“Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

(Galatians 6:2)

Most of us have learned not to rely on others too much. This conditioned thinking is partly due to our individualistic culture which praises self-sufficiency. But perhaps (and I hate to be pessimistic) the main reason we tend not to rely on others is not due to culture but experience. It’s just easier not to trust people. As long as we don’t expect too much out of our relationships, we won’t be disappointed. If I don’t trust you, you can’t burn me.

But insulating oneself from others to avoid the immediate pain of disappointment is just trading one kind of pain for another. It’s the difference between suffering a spiritual punch in the gut once in a while and enduring the continual dull ache of arthritis. So, how can we learn to trust others, let alone rely on them for help or  help bear their burdens, knowing that the possibility of a letdown might be just around the corner? If we’re being honest, this will require a power far greater than ourselves to manage. Thankfully, that is exactly what we have in Christ.

In Christ, we adopt a new system of trust, not in others but in the Lord. We must each develop a strong, independent faith in Christ so that, even when we’re not getting support from others, we have all the help we need (Phil. 4:10-13). The Lord always comes through even when people don't (Psalm 146). The Lord never leaves us even when people do (Heb. 13:5). Giving the Lord our ultimate burden and trusting him to the fullest extent renews our trust in others and even strengthens us to help them.

Therefore, bearing another’s burden is a divine activity of love (Gal. 6:2; 5:13; Rom. 13:8-10; Jas. 2:8; Mt. 22:37-40). God, needing nothing himself (Acts 17:25), offers to carry our load (Psa. 55:22; 1 Pet. 5:6-7). The ultimate expression of God bearing our burdens is found in the cross when Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). We were “weary and heavy laden” and he carried the crushing weight of our sin to give us rest (Mt. 11:28-30). All other burdens are light by comparison.

In Christ, we adopt a new mode of thinking. Paul calls this the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:3-8), where our thinking is shaped, not by culture or past experience, but by the gospel. Through this new system of trust, we discover that Jesus viewed his own life as a gift to be laid down for the benefit others (1 Thess. 5:14-15; 1 Jn. 3:16-18). Thinking like Jesus can only lead to acting like him.

In Christ, we adopt a new way of life, the eternal life of Christ (Rom. 6:4; Col. 3:1-4). Our renewed mind should move us to cultivate an environment that makes it easier for others to share burdens, confess sins, and seek help in times of trouble.

“By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Pet. 2:24) God lifted our burdens in Christ so that we could become his wounded healers, his agents of comfort, his burden-bearing servants. Are you lightening the load of another? Are you approachable? Kind? Patient? Gentle? These are the marks of Jesus’ life, the evidence of the Spirit’s power at work in you (Gal. 5:22-25).

As Jesus carried the cross for others, so Christians must carry one another’s burdens. God once told his people, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not!’” (Isa. 35:3-4). We must make it our aim to “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thess. 5:11).

In Christ, it’s all for each and each for all; but no one can slide through on the help of others alone. The command to “bear one another’s burdens” (v.2) is balanced by “each will bear his own load” (v.5). So when it comes to myself, I must recognize my own responsibility; when it comes to my brother, I must be sure to remain humble when I offer help (vv.1-3). And when it’s hard to “bear one another’s burdens,” we must “not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (v.9)

“But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord, I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.”

(Psalm 31:14-15)

King David realized he was subject to change and adversity but, by faith, he entrusted his fragile life (Jas. 4:14) to the unchanging “hand” of God. This comforting truth finds expression in Psalm 46:10: “Cease striving and know that I am God." What does it mean for us to commit ourselves to the care or “hand” of God?

WE ARE NOT TRANSCENDENTALISTS

Because we believe in a sovereign God, we are not trapped in the grip of blind predetermined forces. The Stoic philosophers Paul encountered in Athens  (Acts 17:18) believed in a merciless system of unchangeable fate. They believed events were predetermined so instead of struggling against this blind force we should simply accept things with a spirit of resignation.

But where does this thinking lead? Like the Stoics, we might say “Que sera sera” (whatever will be will be). But by faith we can say instead, “My times are in your hand” or as David said of God in another psalm, “You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me” (Psa. 139:5). It is a personal, loving God who is in control of our lives, not some blind predetermined force.

WE ARE NOT EXISTENTIALISTS

Because we believe in a sovereign God, we are not ships tossed about on the sea of chance. The other philosophers Paul encountered in Athens were Epicureans (Acts 17:18) who believed everything happens by chance. Since there is no existence before birth and nothing after death, “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor. 15:32). The greatest good is what brings the greatest pleasure. But this view turns freewill into a prison. The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre said, “We are left alone, without cause… condemned to be free.” In his novel Nausea, observing the nauseating quality of life, he said, “Man is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance.” Existentialism turns into nihilism. Nihilism turns into fatalism which translates into hedonistic and indulgent behavior.

So the attitude is “Carpe diem!” (seize the day). The nihilist says there was nothing yesterday and there will be nothing tomorrow so do what you want today. But Jesus says today matters because of what God has done in the past and what he promises to do in the future (Mt. 6:34). Our lives are not the result of random chance with only black nonexistence in the future. Our lives matter because there is a loving God in control of all things who works all things according to his will.

