Latest / Reformed Thinking / Eternity! | J. C. Ryle

Transcript

Eternity! | J. C. Ryle · Reformed Thinking

0:00
You know, usually when we talk about a medical diagnosis, there
0:03
is this unspoken expectation of absolute precision.
0:08
All right? Yeah.
0:08
I mean, think about the mechanics of it.
0:10
You fall off a ladder, you break your arm and you go to the
0:13
hospital. Yeah, you want answers.
0:15
You do, and the orthopedic doctor does not sit you down and
0:19
offer some philosophical poem about the nature of bones.
0:23
No, definitely. Not right.
0:25
They put you in front of an X-ray screen.
0:27
They point to a very stark, jagged white line and say there
0:31
is the fracture. It's the process is entirely
0:34
binary. I mean the bone is whole or the
0:36
bone is broken. Spot on.
0:38
The empirical nature of that process removes all the
0:40
guesswork, and frankly, it is highly comforting.
0:43
We want clear lines of demarcation when we're dealing
0:47
with physical realities, you know?
0:49
We really do. We want to know the objective
0:51
facts so we can apply the correct treatment.
0:53
But watch what happens when you shift that demand for empirical
0:56
precision over to the unseen, specifically regarding what
1:01
happens the moment after we die. Oh yeah, that's a whole
1:03
different story. Suddenly, society recoils.
1:06
We want to smash the X-ray machine.
1:08
Yeah, we hate it. We look at the doctrinal
1:10
landscape and demand that it remain murky.
1:13
People strongly prefer the afterlife to exist in shades of
1:16
Gray. You know, absolutely too.
1:18
It's modern culture demands ambiguity when it comes to the
1:22
unseen. Yeah, they treat it as a
1:24
theoretical space where everyone just gets the benefit of the
1:27
doubt. It is the absolute definition of
1:29
diagnostic Muddy Waters, right? When you bring up the afterlife
1:33
today, the immediate cultural reflex is to sock in the edges.
1:36
People want a massive margin of error because, well, definitive
1:40
answers about eternity carry an unbearable weight.
1:43
Welcome to Reform Thinking. Today, our mission is to
1:45
investigate a solemn, heavy text that flatly refuses to turn off
1:50
that X-ray machine. It really does.
1:52
We are analyzing a 19th century treatise by the theologian JC
1:55
Ryle. Specifically, we're looking at a
1:58
chapter titled Eternity from his larger work, Practical Religion
2:02
A. Phenomenal text.
2:03
Yeah, we want to understand how Ryle frames the highest possible
2:07
stakes of human existence and how he forces his readers to
2:11
confront a subject our highly educated modern society
2:15
consistently ignores. To lay down the necessary
2:18
context for you, the listener, this source is a meticulous,
2:22
unyielding text. Very much so.
2:24
Ryle observes the transient nature of our current world,
2:27
contrast it with the permanent reality of the afterlife, and
2:31
then he directly tackles the massive theological
2:33
controversies of his era regarding hell and the popular
2:36
push for universal salvation. Right, he doesn't pull any
2:39
punches. No, he doesn't.
2:40
And what stands out immediately is Ryle's methodology.
2:44
He approaches this relying entirely on biblical texts,
2:47
which. Is so rare today.
2:48
It is. He outright rejects the notion
2:50
of letting popular sentiment, cultural moods or human
2:52
emotional preferences dictate objective truth.
2:55
For Ryle, natural religion comes to a standstill at the edge of
2:59
the grave, and only their written, revealed word can speak
3:02
with authority on these matters. So I.
3:04
Want to ask you directly, and I'm talking to you listening
3:06
right now. How often do you pause to
3:09
consider the concept of forever? That's a heavy question.
3:12
Really sit with that idea for a second.
3:14
When was the last time you let the sheer crushing weight of
3:17
eternity occupy your mind on a random Tuesday morning?
3:21
Probably never for most people. Right.
3:23
It is an undeniably heavy subject, but what we're going to
3:27
find as we analyze Ryall's arguments is that he intends for
3:31
this stark reality to offer incredible clarity.
