Is Christianity Just an Insurance Policy for the Afterlife?

Is Christianity just an insurance policy for the afterlife? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We'd love to hear from you and our phone lines are open right now. Here's the phone number.

It's 833-THE-CORE. We'll be taking calls for the next 25 minutes or so. So jump on the phone right now.

833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. And of course, you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Miguel in Olathe, Kansas. Miguel, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Why is it that preachers talk about the law of love but don't define the law of love? Is that your question, Miguel?

Okay. Hey, well, I can't speak for every preacher out there. I know that sometimes, you know, we can throw things out as preachers' phrases or sayings or words and then do a poor job of defining what it is that we're talking about. I mean, that's one of the really important things for all of us, I think, as Christians to consider. You know, when we're having conversations with people about faith, about the Bible, about God, we want to make sure that we're helping people to understand what we're talking about and a lot of the concepts. In terms that we use may be foreign to people.

And so thank you for this opportunity to be able to talk a little bit about this. Love, we're told by Jesus, is what fulfills the law of God. Love is the fulfillment of the law of God. Paul says the exact same thing in the book of Romans. In Romans 13, beginning in verse 8, he says, Owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And by the way, that's a quotation from the book of Leviticus in Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18. So this is something that God has said from the very beginning. And then Paul says in verse 10 there of Romans 13, Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And so when we're talking about the law of God, what we're all called to, ultimately it's summarized by love, by love for God and love for our neighbor, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. And so I think what the scripture is getting at, you also have Jesus' words to his disciples in the upper room discourse in John chapter 13 verse 31. When he had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once.

Little children, yet a little while, and I am with you. You will seek me, and you will seek me. And just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you all sort of love one another. And so sometimes when people are talking about the law of God and the law of love, they'll point to Jesus' words there in the upper room with his disciples in John chapter 13. Those are the texts that I would go to, and ultimately I think what this reveals to us is that the essence of God's law is love. And we have to define it biblically speaking because there are so many people in our culture today who want to redefine what love is. But when we're looking at what scripture says, the Bible says very clearly, when we love God and we love each other as we're called to, that's the fulfillment of the law.

And now, of course, we fall short of that, and so we have grace and forgiveness. But those are the passages you're going to want to look at, Miguel, and may the Lord bless you. Thank you for your question.

Great question. Thank you, Miguel. Quick follow-up for you, Adriel. My guess is you would say it's not the loving thing to do to ignore sin, ignore blatant sin in someone's life if they're a fellow believer. Yeah.

I mean, this is something that comes up on the broadcast all the time, Bill, right? If you see somebody who is doing, you know, brother, sister in Christ, who's doing something or living in a way that is detrimental, harmful to their spiritual life, well then, yeah, the loving thing to do is to come alongside of that individual and say, no, brother, sister, here's what the word of God says. And that's one of the ways we love each other. I mean, this is, again, what love does. You think of, you know, the words of the author of the Hebrews where God is speaking. He says, as I love, I rebuke and chase. And so love doesn't just sort of sit, you know, on the sidelines when it sees the beloved doing things, acting in ways that are detrimental and harmful. No, it steps in and says, this is wrong.

This is going to hurt you. Turn to the Lord. Amen.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We would love to hear from you. By the way, we have a YouTube channel and you can watch Adriel live in the studio on YouTube every day at eleven thirty a.m. Pacific time. Just translate that into whatever time zone you are in.

Again, eleven thirty a.m. Pacific. And you can message us through our YouTube channel as well. We have a brand new free resource we want to tell you about today. This is really great because it'll help you more clearly understand the themes in the Bible. Yeah, the resource is called Five Themes to Help You Understand the Bible. And what we're trying to do with this resource is help you to trace some of the really important themes that we find in scripture. Themes like covenants, law and gospel, the kingdom of God. These are themes that appear over and over again, whether we're in the Old Testament or the New Testament. And the better grasp you have on these themes, the deeper your understanding of the scriptures are going to be. And then just in terms of rightly handling the word of God, we want to help you to do that. And so get ahold of this resource again called Five Themes to Help You Understand the Bible. And you can access it over at our website corechristianity.com.

