To really believe in Christ may in some ways make our present lives worse. This was very much the case for the Apostle Paul. He writes: “Five times I was given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water...There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty…” (II Corinthians 11:24 ff.) Such were some of the “benefits” for Paul in this life for believing in Christ. That was why he could write: “If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world.” (I Corinthians 15:19)
For Paul, believing in Christ meant taking up his cross and following. For us, I am afraid believing in Christ means taking comfort from such belief in this world and hope for the next. If we really believe in Christ, our lives in the here and now would be much less comfortable. True belief in the Resurrection gives us the strength to take up the cross in the here and now. This also was true for Jesus, who “because of the joy that was waiting for him...thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross….” (Hebrews 12:6)
The benefits (both positive and negative) of believing in Christ in this life are well expressed in the words of Phillip Brooks: “The great Easter truth is not that we are to live newly after death---that is not the great thing---but that we are to be new here and now by the power of the Resurrection; not so much that we are to live forever, as that we are to, and may, live nobly now because we are to live forever.”
©2006 C. David Hess