3:35
Yeah, and surprisingly, he also intends for it to provide an
3:39
immense amount of comfort to the believer.
3:41
That paradox is the engine driving this entire text isn't.
3:44
It it really is. It is a severe diagnostic tool,
3:47
but the intent is to anchor the reader.
3:49
Right. Ryle insists that before anyone
3:52
can grasp the concept of forever, we must properly
3:55
evaluate our present surroundings.
3:57
We have to look at what's right in front of us first.
3:59
Yeah, we have to see the current world for what it is, a decaying
4:03
system, or we can look past it to the permanent reality.
4:06
He frames this around the illusion of permanence in a
4:08
decaying world. He pulls a specific thesis from
4:12
the Apostle Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.
4:15
The things which are seeing are temporal.
4:18
That sets the baseline for his entire argument.
4:21
And Riles states that absolutely everything physical in our
4:24
current sphere is decaying, dying, and coming to an end.
4:28
Everything. Everything.
4:30
He acknowledges the scientific reality that matter itself might
4:34
not entirely perish. In a physical sense, you know,
4:36
the atoms reorganize. But in a practical, lived sense,
4:40
nothing about our current arrangement is permanent except
4:42
our souls. Right.
4:44
He is systematically stripping away the psychological illusion
4:47
that the things we can touch, buy and build are stable.
4:50
Yeah. Because they aren't.
4:52
And he does not just make a sweeping philosophical claim.
4:54
Here, no, he gets very specific. Right.
4:56
He backs it up with three very specific biblical examples to
4:59
prove his point, hitting three major pillars of human pride and
5:03
currency. Right, the big Three.
5:04
Physical beauty, physical strength, and intellectual
5:07
superiority. Those are the three currencies
5:09
humanity uses to establish worth, right?
5:11
Let us look at how he dismantles them.
5:14
First, he brings up beauty. OK, Yeah.
5:16
He points to Sarah, the wife of Abraham.
5:19
The biblical text notes she was exceptionally fair, admired even
5:23
by the Royal Court of Egypt. She was the standard of beauty.
5:25
Right. But Ryle points to the eventual,
5:28
unavoidable reality. A day arrived when Abraham, her
5:32
own husband, had to negotiate for a cave in Maqbila, saying
5:36
let me bury my dead out of my sight.
5:38
Wow. It is a visceral portrayal of
5:41
what happens to the highest human aesthetics.
5:43
It fades, decays, and it must be hidden away.
5:47
The transition there is staggering.
5:49
To go from being the focal point of a royal court's admiration to
5:52
becoming a physical form that you're grieving spouse must hide
5:56
in the earth. It's brutal but true.
5:57
Then Ryle moves to the second pillar.
5:59
Physical strength. He uses King David as his prime
6:02
example. The Ultimate Warrior.
6:04
Right. David is the archetypal warrior.
6:05
He's the champion of Israel, the man who took down Goliath, the
6:09
fighter who survived in the wilderness and consolidated an
6:11
entire Kingdom through martial prowess.
6:13
Yet Ryle points the reader to the harsh reality of David's
6:17
later years in the first Book of Kings.
6:18
Yeah, it's pretty bleak. The warrior grew old.
6:21
He lost his vitality, his circulatory system failed to
6:24
keep him warm, and he had to be nursed and ministered to in his
6:28
bed, entirely dependent on others, much like an infant.
6:31
The physical dominance that define his entire public life
6:35
evaporated with time. Yeah, the human frame is
6:37
fundamentally fragile, no matter how much you train it.
6:40
And then, hitting perhaps the most terrifying reality for our
6:44
modern knowledge driven society, he addresses the decay of
6:48
intellect and wisdom. This one hits hard today.
6:50
It really does. He uses Solomon.
6:52
Solomon is described as a prodigy of knowledge.
6:54
The smartest guy in the room. Always, foreign dignitaries
6:58
traveled across the known world just to hear him speak on
7:00
botany, philosophy and governance.
7:03
The danger of intellectualism is the assumption that cognitive
7:06
sharpness Shields you from moral or physical decay.
7:09
That you can out think your own downfall.
