Here’s the conclusion to this little series. If you’re following Jesus, you have a hope in Heaven – something to cling to when life looks bleak and things look like they’re going downhill. Following Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have a foretaste of what it will be like – God’s kingdom is here right now, but not yet in its fullness. God is changing lives, healing the sick, raising the dead right now, but it’s only a glimpse of what the full deal is going to look like, on the day when Jesus finally puts a permanent end to sin and death.
If you’re not sure about the God I’m describing, if your experience of Christianity is guilt trips and dull services rather than life and hope and the knowledge that you are loved beyond hope by the creator of the universe – please give him another chance. Open a bible, chat to a Christian friend, pray and ask that God would show you some measure of his love for you, that he is real and really worth pursuing. If you’ve been convinced by scientific argument that God is an unnecessary myth, take another look at the God who not only loves physics, biology, chemistry and those deep wells of truth, but wrote their laws himself and set their rules in motion. All scientific theories on the origins of our universe require faith. And none so adequately explains what came before creation as the will and power of the divine.
This is the God who wants to rescue you from judgment, certainly – but far more than that, he simply loves and wants you with him. Time is running out on the best and most exciting deal you will ever be offered. If you’ve still got a pulse, and Jesus hasn’t yet returned – take some time to consider again what it means if the son of God truly died for you.