young child who finds out for the first time that Grandma and Grandpa are on their way over for a visit. The facts have been evaluated and have produced an appropriate emotional response. There are differing levels of joy, just like there are differing levels of sadness or any other emotion. The key point about joy is the thinking of the heart that produces it.

What favorable information can a believer rely on in the throes of great personal crisis and trouble? I suggest that this is a matter of perspective or viewpoint. Better yet, let’s say it’s a matter of focus. When you are overcome with troubles–real, horrific, overwhelming, even excruciating troubles–it is always true that you are not rejoicing. Your focus is on the source of the trouble and not the great solution to ALL your troubles. Troubles will come; You do not have to be overcome by them.  And be certain that you never will have justification for disobeying God because of your troubles.  Ours is a life of suffering in obedience, just like our Savior.

For you to “rejoice in the Lord always” you need favorable facts in the thinking of your heart which will always be true. Permanent good news. Otherwise you have no right to “rejoice always.” Paul’s command is not to fake rejoicing and “put on happy face.”  Pretending to rejoice is not actually doing it.  But he wrote this command from prison while being treated like a criminal. His offense? Living a life of selfless devotion to God’s mission of advancing of the Gospel and the spiritual growth of His vast flock. Loving Christ and His sheep.

The Questions

0. What is Biblical eschatology? Answer:  the biblical doctrine of “last things” or the “end-times.”  Every worldview has an eschatology, including the Christian worldview.

1. What is the day-to-day impact of Biblical eschatology on your Christian walk?

2. What should be the day-to-day impact of Biblical eschatology on your Christian walk?

Passage to Pray

1 Corinthians 15:50–57 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.