7:11
Right. But Ryall points out that in his
7:13
later days, this prodigy of wisdom played the fool
7:16
exceedingly. You really did.
7:17
He allowed his foreign wives to turn away his heart into blatant
7:21
idolatry. His massive cognitive resources
7:25
and theological knowledge did not prevent his eventual
7:28
decline. So whether you possess beauty,
7:30
strength or intellect, they are all passing away.
7:33
They are depreciating assets. I was trying to picture this
7:37
practically, and here's an analogy.
7:39
Living exclusively for this world is like taking your entire
7:43
life savings and spending it decorating a hotel room that you
7:48
have to check out of tomorrow morning at 11 AM.
7:50
Oh, that's a great way to put it.
7:51
You are picking out custom drapes, painting the walls,
7:54
importing expensive furniture, agonizing over the layout.
7:58
But the checkout time is non negotiable, right?
8:00
You cannot take the room with you and the management is coming
8:03
to take the keys. That analogy captures the
8:05
economic absurdity of the human condition so well.
8:08
It's. Just a bad investment.
8:09
Think of it like a localized currency devaluation.
8:12
You are aggressively hoarding a specific type of currency, say
8:16
status or physical comfort, but the Central Bank of Human
8:19
existence has already announced that this currency will be
8:22
entirely demonetized at midnight.
8:24
Wow, yeah. You are stockpiling something
8:26
that will have 0 purchasing power in the permanent economy.
8:30
But I have to play devil's advocate for a moment.
8:32
OK, go for it. Is Ryle just being a fatalist?
8:35
Is he trying to drag his readers into a pit of depression?
8:38
I can see why people might think that.
8:40
Right, because if the hotel room is going to be demolished
8:42
anyway, why bother doing anything?
8:44
Is this realization supposed to be freeing?
8:47
Well, it has a dual nature, depending entirely on where your
8:50
affections lie. OK, unpack that.
8:52
For the person living solely for earthly pleasures, financial
8:55
accumulation and status, this is a severe flashing warning light.
9:01
Ryle is telling them to audit their idols.
9:03
He explicitly says grasp them. Not too tightly, yeah.
9:07
If your entire heart is absorbed in prophets and merry makings,
9:10
you are setting yourself up for utter devastation because you
9:13
cannot keep them. Yeah, you will be separated from
9:16
your gods. So for the person whose identity
9:18
is tied to the hotel room, the 11 AM checkout is a complete
9:21
existential tragedy. Precisely.
9:23
But for the believer, this is a message of massive comfort.
9:28
If the world is temporary, then so are the trials, the physical
9:32
pain, and the spiritual conflicts.
9:34
Oh, I see. Ryle encourages believers to
9:36
bare their crosses quietly and patiently.
9:40
The cross you carry is one of the things seen which are
9:42
temporal. The struggle has a definitive
9:45
expiration date. The cross will soon be exchanged
9:48
for a crown. Right, you are fighting a daily
9:51
fight, but it is only for a little time.
9:53
The temporary nature of the world guarantees that the
9:56
suffering of the believer is also temporary.
9:59
That reframes the daily grind completely.
10:01
It changes everything. Take a moment and mentally list
10:04
the things absorbing all your mental energy right now.
10:07
Your home renovations. Your career trajectory, Your 5
10:10
of your financial plans. Your anxieties about aging.
10:13
All of it. Weigh them against the reality
10:15
that they are ephemeral. They are vapor.
10:18
They are the hotel room. That is the exact audit Ryle
10:21
forces the reader to perform. You must evaluate the temporary
10:24
nature of the seen world to prepare your mind for the
10:27
reality of the unseen world. So if the entire material
10:30
universe is functioning like a hotel room we have to vacate and
10:34
all our physical attributes are depreciating assets, what is the
10:37
actual nature of the reality we step into after checkout?
10:41
That's the big question. Ryle defines that unseen state
10:45
primarily by its permanence. Right, he does.
10:47
He outlines this unseen state behind the grave with absolute,
10:51
uncompromising clarity. No Muddy Waters here.
