Word of Salvation – October 2010
WHAT’S YOUR IMMORTALITY STRATEGY?, John de Hoog
(A sermon for Reformation Sunday)
Reading – Luke 12:13-34
Text – Psalm 49
In Luke 9 Jesus asks his disciples this haunting question: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”
It’s not a very polite question, is it! In Australia today, it’s an offensive question. What good is it for a man to gain fabulous riches, power and prestige, have a perfect family… and yet lose himself?
It’s a question that really only intrudes into our thinking at something like a funeral, or when an annoying preacher is tactless enough to raise it.
I took part in my own Mum’s funeral recently. She died a believer; her answer to Jesus’ question was a firm and decided one: “It’s no good at all to gain the whole world and yet lose yourself! I’d much rather lose everything just to know that I haven’t been lost but that I’ve been found, been found of God.”
Losing yourself or being found by God – that’s the subject of Psalm 49. What good is it to gain the whole world, or even to have just a little bit of success in the world, and yet lose your very self?
Pause
The first thing that Psalm 49 says is that this is a question for all to consider. You don’t have to be a Christian, you don’t have to belong to God’s people to grasp the importance of this question. I don’t know how you have come to this meeting this afternoon, whether you consider yourself a Christian or not. But no matter, Psalm 49 begins by telling us that this is a question for everyone.
See how comprehensive Psalm 49 makes this question. Vss 1-2 “Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world, both low and high, rich and poor alike.” The writer begins: “Pay attention everyone! I’m going to lay out a question that all of us need an answer to.”
He goes on to speak words that sound like they belong in the Book of Proverbs – he speaks of wisdom and understanding and proverbs and riddles. Psalm 49 is a wisdom psalm. God, through this author, is speaking to us all, showing us how to think wisely about the question this Psalm raises for us. The author does this by expounding a riddle.
We all like riddles, don’t we! Our kids come home from school with riddles to test us.
What starts with a T, ends with a T and has T in it? Answer: A teapot.
The riddle that Psalm 49 is expounding can be discerned from the repeated refrain in vss 12 and 20. Vs 12 “But man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish.” Vs 20 is exactly the same in the original language apart from one word. Vs 20 “A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.”
The riddle contained in these two lines, the riddle the psalm is expounding is this: How are human beings like and unlike the beasts? Vs 12 says that a man, even if he is rich, doesn’t live forever, he perishes just like the beasts. But vs 20 says that a man, even if he is rich, only perishes like the beasts if he lacks understanding . These two lines imply that there is an understanding which can make the difference, an understanding which will separate human beings from the beasts that perish. Psalm 49 is about outlining that understanding. As a wisdom psalm, it seeks to implant a certain understanding in us, so that we won’t be just like the beasts that perish.
Let’s look at this understanding using two headings. 1. Do not allow yourself to be seduced by a false immortality strategy. 2. Instead, consciously, actively, keep on reminding yourself of God’s perfect immortality strategy.
First then: Do not allow yourself to be seduced by a false immortality strategy.
I suppose the writer could have expressed this first point by railing against the folly of trusting in riches and accumulation of goods for ultimate salvation. That would be a very familiar argument that has been made through the centuries and keeps on being made today, even in Australia. The catch-phrase is, “You can’t take it with you.” “When you die, how much will you leave? You’ll leave everything.” So make sure you enjoy it now! Or another possible response – make sure your kids will be able to enjoy what you’ve put together. It’s a familiar argument that we can readily identify with. I suppose the writer of this psalm could have expressed his first point that way.
But he doesn’t do that. He takes a more subtle, a more compelling approach. His aim is to instruct God’s people, to instruct us, about a danger we face in this area. Everyone can see, with just a moment’s reflection, that you can’t take it with you, that your wealth won’t save you from death. But Psalm 49 warns us of a more subtle danger that will seduce us if we are not careful. The danger is that of being intimidated or over-awed by those who are successful in the world and so losing your grip on the power and freedom that comes from God’s work in your life.
The psalm expresses this twice over in vss 5-6 and in vss 16-19. Vs 5 “Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me – those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?”
And vs 16 “Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendour of his house increases; for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendour will not descend with him. Though while he lived he counted himself blessed – and men praise you when you prosper – he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light.”
The danger that faces us all is the danger of being intimidated or overawed by those who are successful in the world, and so losing our grip on the power and freedom that comes from God’s work in our lives.
We live in a world that teaches us to define ourselves in terms of our incomes, our bank accounts, our investments, our possessions. Our economic system in Australia has gone far beyond the satisfaction of basic needs. Our economy thrives on the creation of new “needs” – are you driving the right car, consuming the right food and drink, is your body as healthy as it can be, are you using the best deodorant and shampoo, is your computer system or your internet connection really up to speed, are you using the most widely accepted credit card? It’s not “ need ” that drives our economy; to survive it must create and feed our “ greed .” When things go wrong, when suddenly demand disappears, the whole system collapses and demand, that is greed, must be the object of a new stimulus package.
