Gospel Talk: The Invention of Lying

Room65 - The Invention of Lying

David J. Nixon (August 2010)

crutches in life and the reality of RESURRECTED ETERNAL LIFE

Creation:
Last year a film starring the world famous comedian Ricky Gervais was released called: “The Invention of Lying” set in a world where everyone only knew how to tell the truth – no matter how embarrassing or difficult. Everyone…other than Ricky’s character, who discovers he is able to say things which are not the truth; He invents lying. He goes on to change the world after spending time with his mother the night she dies. He seeks to comfort her in her pain and fears about death being the beginning of “an eternity of nothingness” – by telling her that after she dies there is a joyful afterlife in Heaven. The doctors and nurses overhear this and he becomes a global celebrity as millions are comforted by this false hope of an afterlife.

There are many people who agree with the philosophy underlying this film’s parody: religion and the belief in life after death is only a fanciful crutch to prop us up against the scary reality of death.

…What do you think?

As a Christian I want to be honest with you tonight, that my faith in God and belief in His promises that there is life after death are a tremendous comfort in a world full of pain, which will end for all of us in the grief of death.

Christ:
Whatever we believe or do not believe about an afterlife, we all know that this life is short and full of struggles – the Bible teaches that we live in a broken world that is not the way it is meant to be. God made a good world where we enjoyed life with Him – as the source and the sustainer of all life. However, a terrible decision has been made by each and everyone of us throughout history (some of us consciously in blatant rejection of God; others in subconscious rebellion against God by simply ignoring Him in the world He has made). This problem of sin is the ultimate cause of the brokenness we see around us; and has only one outcome: death and punishment for us. Many people seek to escape this reality of life in many different ways (television, money, work, success, popularity, drugs, drink, sex). I genuinely believe that all of us are in search of some kind of crutch. But Christianity rather than distract us from the stark reality of life in a broken world, forces us to look the awful nature of death and judgement in the face. It promises us restoration to the source of life, God, if we believe in His Son Jesus for forgiveness.

Comfort is useless unless it is based in reality and truth. We can have false comfort, but it will ultimately fail when we die and have to face judgement for our turning away from God.

The only way we will ever know if there is a reality to life after death, is if someone were to die (unquestionably) and come back to life again to tell us. There is an event in history which beyond a shadow of a doubt establishes it: Jesus’ death and His resurrection back to life three days later. Here we have a man put to death on a Cross – from which we get the word “excruciating” (it was such an awful way to die they made up a new word for its pain). The expert Roman executioners make sure He is dead by thrusting a spear into His side, which causes blood and water to flow out, showing His heart had stopped for some time. Hours later they put Him into a tomb, just another day at the office.

Jesus’ followers didn’t understand what He meant when He claimed to be the Son of God so when these events took place they ran away: their hopes about this Jesus crushed to death, literally. But then three days later they saw the dead man ALIVE. They saw the scars from His horrendous death and finally got it. Here was an event that never had happened before: a conclusively dead man had risen again. They weren’t the only witnesses either, there were 500 witnesses at one time who also saw Him in Jerusalem – those who called for Him to be killed were converted to believe He truly was God by seeing both His death and His resurrection.

These historical events establish that we can have comfort knowing that there is a hope of life after death which is firmly grounded in reality. Indeed the Bible is so confident of this reality, that it states boldly “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19). For only if He rose again and we ask Jesus to forgive us from our sins have we any right to take comfort in the belief of life after death. Otherwise all we have is another crutch that will only disappoint us when we face death and judgement:

Choice
So tonight maybe your idea of Christianity only being a crutch has been challenged, but I want to ask you what you’re going to do with what you’ve heard: “If was sick, I would be a fool not to call the doctor because of some perceived stigma attached to not being well. Just so, when I become aware of my sin, it would be folly not to call upon the one who can forgive me and give me life after death.”

Therefore, far from a belief in life after death being the invention of lying; the truth is that God has invented a way for us to have life after death: through the death of His Son on the Cross who died on our behalf for our sin so that we would not have to die eternally.

If you would like to examine the Bible’s account of the resurrection of Jesus, please take away with you this piece of literature…