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Did God make the Bible so long to hide secrets for success? Will it give you just the formula you need for each one of your problems … All you need to do is find it, apply it, and watch your issues melt away? Not quite.
Heaven-aimed Christianity causes all kinds of problems in the Christian life. A key problem that I frequently see is that it distorts our view of the Bible. Heaven-aimed Christianity teaches that Jesus made us for heaven and saves us with the intent of taking us to heaven to be with him there forever. No earth. We forfeited an earth when he ate the forbidden fruit. Now all humans are consigned to wander the earth. The fortunate ones who trust in Christ receive eternal bliss in a non-earthly heaven. That’s the general idea of heaven aimed Christianity. It aims your life toward heaven. So when you hear the gospel, confess your sins, place your faith in Christ, and decide to live for him—that living for him is nothing more than counting the days until you get to heaven.
Well, what are you supposed to do once you place your faith in Christ and begin to follow him? The answer to this question is found in the Bible. Instinctively, all Christians believe this. The Bible teaches us about salvation and instructs us in our walk. But heaven-aimed Christianity discolors what that walk looks like and distorts what the Bible teaches us for that walk. It says we have a total different purpose for life right now on earth than we will have when we die and go to heaven. Because of that difference, people misunderstand the purpose of the Bible. And then, they create all kinds of alternative purposes. In recent videos, I’ve discussed those distortions. And there are more. Right now, I want to talk about the success distortion.
By thinking Christianity is only about going to heaven, many folks then assume the Bible is nothing more than a book of formulas for successful living. Heaven-aimed Christianity leads people to read the Bible as self-help book. How do you get rich? How do you lead? How do you run a business? How do you parent well? How do you resolve conflict? How do you win right now?
Now, caveat, I do believe the Bible contains wisdom, truth, and principles for living well. The Bible is the richest source of insight available to us.
But here’s the problem with treating the Bible as a self-help book. We become the ones defining what a successful life looks like and then we use the Bible as nothing more than a means to get the life we want. Success according to the Bible does not necessarily look like success according to Netflix, or success according to Tony Robbins, or success according to Elon Musk, or success according to Taylor Swift. Sure, there’s overlap here and there because everyone is human and we all, therefore, share similar desires and hopes for this life. But the Bible gives a different answer to the question, “What does a successful life look like?”
The reason it gives a different answer to that question is due to its eternal perspective. Life doesn’t end in death. This life is not all there is and human life is not the highest life form. All humans live forever and God exists. Those two realities shape what success right now actually looks like.
Heaven-aimed Christianity misconstrues what the Bible has to say about success for this reason. It says true success according to the Bible must wait until after we die and get to heaven. For now, then, we live upright lives and bide our time until we get to heaven. As we bide our time, we must make a life for ourselves somehow, so we need to figure out what kind of life that is and then find and follow the biblical formula for getting there right now.
Of course, there’s a lot we could go into regarding this topic, regarding what true success looks like and doesn’t look like. But for now, I want to focus on the path to biblical success: that’s submission. Jesus gets pretty direct in these words from Luke 9:23–26:
23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 25 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?
Here, you see the two key assumptions at work, which often aren’t in the world’s definition of success. The first assumption is that there is a God, that God is active in this world, and he’s very interested in us. Second, life for folks continues after death. For now, what could be more beneficial that gaining the whole world: unlimited resources, freedom to travel as you wish and where you wish, power to control what you wish, all the pleasure you could ever want at your finger tips. Except one thing—you are still going to die. But giving your life to Christ, following him and his ways, embracing his mission and vision for what life is really all about—well, as Jesus said, “If anyone believes in me, even though he dies, he will live.” Inheriting Christ forever is better than inheriting the whole world for a few years.
So if you were to ask me what success looks like according to the Bible, I would say submission. Sure, there’s more to it, but that is the best place to start in my opinion. Especially, if you are influenced by heaven-aimed Christianity which easily produces a kind of prosperity focus. Some call it the prosperity gospel—which, at its worse, is no gospel at all.
Submission, however, puts you in line with what the Bible truly teaches, which I call heaven-now Christianity. Success and real life, as we will experience it in heaven, begins in part right now. So there is quite a bit of overlap between eternal success and temporal success. For me, that’s why heaven-now Christianity is so powerful and meaningful. It helps align us with who we are meant to be and promises us that we will ultimately fulfill that identity with Christ. Fulfilling that identity begins with a thriving connection with him which is possible right now and beneficial right now. I hope this has been helpful. I am Aaron Massey. Thanks for listening.