But let’s not imagine that this situation of the need to feed greed is somehow unique to our society. Jesus put his finger on this problem in his day with his parable of the rich fool. We read it earlier. Did you notice the words that introduced the parable in Luke 12? Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed ; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
“A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” It was a problem in Jesus’ day, and it is certainly a live question in our society. Your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions. Oh no? Well, what then does it consist of?
At first sight the problem of money and possessions seems rather easy to deal with. You can’t trust in your money and your possessions because you could lose them at any moment, and anyway, they can’t save you from death, so how foolish to trust in them!
And yet, even though everyone can affirm this kind of statement after just a moment’s reflection, still most people in our society do in fact trust in what they own or have accumulated or will be able to accumulate. And even if we know the ultimate folly of that, most of us feel some measure of awe, some sense of fascination when we encounter the super-rich or the super-successful. Why is that? What is the nature of this human preoccupation with wealth and success?
Psalm 49 unveils the human problem in a devastating way. Vs 7 gives us a further description of those in vs 6 who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches. Vs 7 “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him – the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough – that he should live on forever and not see decay.”
The first half of vs 7 says literally that no one can redeem a brother. The second half of vs 7 is ambiguous – it could be a parallel saying the same thing – that no one can pay the ransom for a brother, or it could be intensifying the meaning, that no one can pay the price even for himself. Vss 8 & 9 make it crystal clear – in a word, life cannot be bought. Money can buy all sorts of things, but it can’t buy me love, and it can’t buy me life. Indeed, nothing at all can ever pay for a human life.
The Psalm is saying something profound. Behind our human fascination with wealth and all kinds of success is a desire to deny death.
Let me draw this out a little more. Why do we envy the successful? Why does Asaph in Psalm 73 almost slip and lose his hold on his faith when he sees the success of the wicked? Why does David in Psalm 37 have to repeatedly encourage us not to fret at the success of evil men? Why does the son of Korah writing this Psalm 49 have to expose for us how foolish it is to fear or be over-awed when wicked men succeed? Why do we look out at those who have made their mark in the world with envy? Why do we sometimes say to ourselves, “What’s the point of being a Christian? God hasn’t done me any good; my life is not any better than anyone else’s?”
Why do we compare ourselves to others; why are we seduced by the advertising industry as it defines what’s good for us? Why do we sometimes wish that being a Christian gave us some kind of cash advantage, some kind of benefit to the bottom line? Why do we sometimes agree with Asaph in Psalm 73 when he says, “Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning.”
Why do we think such thoughts? Because we imagine that the successful in this world have gained some kind of advantage over us; that somehow they have entered into the “good life”. That to some small measure, they have defeated the effects of death … in their lives. Behind our human fascination with wealth and all kinds of success is a denial of death.
We want to control our lives and to define our own success. We want personal achievement that we can boast about, that will make a name for us, that will enhance our reputation. We want to chip away at the effects of death in our lives! The more money we have, the better our health, the bigger our circle of admirers, the longer we can live healthily; these are measures of our battle with death. And we imagine they are all achieved by our own efforts, by exercising our wills in the ways we choose.
The trouble is, says Psalm 49, the trouble is, all these efforts at self-rule and self-determination and self-worship inevitably come crashing down. And everyone can see that!
Vs 10 “For all can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they have named lands after themselves. Man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish.”
How foolish it is to envy the self-starters of this world, the self-determining success stories who seem to effectively chip away at the effects of death in their lives. They gain the world, or maybe they gain just a very small part of it … but they lose themselves. What profit is there in gaining the world yet losing yourself?
In his comments on Psalm 49, John Calvin speaks of the folly of fearing and envying the successful wicked. To quote: “Any boasted power which they possess is fleeting and vanishing. The Psalmist wants to convince us that the fear of man is unwarranted; that it is ignorant of what man is even at his best; and that it is as reasonable to startle at a shadow or a spectre… Not a day passes without forcing the plain fact upon their notice, that none can redeem a life… so that their conduct is nothing less than insanity… Men’s lives are absolutely at the disposal of God, and … they can never be extended by any human arrangement one moment beyond the period which God has fixed.”
Listen to the way Psalm 49 describes the fate of those who imagine that they can defy death even for a moment by their own wealth or power or strength. Vs 13 “This is the fate of those who trust themselves, and of their followers who approve their sayings. Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them. The upright will rule over them in the morning; their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions.”
Vs 14 says literally, “Like sheep, for Sheol they are appointed; death will shepherd them.” They are like sheep with shepherds, only their shepherd is death.
Here then is our first heading: 1. Do not allow yourself to be seduced by a false immortality strategy. Don’t imagine that you can, by your own strength or riches or strategies, by your own power, apart from God, turn back the hand of death even for a moment, even to the smallest measure. That may seem rather obvious; as Psalm 49 says, everyone can see it! But the test of whether you have actually swallowed this false immortality strategy is the extent to which you are intimidated or over-awed by the success of the wicked. If you still look to others with envy, if you still compare yourself with others and wish you had what they had, if you are still afraid and unsettled by the success of people in the world compared to your own, then you are still flirting with the false immortality strategy that Psalm 49 exposes.