10:54
None at all. Whatever state exists there, it
10:57
is fixed. There is no decay, no expiration
11:00
date, no goodbyes, no alterations of condition.
11:03
There's no annihilation. Right.
11:05
It is endless, everlasting and eternal.
11:08
Time, as we experience it in linear sequence ceases to be the
11:12
governing metric. Ryle divides this permanent
11:14
reality into two and only two conditions.
11:17
Yes, for those who are justified, it is a permanent
11:20
condition of joy, an incorruptible inheritance.
11:23
No hunger, no thirst, a meeting without a parting.
11:26
It sounds incredible. Faith is finally swallowed up
11:29
insight. The warfare with sin is
11:30
accomplished. It is a day without night.
11:33
The stability of the believer's joy is absolute.
11:35
But there is the second condition for the lost.
11:38
It is a permanent state of misery.
11:40
I want to challenge this from the perspective of modern
11:42
sensibilities. Oh, you do.
11:43
The human mind naturally recoils at the idea of unending misery.
11:48
We hate the concept. Ociety treats the doctrine of
11:51
hell like a terrifying pitch black ocean right off the shore.
11:55
That's a really vivid picture. We know the water is there.
11:59
We can hear the waves crashing, but we collectively agreed to
12:02
build our cities facing inland and we keep our backs turned to
12:05
the water. We refuse to look at it.
12:07
That describes the modern psychological defense mechanism
12:10
perfectly. We use distraction and
12:13
theological revisionism to avoid looking at the dark ocean.
12:16
So how does Rile logically justify this?
12:19
How does he defend presenting heaven and hell as parallel
12:22
permanent tracks, especially when people find the idea of
12:25
eternal punishment so repulsive? What Rile does not rely on his
12:28
own philosophical logic, He relies strictly on linguistic
12:31
and textual arguments drawn directly from the biblical text.
12:34
He goes straight to the source. Right.
12:36
He argues that you simply cannot separate the two durations.
12:40
No ingenious theological definition can divide them.
12:44
They stand or fall together based on the original language.
12:47
He points out that Jesus Christ use the exact same phrasing for
12:51
both concepts in a single sentence.
12:54
He did. In the Gospel of Matthew, Christ
12:57
speaks of the wicked going to everlasting punishment and the
13:00
righteous into life eternal. And the Greek word used there
13:03
for both durations is ionios. OK, Raya's argument is
13:07
devastatingly simple. If you attack the duration of
13:09
hell, you are simultaneously destroying the duration of
13:12
heaven. They share the identical
13:14
linguistic foundation in the text.
13:15
You can't have both ways. No, you can't.
13:18
You cannot redefine the word ioni to mean temporary for the
13:21
punishment of the wicked without also redefining it to mean
13:24
temporary for the joy of the righteous.
13:26
With the sinner's fear, our hope departs.
13:28
Yes, exactly. If you pull the thread on the
13:30
doctrine of hell, you unravel the doctrine of heaven entirely.
13:33
It is the core of his defense. If the sorrow of the unbeliever
13:37
is not forever, then you have absolutely no textual guarantee
13:41
that the joy of the believer is forever.
13:44
You unravel the entire fabric of the text's promises.
13:47
Wow. Ryle mentions the apostle Paul,
13:50
universally known for his writings on charity and grace.
13:53
Yet Paul is the one who explicitly states the wicked
13:56
shall be punished with everlasting destruction, right?
13:59
He also mentions John, the apostle of love.
14:01
Yet John dwells most strongly on the reality of future woe and
14:05
the smoke of torment in the Book of Revelation.
14:07
It is a package deal, yeah. You cannot pick and choose your
14:11
preferred attributes of the unseen.
14:12
World, you really can't. Do you find yourself doing that?
14:15
Do you accept the comforting parts of the text, the eternal
14:18
joy, the absence of tears, the reunions, while mentally editing
14:23
out the uncomfortable parts about divine justice?
14:25
Most people do. Ryle challenges you to take the
14:28
text as a whole, unedited package, regardless of how much
14:32
flesh and blood might shrink from it.
14:33
Because flesh and blood do shrink from it, people naturally
14:36
look for loopholes. They want an escape hatch to
14:38
relieve the psychological pressure.