It is absolutely free. We'd love to get this to you again. Go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

Look for five themes to help you understand the Bible. What we do receive voicemails here at Core Christianity, and we're always open to yours if you want to call us 24 hours a day and leave a message for us. We try to listen to our voicemails once a day. And here's the number 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

This voicemail came in last week. Hello. I was wondering why so many people only use Christianity as a means to an end, basically a means to get to God, like a kind of transactional relationship to get us to heaven. Is that the meaning of Christianity or am I missing something?

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, that's an absolute tragedy, isn't it? I mean, this is not the meaning of Christianity. The meaning of Christianity is not, you know, using God to get what we want out of life.

It's very much sort of prosperity gospel theology, right? And God just sort of exists to give me what I want, what I like, what I need. And for some people, that's, you know, this idea of also, you know, I accept God into my life so that way I can have some peace about when I die. But the reality is I don't have any real relationship with the Lord this side of heaven. I don't care about his law. I don't care about following Jesus. I don't care about the church, the people of God. And so when, you know, individuals live in this way, no, this is not the meaning of Christianity.

And two, it's actually really dangerous. I think many people are deceived into thinking that they're Christians because maybe they said a prayer at some point in their life or their parents were Christians or something like that. But they've really never turned to the Lord and experienced his grace and received the forgiveness of sins. What is the Christian faith about? It's about knowing the God who has revealed himself in creation and in his word as our redeemer and having a personal relationship with him through the gospel, through the good news of what he's done for us in sending his son into the world so that we, rebels, enemies of God, might have our sins forgiven and be welcomed into the family. And as the welcomed children of God, we're called to love him, to know him.

I was just talking about the law of love, you know, what God calls us to and to grow together in the body of Christ. And so why is it that, you know, this is so pervasive out there, this, you know, I'm just going to use God, you know, sort of fire insurance so that I can go to heaven when I die or, you know, at least comfort myself with that idea? It's because we're sinners. It's because we love ourselves more than we love God and we want to use God to, you know, to comfort ourselves, but we don't want to turn to him. And so, you know, we want people to understand who God is as he's revealed himself to us in his word and to be drawn to him in love so that it is more than just, you know, a ticket to heaven when you die.

It's not that at all. In fact, it's knowing the God who made you for his glory so that you might enjoy him and experience his presence. And that's what we strive for. And that's what we want to help you do as we open up the scriptures together. And so thank you for giving us a call. You're listening to CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Chase who's calling in from Kansas. Chase, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi, Adriel. I just want to know when a husband should consider divorcing his wife. I know Jesus gave one condition in the Bible and that condition has been fulfilled. And I'm willing to forgive her, and she is willing to come back, but sometimes she shows very good progress and sometimes she goes back to those old ways. And I've prayed about it, and I have a clear conscience either way, and I'm just scared to death just to move forward in either way. So I just wanted some counsel. Thank you. Chase, thank you for giving us a call. And the first thing I want to do is pray for you, brother, and invite those who are listening to also lift you up to the Lord in prayer. Father, we pray for Chase right now and everything that he's gone through in his marriage, the difficulty of this decision that weighs on him, Lord. We thank you, God, for your grace. We thank you for the gospel. We thank you that you have forgiven our sins, that with you there is an ocean of mercy, Lord, and that you are able to bring healing, Lord God, by the grace of your Holy Spirit. I pray for Chase that you would guide him, that you would give him wisdom, Lord God, and, Lord, that you would bring healing in this situation, Lord, not knowing which way things are going to go, but just knowing that you promise to never leave us or forsake us. I pray that you would comfort Chase with your presence and, Lord, with wisdom as he thinks about these things. Let him be with his family in Jesus' name.

Amen. So, Chase, it sounds to me like, as you said, Jesus talks about grounds for divorce, the dissolving of a marriage covenant. And, yes, adultery, sexual immorality is one of the grounds that Jesus gives in the gospels. Of course, an individual doesn't have to get a divorce in a situation like that because we know that there is forgiveness and there is healing.

