But What If?

27There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30And the second 31and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32Afterward the woman also died. 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife." 34And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him." 39Then some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well." 40For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

Luke 20 [ESV]

Do you know how we like to say, "Yes, but…but, what if…?" Teachers put up with this all the time.

God puts up with this from us all the time…

…but what if?…We say this after hearing God's Word…don't we?

…but…but, my relatives have come to town? Yes…your point is? Take them with you to church, or let them stay home if they won't. You be here.

…but what if I have worked a real hard and long year and go on vacation to rest? The best rest is in the Lord's House.

…but on holidays I need all the time I can get to prepare the feast…so we can eat on time.

…So have snacks ready and eat later.

….yes, but then the game is on….

…so tape it, eat, then watch. Is it the holiday (the HOLY DAY) or the game that is being celebrated? Is it a day of excuses to sin?

Come on, what else you got? You see, I can give you a counter answer to almost all of your "what if's" as any good teacher will, or simply answer that that situation you give will never happen in the real world.

I can give you an answer because the Bible answers everything that is under the sun. There is nothing new.

Yes, God has an answer for them all…and yes, God has heard all the possible reasons for not doing whatever He tells us to do.

God says to have no other gods before Him. Other little gods, yes, as God knows we have them, but Our Lord comes first. What do I and He mean here?

Go ahead and love other things, but according to the Commandments and in their proper order. God first, then family (wife, then children…husband, then children), then your neighbors, then your vocation, then your hobbies. Love, cherish and care…but not before…not above Him…not out of the order of creation—the way He made them all.

Yes, but what if…

What if my husband is a work-aholic? My children need me, and since he is not around much, why should I put…let him be first in my life…over them?

You both need to repent. Yet each of you are still to do what God says. Despite the situation—even in the situation.

What if …

Yes?

…but…the town does such a lousy job on the roads…and they sent my son over to Iraq and I don't think we should even be there…and look at gas prices….

Show me a coin. Whose image is on it? A president. So, render to the government—to the world—what is theirs, and to God what is His.

Pay your taxes, yes, but also give to God what is due Him: YOU.

Whose image is on you? Whose image has been once again placed on you? How were you formed and how were you re-formed?

Adam was made in the image of God, but then took the "what if" against…and instead of…doing according to how he was made.

So, the image of the devil was stamped on Adam…and Eve…and all of us.

The world—I don't mean this planet, although effected, yes—but when the Bible talks about this world, it is in the image of the devil. Its ways and its wants.

It—the devil—wants to also form the church into its image. He would like to form you again into his image.

As a liar. A cheat. A thief. A user. An excuser—an excuser of sin. The devil wants you in the image of death—to die and stay dead.

You see, he is the master of the "…but what if…" scenario. He gave Adam and Eve a crash course right in the garden.

"But what if God is holding out on you…what if it is a better thing to know good and evil…and what if God really does not want you to be like Him…?"

That is where this MO comes from. The devil.

The devil tried to do this even to God. He tried the "what if" in heaven…what if he, the devil could replace God and run things for a change…what if that were better? Yet he failed. The Bible says that the devil and his angels that he took with him—a third—lost their former estate. Thrown out of heaven.

Adam and Eve lost their former estate too—kicked out of the garden. Pain in childbirth, friction between husband and wife…and more weeds than edible plants from all that hard work. Then Brothers killing each other.

It seems that the devil's "what if" was working here, on earth. It has been—working well in the sense that we all do it, but the results…well no good for us has come of it.

Yet, we still wonder, "but what if it eventually will be good…" No, as we will be dead. Every one of us.

Then the devil, with all his success here, thought he would get another chance at heaven.

Yes, especially when the Son of God became man. He even tried to make Jesus into his image. He tempted Jesus. Then because Jesus wasn't taking the bait, he killed him.

The devil failed. Using his own work against Him, Jesus was not re-imaged, but actually began the start of humanity's re-imaging. Jesus was not just reclaiming His own body, and life, but also ours…and the world—nature and the universe itself.

All will have the full, undiminished, unaffected, untarnished image of God once again.

Starting with Jesus the man…then continuing with a band of twelve which then became over 3,000 by the second chapter of Acts, then out into the whole world—all by baptism—Word and Water…and Spirit.

Same as at the beginning of the world. The World made by God's Word, the Son, in Water and the Spirit which hovered over the deeps. Just read Genesis chapter 1.

All is being remade again according to God's way…again…with Water and Word.

You see, by baptism, we no longer have the image of the world. We get God's name, and wherever His name is placed, God is there—His image is there…He is there.

A new creation starts there. We Get Jesus as our covering. Jesus is the exact image of God. When we see Jesus, we see God. When God sees us, He sees Jesus. We get—we have Jesus, His Spirit and His Father.

We have been reborn…re-imaged…remade…regenerated in His image once again. The planet is next…out into the universe even—everything.

So, God has all the "what if's"—every contingency—even ones we have not thought of or ever will—He has got them covered.

What if? What if nothing!

We are to act now according to how we have been remade…like Jesus…to please His Father…where there are no, "what if's" any longer. There just are none in Jesus. Never! Even if we cannot see the how, it is covered. We are covered.

So, we can, then, render to God, what is God's: You. Do so.

All of you and yours. Your time, your things, your spouse and children even. Your life even.

He who hates his life in this world, Jesus says, will keep it. He who loves it, will lose it. What image do you like best? Stop letting them change you into their image…the way they do things! Stop letting people try and change the image of the church then!

We don't vote for choice in the name of freedom. We vote to keep God's commandments.

We don't change church and our services just because that is what the world likes.

It wants us to reflect them—their image, but we must reflect God's. It wants the church to use marketing and packaging to tempt and lure. It wants us to dress and be like them—to lure and seduce and tempt.

All this is the image of sin, death and the devil.

The church and its people have the image of Christ—it must or it is not the church.

God's image is of life, not the dead. He lives and we live and move and have our being in Him. He is the author and perfecter of our lives. You only live because He says so. You only have because He says so.

He gives life to all those who despair of their own. Face the result of your sin—your death. Face the fact that the soul who sins dies and leaves all that he has to someone else.

Face that picture. Face that image. Then turn and embrace instead the image God gave you—His.

God is the only one who can change that death mask into a face that lives…that reflects Him. He sent Jesus for this very reason.

Jesus is the resurrection. He is the way, the truth and the Life. All those who believe in Him, who eat of His flesh and drink of His blood have life in them. These carry His life giving being—God Himself—the very image of God, Jesus, in their very bodies.

Whose image do you have? Theirs or His?

Those without Jesus' reflection die…

…with no if's, no but's, about it.

So don't confuse yourselves, or others, with "but what if's."

As if…we could stump God. As if we could find wiggle room out of what He expects. As if there are loop holes. As if there were any other way.

No, None! He alone provides the way out. Jesus. He alone provides life. Jesus.

Yet, He not only gives wiggle room—to live and breath freely in—He brings us to His wide open fields—where we can and will be at play…in the house of the Lord…forever.

Jesus came and did this for us,