14:40
Which leads directly into Ryall's vigorous defense against
14:43
the popular critics of his era in a postscript he adds to the
14:47
chapter. Yeah, he had to address the
14:49
skeptics. If the idea of unending
14:51
consequence is too difficult to swallow, theologians will
14:54
inevitably try to find a way around it.
14:57
Ryle targets a book from his time by Canon Farrar called
15:01
Eternal Hope. I've heard of that one.
15:03
Farrar argued against unending punishment, trying to soften the
15:07
blow. Ryle also addresses a concept
15:10
called annihilationism. Right.
15:12
Annihilationism is the belief that the wicked simply cease to
15:15
exist. They are destroyed, meaning they
15:18
vanish into nothingness. Which sounds a lot more
15:20
palatable to the modern year. It does, but Ryle brings out the
15:23
historical guns against this He demonstrates that the concept of
15:27
temporary punishment or the cessation of existence is not
15:30
some enlightened modern discovery.
15:32
It's not a new idea. Not at all.
15:34
It is an ancient era that was largely rejected by the early
15:37
church. He points specifically to origin
15:39
in the 3rd century, yes. Origin boldly broached the
15:43
opinion that future punishment would be only temporary, a
15:46
concept often related to universal restoration.
15:49
Right. But Ryle points out that the
15:52
early Church fathers, men who were steeped in the original
15:55
Greek language and culture, unanimously rejected.
15:58
It they saw right through it. Eventually origins views on this
16:02
were officially condemned at the Fifth General Council, the
16:05
Second Council of Constantinople in 553AD.
16:09
Wow. OK.
16:10
Riles point is that the traditional view of eternal
16:13
consequence has been held by almost all the greatest
16:17
theologians from the early church right through the
16:19
Reformation. Let us zero in on that
16:21
annihilationist argument for a second because it sounds logical
16:24
on the surface. Sure.
16:25
The whole argument hinges on the English translation of words
16:28
like die, perish or destroy. In the Bible, the advocates say,
16:33
look, if something is destroyed, it ceases to exist.
16:36
Right, that's their claim. I want to test that with an
16:38
analogy. If I tell you that my car was
16:40
destroyed in a highway accident, does that mean the metal, the
16:43
engine block and the glass vanished into thin air and no
16:46
longer exists in the material universe?
16:48
No, of course not. It means the vehicle is
16:50
permanently ruined for its intended use.
16:52
Spot on. It is crushed.
16:54
It might be sitting in a scrap yard, completely unrecognizable
16:57
as a car. The components are all still
17:00
there, but it is entirely dysfunctional.
17:03
It's state has changed drastically, but it did not
17:05
cease to exist. Ryle proves from the text that
17:09
death or perish does not mean ceasing to exist.
17:13
He uses very specific counter examples.
17:15
Yeah, he looks at the very first instance of death in the text,
17:19
Adam. OK, right.
17:20
God told Adam that in the day he ate the forbidden fruit, he
17:23
would surely die. Did Adam physically vanish into
17:26
thin air that afternoon? No, he lived for a long time
17:29
after that. Every reader knows Adam
17:31
continued to walk, talk, and father children for centuries.
17:34
He died spiritually. His relationship with his Maker
17:37
was severed, but his existence did not cease.
17:40
The second example is equally clear.
17:42
He brings up the flood in Noah's time.
17:44
Yeah, this one is fascinating. The Apostle Peter writes that
17:47
the old world perished in the flood, but the physical globe
17:51
did not vanish. No it didn't.
17:52
It was temporarily drowned, ruined for a time time, but when
17:55
the water dried up, Noah walked out onto the same earth.
17:59
Therefore, the biblical use of words like perish or die does
18:03
not necessitate a cessation of existence.
18:06
It signifies ruin. So the linguistic arguments fall
18:09
flat. But Ryle goes much deeper than
18:11
just arguing over Greek definitions.
18:14
What else does he offer? He outlines 3 primary reasons
18:17
for holding fast to the traditional view of eternal
18:20
consequence, and these show how interconnected the specific
18:23
doctrine is with the entirety of Christian theology.
