The last few weeks we’ve been talking about being spiritually born again. So, what happens next?

Once we have placed our faith and trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins and received Him as our Savior, is that it? Do we just go on with our lives as usual? Hardly.

Let me illustrate:

Men, imagine you just married a beautiful girl, professing your undying love in an ornate ceremony with both families in attendance. No expense is spared.

Then, without notice, the day after the wedding, you announce “Well, that’s done. See ya’ around sometime.”

And you just abandon your new wife as though you were still a single man living independently, just checking in now and then.

How long do you think your marriage will last?

Yet this is often what many professing Christian converts do to God once they go through some kind of religious experience, similar to the wedding ceremony above.

They assume that now that they have their spiritual “fire insurance,” they can check “the god thing” off as a “mission accomplished,” while abandoning Christ at the altar in the process.

God’s chosen people, the Jews, were in the habit of doing this to God all the time. Finally, God got fed up with it all and “let them have it” across the kitchen table through the prophet Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 2:12-14:

“Be appalled at this, you heavens,
And shudder, be very desolate,” declares the Lord.
“For My people have committed two evils:
They have abandoned Me,
The fountain of living waters,
To carve out for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns
That do not hold water.”

Not only did God’s people abandon their compassionate and gracious God but shopped around for other gods/idols along with a host of empty pleasures, thinking they could have their “cake and eat it, too.”

Of course, they were kidding themselves. That “god thing” is nothing to be trifled with.

A Fool’s Bargain

And sadder yet, those “careless lovers” of God (above) were missing out on the countless blessings of an intimate relationship with the living Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. A fool’s bargain if ever there was one.

Likewise, professing Christians who go on with their lives as usual after conversion without the slightest interest in becoming a disciple of Christ are cheating themselves on a cosmic level …

They are missing the joys and challenges of watching an ever-deepening love develop together that lasts through thick and thin.

They risk missing out on the comfort of intimate companionship while growing and maturing together around mutual values and beliefs.

Shared goals, dreams and memories securely bond people together for life, and only seem to get better with age — a bit like fine wine.

Then there are the opportunities to bear one another’s burdens and give each other a shoulder to cry on. 

Finally, there is the opportunity to build a permanent homebase for family gatherings, which is a model for the way the church is meant to function.

Love Affair with God

The New Testament often compares our relationship with God to a marriage. Consider Revelation 19:7-8:

“Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride (the Church) has prepared herself. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints (you and me).”

This explains why marriage is so important to God in the Bible. Because it models many of the aspects of an authentic, committed relationship that He desires to have with you and me.

How About You?

So, how can we expect to fully enjoy Heaven without being spiritually and emotionally bonded with the all-encompassing Presence of God Himself? That bonding starts here on earth as disciples of Christ where we get to flex our spiritual muscles [faith] through life’s ups and downs in active partnership with our Savior. 

Attempting to live the Christian life on our own is like trying to fly by madly flapping our arms. That’s why “Lone Ranger Christians” aren’t in the Bible.

As written in 1 Corinthians 13:11-13:

“When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

4-1-1

Click here for a fascinating AI-generated podcast on this essay.