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Jesus made His mark on history by doing the will of the Father. Think of it; we are still talking in A.D. 2018 about His birth (ca. 6-4 B.C), His life, His death (ca. 29-30 A.D.)1, His resurrection (3rd day), and His ascension (40th day)! This tells me that there is longevity in being on the right side of His-story. If Solomon understood that whatever God is doing has the quality of eternality (Eccl 3:14), then doing the will of God for our lives possesses that same sterling quality (cf. 1 Jn 2:17, “…he who does the will of God abides forever.”).
Thinking, speaking, and acting according to the will of God are always on the right side of His story. When we decide to go outside of God’s will, we immediately fall from a vertical orientation to a horizontal outlook of temporality, a sphere of no rewards or lasting values, spinning our wheels under the sun. This is definitely on the wrong side of His-story for a believer.
We need to safeguard our hearts, don’t you think, to avoid the pitfalls of legalism or libertarianism by being strategic, poised, and wise beyond our years in the things of God; this takes 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration: learning the Word, living the Word, and loving the Word. I wish I could say that this is so blatantly obvious, but great and godly men have observed the vice-like squeeze of willful ignorance of God’s Word with its debilitating and devastating effects on the lives of disobedient believers. So many negative things could have been avoided if only God’s Word had been heeded!
The fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) is never seen in the thoughts, words, or behavior of the self-righteous; with self-righteousness, there is no His-story making for God, just a history of living for self. Look where it got the Pharisees and Sadducees who rejected Jesus as their Messiah (cf. Mt 23:33). Obeying God’s commands from the heart (Jn 14:15; cf. Jer 17:10) is being on the right side of His-story!
Being self-righteous is actually a contradiction of terms, there is no assertion of the “self” in righteous behavior; it is hypocritical in nature and self-deceptive. Self-right is self-wrong or call it anything you will but not Christlikeness. In Rom 3:10, Paul recited from the Psalmist (Psa 14:1-3; 53:1-3), “It is written,” that “There is none righteous, no, not one.” It is only through the great imputation of God’s righteousness at salvation that we as believers have the right standing before God on the basis of – by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (Rom 4:6, 24; 2 Cor 5:21; Php 3:9; Titus 3:5; Eph 2:8-9).
Self-right has absolutely nothing to do with spiritual regeneration, but it has everything to do with the manifestation of the flesh or sinful nature. The flesh or sin nature is the unredeemable part of man’s being that serves the law of sin (Rom 7:18, 25) but through “the law of my mind,” Paul stated, or the new inner self (2 Cor 5:17, “a new creation”), we can serve the law of God (cf. Rom 12:1-2)!
Self-right has absolutely nothing to do with spiritual regeneration, but it has everything to do with the manifestation of the flesh or sinful nature. The flesh or sin nature is the unredeemable part of man’s being that serves the law of sin (Rom 7:18, 25) but through “the law of my mind,” Paul stated, or the new inner self (2 Cor 5:17, “a new creation”), we can serve the law of God (cf. Rom 12:1-2)!
Do you know about the acronym for home projects: D.I.Y. (do it yourself)? This is spiritually descriptive of the do-it-yourself righteousness crowd. They do it on their own terms; they self-help themselves into what they believe to be acceptable to God, or more like it, to the liking of their peers (got to have that acceptance!) by their works or meeting their expected markers of spirituality (such as keeping the 10 commandments, speaking in tongues, healings, prosperity, veganism, et cetera); this is the fertile soil that is far, far away from the Gospel message of grace where legalism takes root, sprouts, and goes wild and weedy.
Just a quick note on the Decalogue (Ex 20:2-17); Jesus, and only Jesus kept “The Ten” perfectly; all others, past, present, and future, had failed or will fail this side of eternity to obey the ten commandments flawlessly (cf. Jas 2:10). There has been a reiteration of the ten commandments in the NT, except for one, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex 20:11).
Boy, this is one commandment that religious man has worn people out over through misinterpretation and usurpation of authority, making the Sabbath a burden rather than what it was originally intended to be, a blessing to man. Jesus told them plainly, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27)!
Jesus, the Covenant-Maker with Moses, asserts His deity after addressing the Pharisees on the right interpretation of the third commandment of the Decalogue in the next verse (Mk 2:28), “Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” The problem with the sabbaths in Jesus’ day was the sabbaths were steeped and encased in traditions. How many people suffered from being socially ostracized in their community, suffered economically, or went to the rock pit to be stoned to death because of Satanic tampering with the Sabbath by those agents of the devil who should have been stoned to death instead? Is my righteous indignation bleeding through…?
Well, people come and go, don’t they? What is our world population up to now, over 7.5 billion and growing?! Out of all those people, who don’t want to make their mark on history in some way or another; to stand out from the pack, to do something that outlives them. Who wants to die forgotten (cf. Eccl 3:20; 9:5-6). The problem with making a mark on human history with monumental structures, inventions, and positive contributions to society is that they will all eventually dissolve with the old earth, leaving absolutely, unequivocally no trace of the history of humanity or earth’s former topography (2 Pet 3:10-12; Rev 21:1-5).