18:26
Let's look at the first pillar, the logical necessity of the
18:30
Atonement. This is a devastating
18:32
theological question Ryle poses. What was the use of God's Son
18:36
becoming Incarnate, agonizing in Gethsemany and bearing the wrath
18:40
of God on the cross to make atonement if men can be finally
18:43
saved without believing on Him? That's a massive question.
18:46
If people can escape punishment eventually, or if they are
18:49
simply annihilated into nothingness, why the immense
18:52
infinite cost of the cross? Well, I want to push back on
18:54
that. Couldn't someone argue that
18:56
Christ's death was just to secure the positive reward of
19:00
heaven for believing, while the unbelievers just quietly fade
19:04
out of existence? Why does the cross demand
19:07
eternal hell? Because of the nature of the
19:09
offense in Reformed theology, a sin against an infinitely holy
19:14
Creator carries an infinite penalty.
19:16
Oh OK. If the penalty for sin was just
19:18
a temporary slap on the wrist or simply falling asleep forever,
19:22
then the crucifixion of the Son of God is a massive overreaction
19:26
by the Father. Wow, an overreaction.
19:28
Yeah, the infinite horrors of the cross only make sense if the
19:31
alternative is an infinite horror for the Sinner.
19:34
If you diminish the reality of hell, you inherently cheapen the
19:38
necessity and the glory of the rescue.
19:40
It gets the gospel of its urgency.
19:42
Ryle's second reason is based on morality.
19:45
He argues that if you tell a young man who is wasting his
19:47
life and riotous, selfish living that there is heaven at last for
19:51
everyone, even for those who live and die in rebellion, he
19:54
has absolutely no logical reason to repent.
19:57
None at all. If everyone gets there
19:59
eventually after some temporary. Purification.
20:02
Why deny yourself in this life? The temporary pleasures of sin
20:07
become a highly logical choice if there is no permanent
20:09
consequence. You remove the guardrails
20:11
entirely. Human nature is fundamentally
20:14
drawn to rebellion. If you remove the threat of
20:16
permanent consequence, depravity will run unchecked.
20:20
The third reason is the stability of the Christian hope,
20:23
which we covered earlier. Every attack on hell is an
20:26
attack on heaven, right? Ryle issues a massive warning
20:29
here against relying on common opinion or popular feeling to
20:33
determine truth. He says trusting the inward
20:36
feeling of the multitude is absurd because the natural man
20:39
rejects these concepts. The majority is almost always
20:42
wrong on matters of divine justice.
20:44
It requires a severe, honest assessment of where your
20:47
authority lies. It really does.
20:49
Are your personal beliefs about the afterlife shaped by actual
20:52
textual evidence, or are they shaped by the immense social
20:55
pressure of what the majority of people currently find acceptable
20:57
at dinner parties? That's the real test.
21:00
If the permanent world is unchangeable once entered, then
21:03
the current vapor, like life, suddenly takes on massive
21:08
significance. Yeah, it amplifies the present
21:10
moment. The current life is where the
21:12
dial is set for eternity. Time acts as the hinge of
21:16
forever. Ryle argues that our lot after
21:18
death depends entirely on what we are while alive.
21:22
We are currently in a state of probation.
21:24
Like a testing ground. Exactly, we are constantly
21:27
sowing seeds every single day that will spring up into a
21:30
permanent harvest. He vehemently rejects any notion
21:33
of purgatory or post mortem conversion.
21:35
Which brings up a famous anecdote Ryle shares about
21:38
George Whitefield, the famous open air preacher from the 18th
21:41
century. Oh I love this story.
21:42
A man who heard Whitefield preach A terrifying sermon came
21:45
up to him afterward and said, It is all quite true, Sir.
21:48
I hope I shall be converted and born again one day, but not till
21:51
after I am dead. It is a stunning display of self
21:54
delusion, assuming that the transition of death itself has
21:57
some sort of saving property. Let me give you another analogy
22:00
for that mindset. It is like a college student
22:04
walking up to their professor on the last day of the semester.