And so it sounds to me like there is a decision that needs to be made here, and I think that this is a decision best made in the context of getting a lot of wisdom. So I hope that you are in a church, that your family is surrounded by solid believers that can speak into your life, into your marriage. Also, I think, I know there are some great counselors and therapists who work with couples where there has been this kind of thing, where there's been an infidelity. I've seen marriages healed.

I've seen situations where there has been spousal infidelity, and it's gone on for a while, and there's repentance. There's a willingness to walk in the light, and the couple is wanting to continue to pursue the Lord and stay together. And I think it can be a beautiful thing.

It can be a beautiful picture of the grace of God and the grace that God gives to us for each other. But it does require a lot of help, really, a lot of support and a lot of wisdom. And so that's what I'm saying. I think that this is a huge decision that we will pray for you in, and I just want to encourage you to get some of that outside care counsel as well. Now, you said that your spouse is wanting to continue to stay and to be together.

Chase, is that accurate? She says that, and then some of the things that come out of her mouth and some of the things that she thinks about, and they remind me of the old days when I was seeing those patterns begin before the incident. Yeah, and this is a part of the challenge here, is there's been a big betrayal of trust, so you begin to see things, patterns that sort of, okay, these are red flags, reopening old wounds, and that's where there has to be, I think, a lot of openness between the two of you. I think certainly for her recognizing the consequences of sin and the way our sins, especially with something like this, wound the people that we love.

There needs to be a lot of sensitivity. I think repentance for her would look like also being sensitive to the fact that when you see these things and you have these concerns, she needs to be caring and loving and open and honest and transparent. And so that's where I think a good counselor who's working with the two of you can come alongside and provide accountability also. Are you guys in a church together, and has the church been involved in this? Yes, there's a community of a church that we're around, but we have been separated throughout this incident, and we have not been attending faithfully together.

Okay. Well, brother, let me just encourage you, for the two of you, if you're going to press forward, it's walking in repentance, it's you forgiving from the grace that you have received in Jesus, so continually clinging to the gospel. And again, this is something where you're going to need wisdom, because like I said, this is really the balls in your court in terms of the decision. There's a freedom that you have here, but I think that forgiveness is a beautiful thing, and so long as there's repentance, there can be genuine restoration of the relationship.

Now, if there isn't repentance, then you can forgive her, truly, as a Christian, but there can't be restoration or reconciliation until there's that genuine repentance and willingness to walk in the light and work together. May God be with you. May God bring healing, comfort, and people around you. And again, just to encourage you, I think that one of the next steps has to be getting plugged into the life of the church, and finding trusted, godly counselors in the church as well, who can speak into the situation. Just be open.

Talk about the difficulty, if you're able to, if she's able to, and say, we need help. We need people around us who are going to walk with us in this, because we want to pursue a godly marriage, but we know that we can't do it alone. And you're not alone, Chase. Christ is with you and gives you his grace and mercy, and may he continue to guide you in this situation. Thank you for calling us, and we'll keep you in our prayers, brother. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, or even how to live out your Christian walk in today's culture, we'd be more than happy to hear from you. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can always leave us a voicemail as well at that same number.

Let's go to Steve in St. Louis, Missouri. Steve, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, my question is this. The Bible says that God does definitely forgive us of our sins, but in Scripture also says that there's also consequences to those sins. So my question is this. Those consequences that we may have to pay, will we have to pay them down here, or I don't know, we get in heaven and God say, you know, I had this, this, this, and this prepared for you, but because of this consequence that you have to make up for, I'm going to kind of give you a little less, if that makes sense. So that's my question.

Yeah, thank you for that question, Steve. You know, this is where some people get the idea of purgatory from, is they say, well, we still have some more consequences that need to be dealt with, temporal punishments for our sins. And so those get finished off, you know, in this sort of limbo between where we're at now and heaven. But I don't think that that's biblical. I don't see warrant for that in Scripture.

