“Bucket list” or “The Best is yet to come!”?
“… lay hold on eternal life..” 1 Tim 6:12
I want to talk about two common
phrases that you would have probably heard. The first is “kick the bucket” and the second is “the best is yet to come”. Firstly, it is unclear how the phase
“kick the bucket” first came about. If you ask Google, you may find that there
are a few possible sources. It seems to
me that a credible possibility relates to the Roman Catholic rite of placing a
bucket of “holy” water besides the foot of the deceased so that those who come
to pray can sprinkle such “holy” water on the deceased. Whatever it is, to kick
the bucket means to die. So many in this world are obsessed with having a
bucket-list of things to do before they die. Do a Google, and you will end up with
a suggestion of “101 things to do before
you die”. Append the word “travel” to the search and you will find the 10
best places to visit in 2018. So, to many folks they would be a slave to work in
order to have their 20 years of so-called worry-free retirement. Behind this
Bucket-list Mentality is the idea that the best is what you can find in this
life on earth and there is nothing beyond this life. Such a mentality has also
perhaps subconsciously crept into the rank and file among Christians. Some Christians
“end up thinking, If I can’t live my
dreams now, I never will, Or, you only go around once”. Perhaps this is
very much prevalent in Singapore, given our wealth and prosperity. If you have
such a mentality and profess faith in Christ, it speaks of your poor
understanding of what it means to be redeemed in Christ and finally to live in
the new heaven and new earth as set forth in Revelation 21:1-4 and, worse still,
you might be laying up the wrong treasure (Matt 6:21) and rapidly heading for
destruction.
The second phrase “the best is yet
to come” is certainly not based on wishful thinking but rather founded squarely
upon the Bible. As one author puts it, “But
if you know Jesus, you go around twice – and the second time lasts forever.
It’s called ’eternal life’, and it will be lived in a redeemed universe with
King Jesus”. To have a better understanding that the “best is yet to come”
we start with the Apostle Peter’s exhortation to Christians to “… look for new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Pet 3:13) in view of the coming of
Christ where the current heaven and earth will be destroyed. We also know that
the current creation is subject to futility and yearns for freedom that is
congruent with the glory of the redeemed Children of God (Rom 8:21). The new
heavens and new earth (Rev 21:1-4) will not come about until Christ comes again
(1 Thess 4:15). In the meantime, if we are to die in Christ, we will be with
Christ immediately while our body remains on earth till his second coming when we
will have a body like that of our resurrected Saviour. This intermediate state
is indeed good, and it is a wonderful layover where we will be with Christ which
the Apostle Paul states as gain. However, this state is not the ultimate and
the final one of the redeemed Universe of New Heavens and New earth. When
Christ comes again to judge the world, our soul will be reunited with our
resurrected Body just like Christ’s Body. Perhaps this is what Jesus means when
he says that “… then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father…” Matt 13:43. We were
also told that we would be like Christ (1 Jn 3:2). The imagery of the Sun (in
relationship to earth) and her magnitude does speak of the stupendous Glory that
will come to each individual redeemed believer in Christ. The New Testament is
replete with the idea that believers in Christ will be glorified (Rom 5:2, Rom
8:18, Rom 9:23, 1 Cor 2:7, Rom 8:17, Rom 8:30). But what does it mean to be
Glorified by God, to receive Glory from God? Does it mean that we are a
celestial light bulb? When we say we glorify God, we mean that we praise God
with our mouth or with our works. So conversely, to be glorified by God, it
means that we are praised by God for our faithfulness. This also can be seen in
the parable of the talents where the two faithful servants who delivered
different outputs were heaped with the same praises of “good and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful over a few things,
I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord”
(Matt 25:21). Besides their glorification, the Elect will also live in a
renewed Creation with a physical, resurrected body in the new heaven and new
earth (Rev 21:1-4) where there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying,
nor pain. In other words, we will have a new lease of life in the redeemed
state, we will go around twice and this time it will last forever. Rev 21:4
speaks of better and expanded relationships relating to the “general fabric of
our earthly life with its affections and relationships” where there will be no
death, nor sorrow, nor crying nor pain! In Rev 21, it seems also to speak of
redeemed architecture (Rev 21:12-14) and tribute of the Kings and the corollary
implications of such things as work, including rest and recreation. Of course,
we will also eat and drink (Matt 8:11, Rev 2:7;19:9 and Luke 13:29). In other
words, “We do not pass our peaks in this
life. The best is yet to come. Missed opportunities will be replaced by
billions of new and better opportunities – some graciously granted us by God as
rewards for our faithfulness now. Don’t wait until you die to believe that.
Believing it now will change how you think, how you view the people around you,
and what you do with your time and money, which are really God’s.”[1]
Going forward, this means that each
chapter of our life would be better than the one before from now on. So, which
common phrase do you espouse in your heart? Let’s ponder how our redeemed life
will continue without end and how we are to live this life, laying hold on
eternal life by renouncing all that stands in its way with gratitude and joy, so
that we will be received by Christ with the commendation of “Good and faithful
servant”.
[1]
Chapter 5, CS Lewis on Heaven and the New Earth, “The Romantic Rationalist:
God, Life and Imagination in the Work of C S Lewis”.
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