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May 06, 2023 06:00am

Till There’s Nothing Left

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My kids know I am famous for theologically picking apart songs on the radio.

I’m not trying to be a curmudgeon—I’m trying to make them think, and hopefully have some invigorating and fruitful conversations along the way.

The world shoves so many messages at us which we swallow and digest without even tasting. How do we know if it’s healthy for us?

This is why it’s important to examine our world through the lens of the Bible.

My latest musical musing coincides with an uncharacteristic country music kick. (I’ve never been a fan of country music before—maybe I’m having a midlife musical crisis?) I discovered a new-to-me artist named Cam and fell in love with her voice.

In her song called “Till There’s Nothing Left,” the premise is a woman who doesn’t want to leave her lover until she has expended every ounce of her love on him. There’s a line in the chorus which says:
Praying, ‘God don’t save me’—till there’s nothing left.

The point of the song is she doesn’t want to be rescued from this moment until she has lived it to the fullest.

I found this song around the same time that I watched an evangelism training video at my church. In this video, the evangelist has a witnessing encounter with a young man on an airplane. When asked if he wants to repent and believe in Jesus, the young man responds that he is rather young and hopefully has a lot of life left to live.

He thinks it is a better idea to wait till the end of his life to turn from his sins and ask God for forgiveness; if he repents now, wouldn’t he just mess it up with more sin?

This type of thinking is not abnormal. Many people want to experience life their way, get all their fun and kicks in while they can, and then consider turning from their ungodliness and trusting in Christ at their deathbed, if at all.

Christians are boring, they think. If I become a Christian, I’ll never have any fun.

What is the truth?

Should we wait till there’s nothing left of life to ask God to save us?

Should we expend ourselves pursuing every pleasure imaginable until we run out of time?
Is there wisdom in this?

The wisest man on earth (aside from Jesus Christ) investigated this very thing. He looked at everything people could do while they were alive—working, partying, entertainment, making a name for themselves, building or acquiring property and possessions, drinking alcohol, and all kinds of other pleasures. He came to this conclusion:

And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:13–14)

King Solomon had access to endless resources, money, and pleasure, and yet he discovered that even if he owned and experienced everything imaginable, it was all pointless. He concluded the age-old adage long before it became popular—You can’t take it with you. His conclusion came from realizing that every person alive comes to the same end—death.

For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:16–17)

If this life were all there is, then death wouldn’t be a problem, and we should just eat, drink, and be merry (Ecclesiastes 9:7). But Solomon understood what every person knows deep down, whether they acknowledge it or not, that “[God] has put eternity into man’s heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11a).

God made us for more than this moment—our souls were made for eternity. But crossing from this life into the eternal one means we must first face God’s judgment, for “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27), and “God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14).

Those who have trusted in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for the forgiveness of their sins will enter into God’s presence in heaven; those who have rejected Jesus Christ as the way to God will “suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” and be thrown in “the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 21:8).

There is obviously eternal value in being a Christian, but is there any benefit in repenting and following Christ this side of heaven?

Should we wait till there’s nothing left of life to turn to Christ?

Should we pray God wouldn’t save us until we’ve done everything we want to do?

What if we repent now but just mess it up with more sin?

Jesus taught there was more than just eternal benefit to following him. He said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

In this passage, Jesus compares us to sheep and himself to a shepherd as well as the door to the sheepfold. He wants us to live life to the fullest, but true fullness and freedom only come from being in him. Satan is the thief who doesn’t want us to enter Christ’s sheepfold and taste the grass there. He wants us to believe that Jesus is not a good shepherd and that we can find greener pastures if we live outside of God’s “fences.”

While we may think we are enjoying the good things of life by not being bogged down by rules and religion, the Bible teaches that the greatest fulfillment, satisfaction, and joy come from knowing and following God in this life, not just the one to come.

You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalms 16:11

While there is grace and forgiveness available to anyone at any time for those who call on the name of the Lord for salvation, tomorrow is not promised. We do not know when we will die or when Jesus will return. If we do not turn from our sins now, tomorrow may be too late.

And yes, even if we repent and trust in Christ, we will still sin in this life. But Jesus died so that all our sins—past, present, and future—would be paid for and we could live in peace with God. Part of experiencing this life to the fullest comes from living free of the guilt and shame our sin makes us feel, and we can only do that if we have experienced forgiveness and pardon in Christ.