WE ARE CLAY BEING SHAPED BY GOD

Because we believe in a sovereign God, we are being trained in the school of God’s providence. God has not abandoned his creation (Deism) nor is he a personification of nature (Pantheism). But this does not mean he has forced his will upon us (Calvinism). Rather, God is orchestrating everything according to his plan and incorporates us into his plan when we choose to follow his will (Acts 17:25-28; Eph. 1:5-7). Though his hidden will may be mysterious and confusing to us (Deut. 29:29), especially when we suffer, his revealed will is clear and comforting: “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose…” (Rom. 8:28-29)

As we live by faith, we are being shaped, one life experience at a time, into conformity with the image of Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Jn. 3:2). Despite our changing circumstances we must commit ourselves into the Potter’s shaping hands. Though there are times God’s hand may seem hidden (from our perspective) his rule remains absolute. He is aware of the most minute details of life on earth, even down to the lifecycle of a lowly sparrow, “and you are of more value than many sparrows” (Mt. 7:11; 10:29-31).

“If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

(Philippians 1:22-23)

What happens when a Christian dies? We know that in death the spirit and body separate (Ecc. 12:7; Jas. 2:26). We also know there will be a future resurrection but what happens to the faithful until then? God hasn’t revealed much on this issue but he has given us a glimpse through the inspired writings of the Apostle Paul.

Writing to the Philippian Christians from prison, Paul contrasts “departing” this world to be with Christ with “remaining” in the flesh (Phil. 1:19-24). If Paul is acquitted he will continue to “live in the flesh” and honor Christ in his work with the churches. If he is found guilty and executed, he considers this a “far better” situation because he will then “depart” from this world “and be with Christ.”

He says in another place, “We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:6-8) So, while we are faithfully serving the Lord here on earth (walking by  faith, not by sight) we are “at home in the body” and alive “in the flesh” but “away from the Lord” (locationally not relationally). If we die, we “depart” to be “with Christ” and are “at home with the Lord.”

But how does all this work with the resurrection? Scripture teaches that when the Lord returns there will be a bodily resurrection and he will hold the world to account in an ultimate act of judgment (Jn. 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; 17:30-31). We may not understand all the intricacies of this but here’s what we know for sure: Unless the Lord returns first (and thus initiates the resurrection and judgment), we will all face our death, or as Paul puts it, our “departure” from this world (2 Tim. 4:6). If that departure occurs before the resurrection, we will then go to “be with Christ” to await the resurrection (Heb. 9:27).

Paul teaches that when the Lord returns, he will “bring with him those who have fallen asleep” in Jesus, and these will rise first (1 Thess. 4:13-18). This makes sense if the faithful go to be with Jesus when they die. Jesus told the penitent thief on the cross, “today you shall be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43). While Jesus’ body lay in the tomb, before his resurrection, he was in Paradise where the tree of life is in the presence of God (Rev. 2:7).

But why the resurrection? If when we die we are “with the Lord” why do we even need to be raised from the dead? The answer lies in God’s eternal plan to redeem all that has been corrupted by sin since Genesis 3, including our sin-cursed bodies. God created us in his image as embodied beings not disembodied spirits (Gen. 2:7; cf. 2 Cor. 5:1-5). God’s goal, which he has initiated in Jesus’ resurrection, is to “unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph. 1:10), to “reconcile” all that sin and death estranged from him (Col. 1:20). Part of that process of reconciliation is to unite our spirits with our renewed and incorruptible bodies in the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:50-57).

Our resurrection will then signal the freedom of “all things” that were subjected to corruption and death. Paul says, “creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). Both Peter and John borrow a phrase from Isaiah and call this new creation, which has already begun in Christ but is not yet complete (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15), the “new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-4).

This “new creation” will be finally realized only when the Lord returns (2 Pet. 3:7-12; Rev. 20:14). In the meantime, we have an imperishable inheritance kept in heaven for us (1 Pet. 1:3-5). We are to live holy and hopeful lives awaiting the day when we “attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:10-11). If we “depart” before then, we will “be with the Lord” to await that day.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

(Hebrews 11:1)

Some have defined faith as “belief in something you know can’t be true” or “the illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.” But Biblical faith is not unthinking, irrational or gullible. It's not a "blind" leap as we often say. Instead faith is a measured step we take based on evidence provided by God himself. There is confidence in that step of faith because there is a sure foundation of trust beneath it. The word translated "assurance" can mean "substance" or "confidence," indicating that which provides the foundation for trust. "Conviction" is sometimes translated as "evidence," indicating the proof or reality of something. So faith is not belief despite the evidence but trust because of the evidence. This does not mean faith is always based on scientific demonstration. We sometimes forget, still living in the glow of the Enlightenment, that there are other forms of evidence.

Though the Bible makes some extraordinary claims, we have strong reasons for believing in the existence of God and the truthfulness of his promises. We can see four of those reasons by looking back, looking up, looking down and looking in.

