In this chapter let us consider two goals set up by some Christians toward which they focus their living. We shall see how deflecting a goal may be even though earnestly and honestly sought. These mistaken goals cover necessary and accepted truth but when arranged as an objective for focusing life and activity they are tragically un-scriptural and deflecting.
I have found here one of the neediest fields for revamping and rethinking our ideas as to a goal. The need is due to a lack of careful, clear, prayerful, honest thinking and study in the presence of tradition and sentimental notions and good sounding, but not scriptural teaching. In trying to help a soul over a present and seemingly urgent need, I have had to go back to the real source of the trouble and find what he was really aiming at or what he thought was God’s goal for Christian living. To the majority of Christians, both carnal and spiritual, God does not seem to figure largely in the matter. It is usually approached and worked out from man’s point of view. Here is tragedy.
May I help you? When I ask Christians about a final goal (not what they are at present doing) but the ultimate for life, most of them cannot give a very clear statement. They are rather hazy in thought when they have to reach so far ahead. The goal is so remote, so vague, unreal and unrelated to the “doings of now” that few have given it clear or serious thought at all. However, after questioning I discover that the goal of life usually vibrates between two points-service or heaven.
Service As A Goal
To the one group the expression of life in service holds the field. I believe I can appreciate why it should be so. Not having a scriptural understanding of the meaning and objective, one would naturally take a very human, limited slant in his thinking. These people are usually sanguine, militant, aggressive, fine organizers, excellent executives, missionary, evangelistic, and expressive. Their vision is filled with: “the field is white unto harvest.” They are grand workers. Things just must go. Enterprise, achievement, spreading the kingdom, conquest, expansion, and saving the world, keep a burden upon them. Their theme song might well be, “To the work, to the work.” And to hear them argue, exhort, and preach ( who have not yet escaped this side line) one would almost think man was after all going to out-do God.
And even in circles of more spiritually minded people, Spirit-filled and alive unto God, one will still find a hangover of the old order coloring much of their thinking and movements. Here too, we hear popular slogans which are not wholly true and usually deflect the seeker for truth off upon issues, really of God, but not ultimate, and thus they become a hindrance rather than a help on the way. One so often hears, “Saved to serve” quoted and used almost as a scripture text, and yet it is not really the whole truth. It is correct only in part. It is true we are saved to express the new life and the thoroughly saved soul will normally seek a place of spiritual service and ministry. It is characteristic of the new order. But you see salvation reaches beyond the point of service-on, on, on past this life, and projects itself into another age and to a perfection to be gained. Service is only a means-a God-given means to an end.
Another phrase, very popular but not thoroughly scriptural is, “the baptism is for service.” I wonder sometimes who originates these deflecting slogans. Usually the text used is Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” But you see when you read the verse carefully He does not say, “ye shall serve.” It is not do. But He does say, “ye shall be.” Usually the word, witness is restricted to mean service and ministry. But witness is a larger word than service. It does include service, but that is only part of its significance. Of course, the power of the Spirit is back of it all. Remember here that the gifts are for service and they are of course a manifestation of the Spirit. So, service is only a part of the purpose of the fullness of the Spirit. Its ultimate is deeper and fuller as you will see later in this book. It is so much easier to do than to be. He tells us what we are to be, not so much what to do.
After the bandwagon of spectacular service has rolled by and the blare of trumpets fades away and the dust settles, it is difficult sometimes to get your bearings. Many young Christians, thrilled with the idea of possibility—not yet knowing the word probability-are swept off their feet. However, it is good to know that down underneath it all is “the still small voice.”
Please listen! I am not saying there is no place for Christian ministry and active service. I am not depreciating it because I show it in some of its picturesque trappings. There is a glorious and militant place for it. The new life in Christ does seek expression and it is a normal and logical result of contact with the Christ. All the descriptive qualities mentioned are very commendable. The glorious commission is still good; it has never been revoked-“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” ( Matt. 28:19). God does burden souls for the unsaved, missionaries are called and wonderfully blest in their fields. A Spirit-filled and directed service is a great part of the consecrated follower’s life. But when we make service in any form-limited or with world-wide scope-the goal of life, we are wrong. God does not do so. The Bible does not hold out any such scheme as the ultimate for Christian living. Many, upon this discovery, are disappointed and hate to face the truth. Some human programs, beautiful and thrilling, will have to give place to God’s plan. That is hard. Some Christians will have to restate and correct their views and line up with the Scripture, and that is hard too.
May I help you? As you read-it may be patiently-you will find the place which service holds in the Christian experience. All service is for reactionary purposes. Keep it in its place and let it serve you. I mean just that-let service serve you.
Heaven As A Goal
Now let us consider the other group I found, who make heaven a goal. They hold in common many of the general characteristics of the other group but are not quite so bound by the service idea. They like the encouragement and hope that heaven offers and have become more interested perhaps in heaven as a kind of a release. They feel keenly the pressure and unsatisfactory results in life as the grind of present situations press upon them. Many in this group have splendid, spiritual qualities. Many have already penetrated beyond the husks of unreality ( flesh and nature) and have caught a glimpse of spiritual possibilities. Too many times these souls miss the finest in spiritual living because of limited fields and purposes which entangle the spirit in its holy quest. When asked what their goal for life might be, the answer usually is-heaven. With them heaven holds the field. They still have a hangover of works. Often at the close of an inspiring testimony of God’s grace, love and power and a witness of life in them, I have heard them say, “Pray for me that I may hold out to the end and make heaven my home.” At once I can hear some of you say, “What is wrong with that?'' It is not a moral question of right and wrong. The last part of the testimony was a tell-tale give-away, and showed what was uppermost and aim for them. His aim or goal was to “hold out to the end and make heaven his home.” This person is still “holding on.” Seemingly he does not rest in the Father’s hand. You still feel the quiver of a struggle and effort on his part. Listen, you cannot save yourself. Christ is the Saviour and does the holding. No doubt the person means well. Perhaps he means, “Pray for me that I may be faithful in the task laid out for me, or pray that I may walk in the Spirit and please God.” But the way such people speak, you feel the self-effort and pressure in doing what God says He will do.