So what’s the alternative? Here we come to our second heading. 2. Instead, consciously, actively, keep on reminding yourself of God’s perfect immortality strategy. It’s only one verse, but it’s the key to understanding this psalm. Vs 15 “But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.”
Here suddenly, and for the only time, God is the subject of the Psalm. And now the second key contrast in the psalm emerges. Whereas human beings can never pay the price that can buy life, God can. Vs 7 “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him – the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough.” Vs 15 “But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.” God alone can redeem.
Pause
We human beings are eternal creatures. It is unwise for us to live only for the moment; it is wise for us to think about how we will prepare for an eternal future. We need an immortality strategy.
There are two possible immortality strategies – one that we pursue ourselves, and one that is a free gift from God. Psalm 49 helps us to reject the first strategy, the invalid immortality strategy. It also helps us to discern if perhaps we are falling into that invalid immortality strategy by default, without realising that’s what we’re doing. It shows us that the invalid immortality strategy cannot turn back the hand of death even for a moment, and that after physical death it results in being shepherded by death for eternity.
And in one momentous mountain-top sentence, Psalm 49 points us to the second, the valid immortality strategy: “But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.”
Only God is more powerful even than the grave. The rest of the Bible goes on to show how God has achieved his immortality strategy. The redemption that Psalm 49 holds out to us has been secured through the work of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:22 “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” 1 Peter 1:18 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
Jesus Christ, God the Son, came to this planet and lived here amongst us human beings for a few years. He was constantly tempted to take up the false immortality strategy outlined in Psalm 49, and if ever anyone could have, he could have. He could have acceded to the devil’s temptation and received for himself all the kingdoms of the earth. He could have harnessed his power to become the premier ruler of history. Even at his death he could have called upon twelve legions of angels to sweep down from the sky and save him in a spectacular display that would have convinced everyone. He was tempted beyond what anyone was ever tempted to take up the false immortality strategy. But he knew that death would still await all of us and that death would have mastery over us.
So instead of adopting the false immortality strategy of Psalm 49, he entered into death willingly. He entered into it in order to defeat it. Three days after he died and was buried, he rose again, utterly victorious. What is the guarantee that God will keep the promise of Psalm 49:15; that he will indeed redeem my life from the grave? The guarantee has already been secured. Jesus Christ rose from the grave, and he is only the firstfruits of all who will rise from the grave; all those who trust in him for their immortality strategy.
Think of the contrast between Christians and non-Christians. In this life, Christians have the Lord as their shepherd. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Non-Christians have only themselves to lean on, only their invalid immortality strategy to turn to.
When this life ends and we enter eternity, Christians have the Lord Jesus himself as their eternal shepherd. Revelation 7:17 “The Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” But non-Christians will have death as their shepherd; death will feed on them eternally.
Think of the power and freedom we gain when we commit our lives to God’s keeping in Jesus Christ! No longer will we feel intimidated or over-awed when wicked people succeed, when we don’t get all the goodies associated with this life. Nothing can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. Nothing in the old false immortality strategy now has any appeal.
Pause
John Calvin dated his own conversion to 1533. He was 26 years younger than Martin Luther and grew up in a world where Reformed teaching was already a reality. Not long after his conversion, Calvin was working at a university in Paris. The minister there preached a Reformed sermon, and great controversy broke out. Calvin stood by the minister and identified with the Protestant cause. In October 1534 the crisis came. Certain radical Protestants plastered posters on the same night all over Paris, Orleans, Rouen and other cities, denouncing the mass in extreme language. One poster was even put on the king’s chamber. Francis I was enraged, Protestants were hunted down and killed mercilessly. Calvin fled, only preserving his life by leaving behind all he had. Yet two years later in 1536 he published the first edition of The Institutes of the Christian Religion, the book that made him famous as a Protestant.
Where did men like Martin Luther and John Calvin and countless others find the strength to stand up to the might of the ruling church in their day, even at the fear of their lives? They could do it because they had put their immortality strategy into the hands of Jesus Christ, their Lord and Saviour. So it is possible for Christians around the world today to stand firm in their faith and even enter into suffering with joy. So it is possible for us here in Geelong to see the truth about the world’s ideas of success, and to stand out as different. What can man do to me, if I am on the Lord’s side? No, with Christ I am more than a conqueror, no matter how poorly I’m doing in terms of this world’s measure of success.
Pause
Brothers and sisters, Psalm 49 is not itself a psalm of praise and worship to God. It is a wisdom psalm, seeking to instill in us the understanding that will make us different from the beasts that perish. But once we have that understanding, once we see ourselves as God’s, found by him in Jesus Christ, the result is resounding praise and worship offered to God. He will redeem us from the grave, for in Jesus Christ, death itself has lost its sting.
Amen