Breaking Benjamin is one of the first groups I discovered from doing searches on You Tube. Breaking Benjamin isn’t a spiritual based rock band, but has produced songs with deep meaning. Such is the case of today’s featured song Dear Agony. The lyrics remind me of letters that I wrote to friends in college as I poured out my heart about what was going on in my life.
For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 6:23.
Lead singer Jackson Burnley IV sings about finding the enemy deep within you while singing Dear Agony. Like any emotional experience that you endure in life. agony has a way of sucking the joy and life out of you. The passage above coincides with Dear Agony as the wages of sin result in death. This is the ultimate form of agony, eternal separation from God. If you’re not sure about the afterlife, remember the words of 1 John 5:12-13 so that you will know for sure about your future.
After finishing my final exam in college, I was on my way to see a friend play in a tennis tournament. As the light that I was stuck at turned green, I proceeded to enter this intersection when the front on my car was hit by a vehicle running a red light. After getting out of our cars, this man immediately apologized. When the cops didn’t arrive for a while, I told a student eyewitness to go home. As soon as a police officer arrived, this man changed his entire story. The evidence of the skid marks was clearly in my favor, but to the judge I was a college student and the man who hit me was an outstanding citizen.
He who believes in the Son of God [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] has the testimony [possesses this divine attestation] within himself. He who does not believe God [in this way] has made Him out to be and represented Him as a liar, because he has not believed (put his faith in, adhered to, and relied on) the evidence (the testimony) that God has borne regarding His Son. 11 And this is that testimony (that evidence): God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, 1 John 5:10-11.
On earth, every day someone gets away with a crime, lie, or sinful act. You may be able to fool friends, family, or your peers for a period of time before the evidence is revealed. When light exposes your actions, behavior and choices, you may become like the man who hit me in college, changing his story when the police show up. This painful experience of injustice served as a wake up call to me as a naive Christian. While right doesn’t always prevail initially, the evidence of an afterlife are written with conviction in the Bible.
In the former account [which I prepared], O Theophilus, I made [a continuous report] dealing with all the things which Jesus began to do and to teach 2 Until the day when He ascended, after He through the Holy Spirit had instructed and commanded the apostles (special messengers) whom He had chosen. 3 To them also He showed Himself alive after His passion (His suffering in the garden and on the cross) by [a series of] many convincing demonstrations [unquestionable evidences and infallible proofs], appearing to them during forty days and talking [to them] about the things of the kingdom of God, Acts 1:1-3.
Luke spoke to individuals who witnessed Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Meanwhile, one of Jesus’ former disciples tells his audience that you can know for sure about your eternal destiny, 1 John 5:12-13. John isn’t wishy washy like a skeptical individual watching an infomercial that sounds too good to be true. Rather John writes as if he just listened to a Tony Robbins motivational podcast, eager to tell others about securing a room in heaven. The Bible is full of evidence, nuggets of truth that will help you find your way home like the bread crumbs Hansel and Gretel left behind to follow when they needed it.
Most Hollywood films begin with a main character who is introduced in their ordinary world. This comfortable place quickly illustrates who the protagonist is, a specific desire in life and each is given a flaw that prevents this individual from reaching their full potential. Like a story from the Bible, screenplays have a call to action that will take the hero on a 90 minute journey. During this adventure, the main character is forced to rethink some of their beliefs and values. By the end, most characters will change.
Accordingly God also, in His desire to show more convincingly and beyond doubt to those who were to inherit the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose and plan, intervened (mediated) with an oath, Hebrews 6:17.
According to one New Testament author, God never changes. Later on in this book, a comment is made about God’s one and only son. “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever,” Hebrews 13:8. This convincing statement is made beyond a doubt. This conviction is based upon God’s promise of a spiritual inheritance in the Old Testament. Although the forefathers of Israel never received this promise prior to their deaths, this oath is fulfilled in the afterlife, 1 John 5:13.
And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you. 7 It is right and appropriate for me to have this confidence and feel this way about you all, because [b]you have me in your heart and I hold you in my heart as partakers and sharers, one and all with me, of grace (God’s unmerited favor and spiritual blessing). [This is true] both when I am shut up in prison and when I am out in the defense and confirmation of the good news (the Gospel), Philippians 1:6-7.
Anyone who has ever sought out God’s will for their own life, Romans 12:1-2, this never occurs in a straight line from point A to point B. Rather, freewill causes all human beings to deviate, going off course for an extended period of time. While your detour may not last 40 years like the Jewish Exodus out of Egypt, you will continue on the wrong path until common sense returns. Nonetheless, God has prepared in advance for you good works to do on earth. This is what the Bible means by the unchangeableness of God’s purpose and plan. May you put aside idleness so that you will fan into flame your God given gifts.
Pardon is the act of forgiveness where a judge or individual decides to cancel an offense. Despite being guilty and wrong, the written record of this offense is purged and removed. Perhaps, the apostle Paul was reflecting upon part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount when writing the words below. Whatever the inspiration behind this message, Paul encouraged members of the Church at Colosse to readily pardon and forgive.
Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has [freely] forgiven you, so must you also [forgive], Colossians 3:13.
While the apostle Paul practiced tough love when the occasion or timing was right, what makes Christian’s different from everyone else is a spirit of charity, 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. Paul shares a similar message to the Church at Ephesus, to emulate the love of Jesus, Ephesians 5:1-2. Whenever you display grace upon individuals, whether they deserve it or not, love in action makes the unspiritual hungry for what you have inside your heart.
For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses, Matthew 6:14-15.
In the passage above, Jesus introduces the conditional status of forgiveness. Similar to the Parable of the Prodigal Son, genuine love waits for and is ready when opportunities arise to console, encourage and uplift. Based upon the clause above, how you forgive others will be the basis for how God forgives you. Anyone who is willing to readily pardon and forgive others on earth will receive the same outpouring of grace by God in the afterlife.
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