Are You Ready to Cash-in Your Chips?

Without realizing it, we ask ourselves thousands of silent questions every day in decision-making. Should I buy this brand or that one? Can I afford to buy this item? What time is it? Should I see a doctor about this pain? What is the phone number I need to reach this person? Should I watch this TV program or another? What shall I order from the menu?

Of all the countless silent questions we ask ourselves—explicitly or implicitly—the most significant one is that which is most directly related to our very existence and destiny as humans—and one that many persons refuse to dwell on, or even “wonder about” because of the anxiety it may create in their heart . This is especially true among faith-weak or “non-God-trusting” souls.

That question is: After I die, will I spend my eternity in heaven or in hell?

If you were to die today—a hypothesis you have often heard and perhaps seldom really contemplated—how will I appear to God at my death—the God who both gave me life and who will judge that life? One of those ponderable, and yet somehow imponderable citations from God’s word that could trigger that formidable question, is the simple truth stated in Hebrews 9:27: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face the judgment.”

But for those who are able to face a fuller view of that ominous prediction, Paul offers a more detailed word-picture: “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while living in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).

Our salvation doesn’t depend on theological knowledge or on the ability to quote Scripture, although both are useful. What matters is what is proclaimed in 1 John 4:16-17: “We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way…we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment” (1 John 4:16-17). I think it was St. John of the Cross who said, “In the sunset of life we will all be judged on love.”

Thus, when one is loving God and is aware of being enveloped in his love, trust is experienced connaturally, for “faith (trust) expresses itself in love” (Gal. 5:6). In the ambience of mutual love, one’s trust dissolves the anxiety of uncertainty concerning one’s salvation. Paul’s advice to the Philippians (2:12) to “work out your salvation in fear and trembling” does not refer to a fear that undermines our trust in God; just the opposite. It is simply a reminder that our human faith is fragile, so we must be cautious (“fearful”) of losing our trust in the Lord’s promise that he “will save us from sinful backsliding” (Ezek. 37:23). To lose that consummate trust in God would endanger one’s salvation, for it would question the attribute of God’s Mercy.

In human parlance, we tend to regard the opposite of love as hatred. However, biblically, the opposite of love is sin, which generically is disregarding the will of God for us, his children, as affirmed in the Old Testament: “Those who love me…keep my commandments” (Exod. 20:6), and paraphrased by Jesus in the New Testament: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). By itself, that statement may seem legalistic and obediential, like “Obey the speed limit or don’t regard yourself as a good driver.” But love-charged obedience to God’s will, contravening Adam’s disobedience, summarizes the basic obligation that a human creature, as a child of God, has toward his Creator. Salvation is hinged on obedience to God’s will to the extent that each person is able to know God’s will.

However, with a truly devout soul, obedience to God’s command is seen as the supportive “skeleton” of one’s love. The “enfleshment” of that basic “skeleton” is a meaningful and loving relationship with the Lord—a warm personal affinity described by Jesus in John 14:23-24: “If anyone loves me he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him (“abide in him”). He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.” So love—the “salvation ticket”—is manifested by obedience to God’s will. However, notice in Jesus’ words the second dimension of love—a personal relationship with the grace-hungry soul: “make our home with him.”

That fact highlights the adage about levels of grace: “sanctification trumps justification.” Justification creates a weed-free (sin-free) plot of land, while sanctification beautifies that clean acreage into a flowering (virtue-bedecked) garden. Jesus hints at both aspects—justification and sanctification—in the scripture passage quoted above. The “abiding presence” that Jesus speaks of is that dimension of spiritual and personal relationship which adds to obedience an awesome “abiding” intimacy with God. That dimension doesn’t replace obediential love, but it reinforces it.

This intimate love that Jesus refers to as “abiding presence” is the same intimacy-craving love that he speaks of in Rev. 3:20: “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in…”

On the basis of this “overlay of personal relationship” that goes beyond basic obedience, many mystics and saintly souls have spoken of the “spirituality” of love as an experience beyond the salvific iteration of love. The “spirituality” of love adds an “enfleshment” to the “skeletal” obedience mandate by feeding the interior life, beyond love’s basic salvation aspect. As an example of this dimension of experiencing God’s love in intimacy, St. John Vianney writes, “The Interior life is like a sea of love in which the soul is plunged, and is, as it were, “drowned” in love…. Just as a mother holds her child’s face in her hands and covers it with gentle kisses, so does God lavish his love on a loving devout soul.” Devout rhapsodies like this bring to the surface the personal-relational aspect of love; they enhance, but don’t replace its salvific thrust.

Like love, sin is not merely a feeling, but also something we do. According to I John 5:3, “This is love for God,: to obey his commands.” Thus, love is fulfilling God’s will—keeping God's commandments; sin, then, is the breaking of His commandments—that is, his moral guidelines found in his revelation and in our conscience. Though deep feeling (fervor) is certainly involved in the biblical concept of love (as in the Song of Songs), yet, on judgment day, our obedient conformity to the will of God will be the primary determinant of our salvation.

Seriously consider this: If we sin, then, according to Scripture, at the time we are sinning, we are not loving God, but insulting him. For that matter, we’re not even loving ourselves, because every sin we commit is a step toward spiritual suicide. Ultimately, love (that is, loving obedience to his will) or sin—non-love (disobedience to his will) translates into either salvation or condemnation. If we cling to serious sin without sincere repentance, it means that we do not appreciate that God has lovingly given us a supernatural life consisting of grace, by which we share (extrinsically) in his own divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). On the other hand, by accepting and not abusing that gift, we can claim his awesome promise of living with him forever in mutual love that far exceeds any human ability to imagine! (1 Cor. 2:9; Is. 64:4).

Stripped of any possible nuances that might affect God's judgment, this is the stark reality of what faces us, after we have become aware of his design for our salvation. That awareness reminds us that, if we love him, then we will hate sin (since sin is any refusal to do or accept his will).

Hark back to the question we may be afraid to ask ourselves—will I spend eternity in heaven or in hell? If in heaven, how high in heaven—based on our holiness at the time of death? If in hell, how low in hell—based on the degree of evil in our heart at the time of death? The answer, starkly stated, is this: our very eternal existence will be spent either in heaven or in hell; which one it will be? The epithet already quoted states the answer pithily but poignantly: “In the sunset of life, we will all be judged on our love.” Or the lack of it.