Imagine

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.  I Corinthians 2: 14

At both the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics they used John Lennon’s song Imagine. It was beautifully sung by Emeli Sande and for many people its apparently noble sentiments will have deeply touched them. The song imagines there is no heaven, no hell, no countries, religions, beliefs - in fact everything that God has created. Then John Lennon assumes there will be nothing to fight over, so no war and we will all live as one.

These wonderful sounding ideas are of course deeply flawed and yet they are a perfect example of the secular humanism that underpins our western societies today. Secular humanism supposes that man is capable of being moral and ethical without religion or God. It is completely opposed to faith and believes every human being must carefully examine ideas for themselves based on science or philosophy. 

As we know nothing could be further from the truth and it is faith that pleases God our Creator.  Man in his fallen state is completely incapable of high moral or ethical behaviour without God whether acknowledged or not.

Instead let’s imagine a world where people acknowledge and worship God; a world so beautiful and perfect where creation dwells together in harmony and people walk with God. Let’s call it the New Earth. Let’s imagine a beautiful city coming down from heaven clothed like a bride called the new Jerusalem. Let’s imagine how magnificent it will be clothed with the glory of God. Let’s imagine the thick walls made of jasper and the city fashioned from pure gold like transparent glass and every gate a single pearl. How truly awesome that will be.

Let’s imagine this city with no sun or moon because God himself will be there and his glory will illuminate everything. The glory of the nations will be brought into the city and there will be nothing impure in it. Let’s imagine the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. Let’s imagine that on each side of the river there stands the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And let’s imagine that instead of no nations the leaves of the tree of life will heal the nations.

C S Lewis said, ‘It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one.’  Let’s think about our eternal destination and imagine its awesome beauty and the wonder of spending eternity with our Lord and Saviour. Let this change our attitude to this fallen world and its lost inhabitants who believe that without God everything will be fine. Let’s instead show them the love of God and reach out with compassion and power to change the world around us – just like Jesus did.