The most important question Jesus ever asked

As we draw down to the close of yet another year, it is important to glance over our shoulder and take one final look at the year that has just gone by. Hindsight, as they say, is 20-20. Years ago when I was in high school, an older man challenged me to evaluate all my activities by asking two questions: 1) Where will this activity get you in five years? and 2) Where will this activity get you for eternity? Bear in mind that this was an older Christian gentleman, and to Christians, eternity is a very important issue (or, at least, should be). But even if you care little about eternity, I think you can readily see the sageness of his advice. While many activities are wrong and sinful, even those that are not can be simply a waste of time. Thus it is a prudent young person who will evaluate their activities in light of their goals for the future.

One example of this is a college education. My two oldest sons are now in the U of A system, pursuing degrees that will take about five years to obtain. Thus, my advice to them is to not even think of a girl until they are finished. Not only has God created man in such a way that he can be distracted by the fairer sex, but girls can also make themselves very distracting. And once distracted, then comes marriage, children and maybe no more college. Marriage, indeed is a good thing, but if you need that degree, it would be better to have it in hand before rather than after.

Honest evaluation is laying all the cards on the table and considering the cons as well as the pros, and it is taking responsibility for the decision which is ultimately made.

While it is sage advice to consider activities in light of short-term goals, the truth is that the most important question centers around eternity: Where will this activity get you for eternity? Jesus asked it this way in the gospel of Mark: For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

While many out there will surely mock me to scorn, the Bible makes it clear that God has created each of us with a body that someday will die, and with a soul that will live forever. Upon the death of the body, the soul will be released and sent to its eternal destination. When Jesus speaks of a man losing his soul, it is because that soul will wind up in the place of eternal death, more affectionately known as hell. Hell is the jail house of the soul where it will await the day when it will be reunited with its body and stand before its Creator, Jesus Christ, who will judge it for its sin and pass sentence for what the Bible calls the second death, the lake of fire. Both hell and the lake of fire are places of torment, the only real difference between the two being the length of stay, but those admitted into the one have only the other to look forward to.

Thus it is here that the soul is lost.

You know, you don’t even have to believe in eternity or hell to answer his question. In one vane it is a philosophical question: What if? What if you spent your life amassing greater wealth than everyone else in the world, yet in the end you went to hell? What good did that wealth really do you?

The truth is that the average life expectancy is only about 70 years. While many people live on into even their 90s, many don’t even make it out of their 40s. Compared to the age of the earth, your life is but a spit in the bucket, but eternity is time without end. What good is opulence for even 100 years if it is followed by multiplied hundreds of years of torment and anguish?

But the question is rhetorical as well, for it is meant to persuade. While there are multitudes out there that will scream, “There is no hell,” they cannot prove it. They cannot disprove a place they’ve never been to, though someday they will go. But the one who spent three days and three nights there says not only that it’s real, but that you really don’t want to go there.

Today, Jesus asks an honest question for your evaluation, and for those who would, he offers an honest alternative.

Ron Hamman is pastor of Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla; contact him at 357-4229 or rghamman@mtaonline.net.