22:07
OK, yeah. And saying I completely
22:09
understand the syllabus, I plan to study really hard and master
22:12
this material, but I am not going to open the textbook until
22:16
after the final grades have been submitted to the Dean.
22:19
The logic is entirely bankrupt. The testing period is over, the
22:22
grades are in. There is no postmortem
22:24
sanctification. Why is this specific delusion so
22:28
catastrophic in Rile's framework?
22:30
Because people hug the idea that somehow stepping out of the
22:34
physical body strips away the sin nature.
22:36
They think death is a cleanser. Right.
22:38
They believe the act of dying cleanses them and makes them fit
22:41
for the presence of a holy God. Rile issues a stark warning,
22:45
quoting the book of Ecclesiastes.
22:48
As the tree falls, there it will lie.
22:50
Gravity takes over, yeah. There is absolutely no
22:53
repentance in the grave. There is no conversion after the
22:55
last breath is drawn. As we die, so we rise again.
22:59
Death is a change of place, not a change of heart.
23:02
That place is an unimaginable weight on daily life.
23:06
If time is the hinge, then every idle word, every thought and
23:10
every action has a consequence that stretches past the grave.
23:14
Ryle notes that our thoughts are all numbered, our actions are
23:17
weighed. He quotes the apostle Paul.
23:20
What we sow in the flesh we shall reap after death and reap
23:23
to all eternity. He.
23:24
Pleads with the reader to regard time as the raw material of
23:27
which life is made, and to never waste it.
23:29
It's all we have to work with right now.
23:31
Look closely at your daily habits, your prayers, your
23:34
reading of Scripture, your Sunday worship, your
23:37
interactions with your family. The everyday stuff, yeah.
23:39
It's incredibly easy to view them as mundane chores, checking
23:42
boxes on a religious To Do List while you wait for the weekend.
23:46
Ryle is prompting you to look at those moments as actual seeds
23:49
being planted in the state of probation.
23:52
They matter forever. He offers a specific mental tool
23:54
for when you are tempted by small sins.
23:57
What's tool when Satan whispers it is only a little sin or
24:01
everybody else is doing it? Ryle says.
24:03
You must place the thought of eternity directly in the face of
24:06
the temptation. He shares a quote from a
24:08
martyred English reformer, Bishop John Hooper.
24:12
A very intense quote. When Hooper was being urged to
24:15
recant his faith right before he was burned at the stake, someone
24:18
said to him life is sweet and death is bitter.
24:22
And Hooper replied, true, quite true, but eternal life is more
24:27
sweet, and eternal death is more bitter.
24:29
Talk about absolute clarity. Under the highest possible
24:32
pressure, he weighed the temporary excruciating agony of
24:36
the flames against the permanent reality of the unseen world.
24:39
And he made his choice based on eternity.
24:41
He understood the time is the hinge.
24:43
He definitely did. But listen, if we stop the
24:45
conversation right there, the sheer weight of these
24:47
consequences combined with our daily failing and the seeds we
24:50
plant poorly could easily drive a person to absolute despair.
24:54
Oh, without a doubt. If every idle word is weighed by
24:57
a holy God, we are all condemned under the law.
24:59
Where does Ryle point the reader to find an anchor amidst all
25:02
this heavy, terrifying reality? Where's the solution?
25:06
Well, Ryle does not leave the reader in a pit of legalistic
25:09
despair. He points exclusively to Jesus
25:12
Christ as the great friend for both time and the afterlife.
25:15
This is the ultimate and only solution.
25:18
How does Christ fit into this massive equation of eternity?
25:21
Christ's purpose was to bring life and immortality to light.
25:25
He acts as the active substitute.
25:28
The substitute. Right.
25:29
He saw the completely bankrupt condition of humanity.
25:32
He stepped in, live the perfect life we failed to live, bore the
25:36
sins of the unjust on the cross, absorbing the eternal wrath we
25:40
just discussed, and rose again for our justification.
25:44
He took the eternal consequence, so the believer does not have to
25:46
face it. Precisely, Ryle includes the
25:48
sharp contrast in deathbed scenes to show the practical
25:52
historical result of having the substitute.
