Time, Work, and Existence

We all say quite often, "I don't have the time," to do whatever. Most often people have the time to do what they want to do, and seldom have the time to do what the Lord wants them to do! In fact, most things you do are what you want to do. My daughter begged to differ. She said, "I don't want to work." My response was, "yes you do, or you wouldn't be working!" You see, working is a choice. Every person, as he matures, evaluates whether he wants to be nourished, clothed, housed, have health care, be educated, and entertained. Work, at least before socialism came along, was the way to obtain things! The choice motivated people make is working.

In recent years, as we have seen, less motivated people have figured out a way to not work. That is by obtaining free things from others. Millennials suck the life out of their parents until the well runs dry, and sloths allow the government to parent them, at least until that well runs dry. People have even figured out a way not to work for God, that which Bonnhoeffer called "cheap grace" (see https://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2017/03/cheap-grace.html?m=0).

This commentary, however, is not about slothfulness nor socialism. It is about time, work, and existence! Unfortunately, because of original sin "work" at one time was not effortless but it was easy. We know that by scripture - when work began!

Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17 And unto Adam he said, ... cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread...

"Work" is defined as: "to exert oneself physically or mentally especially in sustained effort for a purpose or under compulsion or necessity" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). In the Herrin Lexicon, I prefer "expending energy to influence change,"  remembering that change is loss or gain.  Energy can be either physical or mental, and we learn from the Pharisees it can be spiritual as well! Some really work hard and obtain little. That is the curse of mankind.

The Pharisees followed all 613 commandments put forth in the Old Testament. Following all those "laws" is called "works". The Pharisees worked hard in an attempt to earn eternal life. That was non-valued added, and was lost in the spiritual dynamics of things. All their work was to no avail because they had not love:

1 Cor 13:2 ...that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

In other words, without love (charity), even hard work (moving mountains) is to no avail! The Pharisees attempt to move mountains - the impossibility of keeping the Law, without loving God and others. That loss was in "spiritual entropy" - the unrecoverable losses in changing states. In the case of the Pharisees, it was the time and existence lost in attempting by their own works to make their time eternal. For slow thinkers, that is wasting time trying to obtain eternal life on your own. Sure, we can credit God, but somehow we know inside that we are the ones who are working to increase time.

The entire existence of mankind, which we refer to as "life", is used to increase our time. I expend physical energy every day with exercise to extend my life on earth. I feel that is gain. Likewise, I exercise my will every day to extend my life into eternity by communing with God each day. I do that by studying His Word, contemplating on God's will, praying, loving God the best that I know how, endeavoring to love others, and telling others about grace. Grace is a free ticket to extend my time to the outer limits, but in thanks for that gift, I do things.  "Working" is my only way to show my appreciation for existing. How do I know that? Right after mankind came into existence by the grace of God, God gave him a job assignment:

Gen 2:15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Because the Garden was made for man by grace, there was nothing man needed to do to tend to the trees, fruits, animals, or much else. Paradise is without physical work. How then was man to "dress and keep" the Garden? By loving the Lord. In Paradise, love comes easy because there are no hurdles. Then along came the devil and erected only one: our will verses God's will. Our forebears made the wrong choice.

Eating the fruit was work. They expended energy in changing God's fruit into their fruit. They stole from God, and by works, men continue to steal from God! Spiritual entropy was lost, and it was irrecoverable. They could be restored back to their previous state by sorrow and repentance but the loss was the consequence of sin. Although mankind was designed with immortality, mortality was the physical loss of entropy. It's measurement is in heartbeats. Mankind is limited in allowance for work. Our heartbeats, in practice, do not exceed those beats acquired over 120 years. Thus, heartbeats are mankind's physical clock. With each beat, time is shortened as we slowly tick, tick, tick until our hearts quit ticking.

To extend our time, mankind must do that in God's realm. We somehow must obtain a "pass" back into the Garden where there is immortality. To increase our time, the problem of spiritual entropy must be fixed. By grace, there is a fix! God died that we may live! He did that so that we need not. God is without name. He is defined as Existence: "I Am That I Am" (Exod 3:14). God is eternal. What is it that God desires of his creature?

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

"Grace" is a result of God loving his creatures. He loved us so much that He gave His Name - God who was called Jesus, to provide unlimited time for us. There is nothing here that says man must expend the "sweat of his face" (Gen 3:19) for eternal life as he had to for everything else! God created man in "his image"  (Gen 1:27).  God is eternal Existence:

Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

What does God desire to do for us? For us to be forever existing - to "have everlasting life". His desire is that our existence extend beyond the life of our physical pump. What need we do? Quit depending on our pump for our existence! The loss of God's own blood was the propitiation for our sins (Romans 3:25). We quit worrying about pumping our own blood and pump His instead! We build Him up, and not ourselves.

The blood of God is the "living water" which fixes our heart. We allow God to fix it for us. That allowance heals the heart: We submit to God, and He cuts off that loss which I called "spiritual entropy" with His Sword - the Word. That operation is performed by God, and is called "circumcision is that of the heart" (Rom 2:29). Never again, unless we give up faith in the blood, need we worry about spiritual entropy again! That is "dressing and keeping" God. God will never leave or forsake us thereafter. That is spiritual "safety", and only we can choose to return to the wilderness outside the gate of the Garden.

The Christian must understand: (1) God is forever, (2) He wants us to be forever, (3) God is without beginning nor end, and he wants us to be without end, (4) that God is always with us -  He is called Emmanuel and Jesus, and (5) He is Almighty -  God had the power to Create everything in the beginning, and He can recreate us again to return to the beginning.

The Covenant of Adam was God's promise for him to return to the Garden. When Adam was Created, God knew you and me. We were Created at the same time Adam was. We have Adam's DNA and Eve is our mother. Eve was created with all the ova she would ever have. Although she is not born with our blood, her genetic makeup is the foundation for our own bloodline. Mix a little Adam with a little Eve, and God supplies the blood. It took Adam's seed and Eve's ova for all mankind to exist. Ironically, when God promised Adam a return to the Garden, that promise holds true for us as well! Like Adam, our presence was there back in the Garden, and God's will is, like Adam's, to return us to the Garden. We call the return to the Garden as "Paradise."

So, you don't want to work? I don't either! My hope is a return to God's Garden where I merely "dress and keep" God. I need not wait. Even in life, my "job assignment" is to dress and keep God.My "dressing" is to take up the cross and follow him (Mat 10:38), an my "keeping" is keeping the faith (Rev 14:12).

Or existence - ontology, started with Adam and Eve back in the Garden since God planned for us in the beginning. Our everlasting existence - eschatology, is that we don't have to ever end. We an return to Paradise where God first knew us. In between the beginning and eternity are two-types of lives: the physical and the spiritual. Revelation is about when the two become one, and we're glorified. "Glorification" is the return to the original state (to the image of God) in which man was created. Revelation is that time revealed. Who would not want to know their eternal destiny? Only those for which it is bleak.