This is why it is so critical for believers to do the things for God that outlasts the passing of time (cf. 1 Jn 2:16-17). All of human history will disappear one day but not the gold, silver, and precious stones in service to God (1 Cor 3:10-17). This is the way we make a positive and lasting mark on His-story as believers. The only secular human history in the eternal state that we will know for certain is what had been recorded in God’s eternal Word (cf. Lk 21:33). All of the monuments of, for, and to man will dissolve with the earth as we know it in the future.
Everything man has accomplished pales in light of the tremendous sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son who died on our behalf! We shall ever praise Him for the unmerited love, grace, and mercy extended to us (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8; 1 Jn 4:10), expressed on that wicked wood outside the city limits of Jerusalem ca. 30 A.D. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (Rev 5:12)! The praise of Yahweh will continue and echo from here to eternity and throughout all eternity (cf. Psa 30:12; 145:21; Dan 2:20; Rom 11:36; 1 Tim 1:17; Rev 5:13).
Since inscripturated (or written) revelation will forever remain (Mt 24:35), then it stands to reason we will receive and retain all of the knowledge of what the original autographs entailed. There will be no translations or commentaries needed, no clergy or laymen distinctions, no opposing theological positions, no bias- barriers, no finger-pointing, no looking down the nose, and no heresies!
All interpretations of the texts will be settled once and for all. The Word will be completely understood and interpreted precisely and uniformly by every citizen of the Kingdom of God as the Holy Spirit intended for it to be – interpreted by holy people in its context. We shall never again see a church on all four corners! That was the way of the world, but not up there in heaven! When we are glorified, we will see and experience Scripture in the way that God intended for it to be seen and experienced or lived out (cf. Php 3:21; 1 Cor 13:11-12; 15:51-53; 1 Jn 3:2).
God’s Word is His revelation of Himself to man. We have read what He is like from the Pages of the Holy Writ on earth, but in glory, we will see Him face to face in Person, only to realize that He is not only what the Bible declared Him to be but so much more. We shall behold Him in all of His radiant glory with eyes wide-open to experience the way things are and forever will be! This is going to be great and awesome, being in the very presence of the Creator God and inundated by His Shekinah glory as we join the angelic hosts in the anthem of exaltation to the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords! We are really going to like heaven; it will be a place that we can truly call our home.
So, do you want to still make history and change the world for God? Or have you given up on such an idealistic ambition long ago? Let me say this to my older friends; regardless of your age, if you hadn’t done so, begin with being the change you want to see in the world, right now. That change should be Christ in you, the hope of glory, making His story for His glory, whether this old world changes or not! Jesus never compromised His relationship with the Father over anything pertaining to the world; that’s part of being like Christ, too! How can people see Hope in us if we go the way of a fallen world? How can they say, “I want what you got,” if we don’t toe the line with His-story?
Forget about secular history! It is overrated, short-sighted, and short-lived. The history of man is nothing more than dwelling upon, being occupied by, and consumed by the cares of this world that are coming to an end. All the negativity swirling around in our nation today makes me yearn the more for heaven, to be near my God of peace and comfort, my Redeemer, but until then, to be on the right side of His-story is everything.
Imagine Jesus throwing in the towel before reaching the threshold of the cross, claiming to the Father that sinners are not worth the great sacrifice and suffering He must endure to redeem them. I am rejoicing that His-story didn’t read that way! Jesus’ statement on the cross, “It is finished,” tells us all that the will of the Father did not pass from Him! He drank from the cup of suffering and death on our behalf to provide salvation to a lost and dying humanity, which includes you and me.
What if the triune Godhead didn’t love us enough to provide a way out of condemnation? What if Jesus didn’t love the will of the Father? What if Jesus didn’t stay the course? What if He didn’t die in our stead for the penalty of our sin? Where would we be? None of us would be going to heaven that I can tell you! But those questions are all a moot point because of what we know of His-story – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” Halleluyah!
In light of our Lord’s great sacrifice for us, may our character not be defined by creature comforts but by our commitment to God’s Word in every circumstance of life. As stated earlier, we simply cannot make His-story as a believer apart from the Word of God! Granted, that is not always an easy thing to do, and it usually comes with a price tag (2 Tim 3:12).
Doing God’s will for our life is the only thing that will outlast human history, living out His story with a quality of service of gold, silver, and precious stones, which only comes about through sold-out obedience to His will. Such a caliber of service to God will never come from D.I.Y. effort, without faith, legalism, libertarianism, hypocrisy, carnality, sinning in knowledge, or ignoring His Word. Making His-story for God in the here and now is the only thing you and I can take with us to glory; everything else is left behind via rapture or R.I.P.
I have never forgotten what my history professor once said about history, “One of the things that history teaches us is that man doesn’t learn from history.” The gate is wide and the way is broad which leads to destruction with so many entering through that gate are not encouraging factors at all, but it is a spiritual reality according to Jesus who should know (Mt 7:13)!
Listen, we all need to be and stay on the right side of His-story, or we will suffer loss – the loss of potential rewards for service as a believer had we remained faithful or the loss of eternal life as an unbeliever for refusing God’s priceless offer of salvation. <><
Every believer can make His-story, the kind that lasts forever.
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1. In all fairness, the exact date of Jesus’ death is debated. See https://www.gotquestions.org/what-year-did-Jesus-die.html
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