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Is there Free Parking in Heaven?

Sep 10, 2009

I just got off the phone with the company that hosts our website. I wanted to end our relationship and move on to someone else. In the course of my conversation they proposed a third option. I could change my account to a free "Domain Parking" status instead. I don't have to pay them anything again ever but they keep my domain name registered for me. It is like free parking on the world wide web.

I was initially very excited when they explained this to me. I get the benefit of keeping my domain name and website up and running but I have no cost. The more I thought about it though I realized what a tenuous arrangement this is.

For those of you with churches or businesses in todays world you know how vital a website is. To be without a website in North America is like Michael Jackson without his glove or a Tarantino film without blood. Its just not right. Yet even though my website is vital I am expecting to get it for free. Not only for free but I am expecting someone else to do all of the work while I sit back and enjoy unlimited free parking on the web.

Isn't this the way many of us treat heaven? We agree it is vital and necessary and yet expect to have our space reserved at no cost to us?

If you are a Christian you have no problem admitting how vital it is that you get to partake in that great and glorious day when Jesus will return and God will wipe every tear from our eyes. Even those of you who aren't Christians can agree that, if heaven is a reality, you don't want to be left out. And that to be left out of heaven would be...well...hell. Literally.

And yet, we want free parking!! We want to have a no-cost arrangement which enable us to reserve our space there while we do whatever we want down here. We want the comfort and assurance of a spot in heaven without changing our lifestyle or our priorities before we get there. The words of Jesus strike us as very strange. "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the Gospel will save it." (Mark 8:34-35) Instead of denying ourselves we prefer to indulge ourselves.

During World War II Deitrich Bonhoeffer was one of the Christian pastors in Germany who stood up against Hitler while many of his colleagues did not. He wrote about cheap grace. "Cheap grace is the grace we bestow upon ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate." He contrasts this with costly grace. "Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought out again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it give a man his only true life. Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us."

What does this costly grace look like today in North America? It looks like us putting God in the center and living for his pleasure and fame instead of our own. How do we do that? It starts with simply reading our Bibles. 1 John is a good place to start. It starts with killing our excuses and taking time to get alone and pray. It starts with inviting our neighbor over for dinner and talking about more than sports and weather.It starts with working our jobs with integrity and praying for our co-workers. These are simple steps but they require the power of God. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead now lives inside Christians through the Holy Spirit. With the Spirit's resurrecting power we can live out a life of costly grace.

For non-Christians this means admitting and submitting. Admitting that you need a savior and submitting to Jesus as your Lord. This is something you can do anywhere anytime. It is generally followed by telling others about your new direction and inviting them to watch you get baptized.

When we do these things, we will find that God is more amazing than we ever gave Him credit for and that living for Him is better than we expected.

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