Look back to the beginning of the universe. Just in the last 100 years, the majority of scientists have come to believe that the universe had a beginning. We are able to detect the expansion of the universe in size in all directions indicating a fixed starting point in time and space. In other words, as Stephen Hawking said, “the universe has not existed forever… it had a beginning.”

The opening verses of the Bible give a reason for that beginning: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). If God did not create the universe then what is the alternative? Criticism without alternative is empty. One popular alternative is that it simply came into existence for no apparent reason. But can something come from nothing? If the universe has a beginning, there must be a reason for its existence.

Look up to see a universe finely tuned for life. Imagine playing poker with someone who draws twelve straight royal flushes, the odds of which are about the same as winning the lottery twelve times in a row. Something similar could be said with respect to the universe. There are many features of creation that need to be precisely as they are for life to be possible, not just life on Earth or life as we know it, but any form of life anywhere.

How are we to explain these amazing “coincidences”? The rational conclusion is that the universe is not a result of random forces but of a purposeful mind. Paul says, “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20).

Look down into the empty tomb. The historical evidence of Jesus’ bodily resurrection agrees with what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, that he was raised from the dead and appeared before many people. Christians proclaimed this resurrection even under threat of death. Pliny the Younger, a Roman governor in the first century wrote, “I ask them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and a third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution.”

What alternatives are there to Jesus’ resurrection? Was it a legend? History shows that it takes about three generations for a legend to develop and Christians were proclaiming his resurrection immediately after it took place. A hallucination? Could hundreds of people have seen the same hallucination? Not likely. Was it all an elaborate lie? What would these Christians have to gain from lying? Poverty, prison and persecution awaited them! Or could it be that God “has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31)?

Look in the pages of the Bible. For me, more than all the philosophical and scientific arguments for the existence of God, there is the Bible itself. And I don’t mean the many convincing proofs for the inspiration of Scripture. An even greater proof to me is the Bible’s message, the gospel. The beautiful story that unfolds in its pages reveal God’s unconquerable love toward flawed and sinful people like you and me. It tells of his power and wisdom to bring his eternal plan to fruition in Jesus. It tells of his amazing grace toward all those who trust in him. That’s reason enough for me.

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

(Joshua 24:14-15)

God gave humanity something he didn’t give the rest of his creation: the dignity of moral choice. When we make decisions that go beyond mere animalistic survival, decisions based on principle, we reflect God’s image and glorify him in a unique way. God designed all of creation with an instinctual and irresistible impulse to “fulfill his word” (Psa. 148). Birds sing. Stars shine. Flowers bloom. They do what they are created to do. But God desires humans to choose to fulfill their purpose. Obeying a natural compulsion is one thing but weighing a decision and choosing obedience is a deeper and more profound action. It’s an action of love and it’s what we’re made for (Deut. 6:5).

After reading the Law to Israel before entering Canaan, Moses prophesied that future generations would fail to keep their promises to God. But after the curses of disobedience fell upon them, they would return and God would restore them (Deut. 30:1-14). In the shadow of this prophecy, Moses put the choice before his own generation between “life and good, death and evil” (Deut. 30:15). After conquering the land, Moses’ successor, Joshua, put the same choice before Israel (Josh. 24:14-15).

But this choice is not exclusive to the Jews. Today, the same choice is put before all people in the form of the good news of Jesus (Acts 17:30-31). There are three facets to our choice:

This is a personal choice. “Choose for yourselves…” Joshua said. In other words, no one else can make this choice for you. Even though Joshua decided how he was going to lead his family, he couldn’t force his wife and children to obey the Lord. All he could do was give them the best opportunity to choose for themselves (Eph. 5:25; 6:4). We are all personally accountable to God for our response to the gospel.

The is a daily choice. “Choose for yourselves today…” Though we may grow in our understanding on either side of that choice, there is a critical moment in which we make our determination to obey the Lord known. For ancient Israel, it was crossing the Red Sea or the Jordan River. For us, it means crossing over from death into the life of Jesus through baptism. We signify that death by being buried in a figurative grave of water and rising out of the water as Jesus rose from the tomb to “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:1ff; Col. 2:12; Acts 22:16). Our new way of life must continue to reflect that choice everyday. Joshua could have said, “Choose for yourselves today and everyday afterward whom you will serve.”

This is a choice of loyalty. In the words of the recently deceased Neil Peart, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” We all serve a master (Rom. 6:16-20) and we prove to be in the grip of the evil one either by putting off this choice for the future (Acts 24:25) or by believing we are our own master (Jn. 8:34; 2 Pet. 2:19). The truth of Jesus sets us free from this self-deception (Jn. 8:31-36) as we voluntarily come under his liberating and loving rule (Mt. 11:28-30).

Though this choice to serve the Lord, whether in the words of Moses and Joshua in the Old Testament or in the words of Jesus in the New, may sound like an ultimatum (“Serve God or else!”) it is much more of an appeal of grace. While it is true we will be held accountable for our choice it is still a choice nonetheless. The amazing thing is not that God would send those who have already rejected him away but that sinners could have the choice to live with him at all. God loves us and desires us to live (2 Pet. 3:9) but the choice is ours.