25:54
He talks about Cardinal Buford. Yes, Buford died in absolute
25:58
terror, saying he dies but gives no sign.
26:01
There's no comfort, no assurance facing the dark ocean.
26:03
He contrasts that bleak exit with John Knox, the Scottish
26:06
performer. Knox was on his deathbed,
26:08
completely exhausted, unable to speak.
26:11
A servant asked him to give some proof that the Gospel he had
26:14
preached so fiercely in life gave him comfort in the face of
26:18
death. And what does he do?
26:20
Knox, without a word, raised his hand toward heaven 3 times and
26:24
then departed. Wow, he had an anchor.
26:27
He could look down into the grave without terror because his
26:30
confidence was not in his own works, but in Christ's finished
26:33
work. That is massive assurance.
26:35
So how does Ryle articulate the actual mechanics of securing
26:39
this safety? Do you have to achieve a certain
26:41
level of intellect? Do you have to clean up your ACT
26:44
to a specific percentage before you are allowed to apply for
26:47
this justification? Not at all.
26:49
Ryle presents the terms as incredibly simple and accessible
26:52
to anyone. He says believe on the Lord
26:54
Jesus Christ. He quotes the gospel offers
26:57
directly come unto me, all ye that labor, and him that cometh
27:01
unto me I will in no wise cast out.
27:03
He stresses that having Christ means having life.
27:06
It is not about reaching A moral threshold, is about trusting the
27:09
substitute. It is a specific reliance.
27:12
It is an active resting on someone else's merit.
27:16
That specific reliance is what allows a person to look at the
27:19
decay of the physical world without dismay.
27:22
Yeah, you can literally watch the hotel room crumble around
27:25
you. You can feel your physical
27:27
strength waning and you do not panic because your treasure is
27:31
secure elsewhere. You can look forward to the
27:33
permanent things without fear. Ryle issues a direct challenge
27:36
to the reader. He asks would you be safe for
27:39
time and eternity? He pleads with the reader to
27:42
come as you are right now, before the door is shut.
27:45
He removes the theoretical distance.
27:47
He does. It is not just an academic
27:50
debate about Greek vocabulary. It is an urgent question about
27:53
your personal standing before a holy God.
27:56
You are heading toward a permanent reality.
27:58
Do you have the great friend? As we wrap up this analysis of
28:02
Ryall's text, he leaves the reader with a stark self
28:05
examination questions. What does he ask?
28:07
He asks how are you using your time?
28:09
Since it is short and entirely uncertain, Are you wasting it or
28:12
are you preparing to meet God? That's a heavy one.
28:15
And secondly, where shall you be when the present reality fades?
28:20
Are you leaving things uncertain, hoping for the best
28:22
or are you making sure work of your condition?
28:26
Those are heavy questions to sit with, and to add one final
28:29
thought to Mellover. Building on Rile's points, Rile
28:33
notes that even ancient Pagan cultures understood the weight
28:37
of eternity. Oh, right.
28:38
He cites the Greeks and the Romans.
28:40
He points to the legends of Tantalus forever reaching for
28:43
water he cannot drink, Sisyphus, the guy pushing the boulder up
28:47
the hill forever, and Ixion bound to a flaming wheel.
28:51
Even without written divine revelation, through simple
28:54
observation of the world and the conviction of their own
28:56
conscience, these ancient civilizations grasped the
29:00
concept of unending consequence for actions.
29:03
Their entire mythology is built on the reality of permanent
29:05
justice. They understood the stakes.
29:07
So the provocative question we leave you with is this If
29:10
ancient civilizations grasp this heavy reality just by looking at
29:14
the natural world, why does our highly educated modern society
29:18
shrink from it so desperately? It's a great question.
29:20
We have more access to historical texts, theological
29:24
frameworks, and digital libraries than any generation
29:27
before us, yet we aggressively prave the Muddy Waters.
29:31
What other stark realities are we currently ignoring simply
29:34
because our culture has collectively agreed to look the
29:36
other way? Thank you for joining us on this
29:38
deep dive. Take these thoughts, wait your
29:39
time, and we wish you well.