“And make heaven my home” is another phrase so often used. You do not earn heaven, nor is it offered as a final goal for being good. Heaven belongs to a child of God as a part of the general scheme and plan of redemption. We are not redeemed just to go to heaven. You do not go there because you “hold out to the end.” H you are redeemed you will go there because God has prepared it as a place for saved people. It is His plan and I simply cooperate with Him in faithfulness in life, and heaven is a normal consequence of God’s redeeming me. The plan of redemption includes heaven as an item in a redeemed universe functioning to His glory, and redeemed humanity perfectly adjusted to the highest spiritual living and a perfection of His original thought-“Let us make man.” Heaven is an integral item in the plan. Christ always spoke of heaven as a place. Yet in one memorable statement He made the kingdom to mean a heart condition. (Luke 17:21)-“For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Heaven is first condition and then location. It is always easier to deal with picture forms, materialistic concepts and symbols than abstract truth. So it is easier and far more comforting to contemplate and visualize heavenly features than to entertain and create heavenly conditions. When Jesus made that statement the Jews, you will remember, were suffering from a “kingdom complex.” They continually dragged the heavenly and spiritual truth to the level of human thought and cast it into the mold of a material kingdom. Christ did not say there was no material kingdom, but He placed emphasis where it belonged. The kingdom must first be present in heart; location will follow. The heaven within will determine the other. So let us not plan too elaborately on the shape of the mansion, the width of the golden streets and the size of the harps. Let us be sure that the inner heart and life condition is such as may find counterpart in the desired heaven. Heaven is pure grace, it is a part of the great gift of salvation, but a crown (now you strike the question of rewards) is won. A crown is the symbol of authority and power. We qualify for the crown. They are not passed out to make one happy or to add to one’s decoration and appearance. One may be given a harp (the symbol of joyful expression)—all may have a certain sense of appreciation and joy and a harp for telling it. But crowns are symbols of authority and power for which one has qualified.
Did you ever notice in reading church history, when and why this idea of heaven being a goal crept in?
The most glorious pictures of heaven are found in the Revelation. This book is highly symbolic and picturesque in language. It suggests so much by way of a happy release from the tragedy of earth life. When was it written? When the Church was going through most terrific persecution and_ needed encouragement and stimulant to faith. The whole theme is victory and triumph. It is the Revelation of the Christ. It came just when the persecuted, struggling Church needed a fresh assurance of the ultimate triumph of God in the universe. Not only was it to comfort the early Church but God saw to it that it was incorporated in the canon of Holy Writ. So today, it again sheds light upon a dark world and again encourages the heart of the Christian in faith as it waits the mighty triumph of Christ.
The contrast of the lowly, persecuted Church with the Church triumphant in Christ in the heavenlies, the happy release from the pressure of the present life and the blest hereafter was overpowering to that early group. The whole emphasis shifted and centered upon heaven. Before this the very early Church moved under a tremendous impact of truth in the form of Life. The early group of believers had neither yet formulated doctrines nor become involved in the mechanism and technique of its administration. They were vitally conscious of Life. Redemption was a reality-demonstrated in actual life. The Revelation had not yet been written for the early group who moved under the early Pentecostal experience. What was it that gave the early Church the dynamic power which caused her to blaze her way through the awful odds against her? Do you for a moment think it was alone the baptism and service? It was not the service that carried her through-it was the witnessing, or life willing to be offered to death, that did it. Not all followers, I feel sure, were so highly gifted, but they had to know how to live and that counted. They were not thinking of making heaven a goal; they were too busy living. Her emphasis was upon life and upon what God was doing to her and for her and in her more than what she was doing for God. The impact of truth which moved and molded the early Church fresh from the Pentecostal experience was that of life, and not heaven. We would do well if we could remember that, when so many times we hear of people wanting to recapture the experience of the early Pentecostal Church. As a rule, what they desire is to see the power of God manifest in signs and wonders and supernatural gifts. But let us remember there was something more than merely the outpouring of the Spirit. There was something upon which to pour it. I mean by that that there was some tremendous and intensive living. Miracles are wrought in the atmosphere of pressure and impossibility. But no one likes such an atmosphere. The Church moved in power not because every member was so filled that the assembly was just a sight of supernatural doings. Gifts were there, no doubt, but it was the pressure that brought the power after all. So when you desire to recapture the early experience don’t forget that pressure, suffering, persecution, absolute devotion, were accompanying features. We have not yet suffered. The early Church was not thinking of a delectable harp, but a disciplined heart.
Do not misunderstand me. I do believe in heaven. Why should I not when God has been so good as to give me a little glimpse of the heavenly life? There is a place in our Christian thought and philosophy for a future hope and realization of things intimated by the Spirit. We now need the celestial phase of truth, its uplift, inspiration, mystery and the utter other-world atmosphere. The sublime inspiration and hope of a glorious completed future and continuity of divine life is absolutely needed and given by the Word. But nowhere can we find God making heaven a goal. It is never the ultimate for the Christian in His plan. I know that tradition, sentiment, and so many hymns, have wrought wonders in this field, but all that has only deflected the soul and sent it out upon avenues diverging from the central goal which God has for it.