I think that the consequences we experience for our sins happen now, the discipline that we experience. I mean, it's what the Apostle Paul said in Galatians chapter six, verse seven, do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one sows that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. What we sow, we will reap. And we begin to reap some of those consequences even now, whether that's good things or bad things. And so, you know, this is part of the reason why God disciplines us when we sin.

I mentioned, you know, what the author of the Hebrews said, quoting from the book of Proverbs, where the Lord says, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. And sometimes that chastening looks like just a sort of spiritual drought in our lives. You know, the heaviness of God's hand upon us when we sin, a sense of conviction, a sense of having grieved the Holy Spirit. Paul, in the book of 1 Corinthians, talks about even sickness, feelings of weakness being consequences of sin, being the discipline of God. And so we do experience that. And sometimes, I mean, it's just the cause and effect. You know, if you're sinning in a particular way, if you get drunk and then go behind the wheel and then you crash the car, I mean, that's you reaping the consequences of your behavior. And so, no, we experience these things now in our lives, and it's one of the things that calls for us to exercise wisdom in the decisions that we make and in the things that we do. And so may God be with you, Steve.

You're right. We are forgiven. We praise God for that. We don't get unforgiven. It's not like the Lord casts us out. But we do experience the discipline of the Lord and the consequences for our sins here on earth, this side of heaven. And so may God give us wisdom as we seek to honor Him and to live in a way that pleases Him.

Hmm. Thanks, Steve. We appreciate you being a regular listener to Core Christianity. By the way, if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life doctrine, theology, we are always open to that.

And you can email us anytime at this email address. It's questions at core Christianity dot com. And just a reminder, we have this great free resource available to you today. It's called five themes to help you understand the Bible. This is one of our new core guides. We have several core guides which really will help you grow in your faith.

You can find out more about that by going to core Christianity dot com forward slash offers and look for five themes to help you understand the Bible. Let's go to Kevin calling in from Kansas. Kevin, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yeah, thank you for taking my call. My question is, God created everything in the earth and the earth in six days. And today, one day is a thousand years to God.

So I'm kind of trying to understand that a little bit. I can hear six days. Okay, so yeah, I mean, you go to the early chapters of Genesis where it talks about the creation of the world and everything in it. And God created everything in six days, in the space of six days.

And then he rested on the seventh day. And then you look at other passages of scripture, like what Peter says in Second Peter chapter three, verse eight. Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. So it sounds to me like your question is, well, are those six days, is each of those days one thousand years?

Well, no, that's not the case. And what Peter is saying there in Second Peter chapter three, verse eight, he's just talking about from the perspective of God, if you will, the Lord of heaven and earth. He's outside of time. He's infinite, eternal, unchangeable. And so when we think about a day or time and God's perception of it, if you will, I mean, God is outside of time. For him, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day, if you will.

I mean, that's the point that Peter is making. And in the context, the reason that he's making that point is because he's talking about people who are saying, well, the Lord isn't really coming back. I mean, it's been all these years. How many thousands of years has it been since Jesus said he was going to return?

He still hasn't returned. And then they begin to get slack and live in ways that are not pleasing to the Lord, dishonoring God, mocking with regard to the second coming of Christ. And Peter's point is to say, look, no, no, no, no. God is being patient towards you. You think it's been a long time, but for the Lord, a thousand years is just like a blink of the eye.

It's nothing for him. And so that's Peter's point there, talking about God, the infinite Lord of heaven and earth. And his relationship to time, if you will. I don't think it would be right for us to read that into Genesis chapter one and say, well, each of those days is a thousand years because of what Peter says there in second Peter chapter three, verse eight.

Oftentimes, we get caught up in discussions about the age of the earth and how long were those days there in Genesis chapter one. But let me just say the focus of Genesis chapters one and two is that God is the creator king, that he made everything from nothing and that he doesn't need anything. And as the creator king, he has made man out of the abundance of his love to reflect him, his goodness. And we're still called to do that, to reflect the goodness and love of the Lord. And we can only do that in Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the core. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.