Day 04: Made To Last Forever

Surely God would have not created such a being as man to exist only for a day!
No, no, man was made for immortality.
-Abraham Lincoln

The existence of God, the existence of human freedom, and the existence of the afterlife presuppose the possibility of ethics. These elements are the necessary pre-conditions, the conditio sine qua non, without which ethics would seize to exist.

Ethics, being focused on the morality of human acts, necessitates first the subsistence of God, of a Higher Being, who is the only Arbiter. God therefore is the Final Judge, solely responsible in dispensing justice as to the moral repercussions of man's action.

Another element, human freedom, rests on man's ability to choose for himself what action to do amidst diversified choices and circumstances. Without this ability, man could not be held responsible for his actions because he would have merely acted upon some programmed commands.

It is in the afterlife where man is later on judged by God. It is where retribution or redemption is served. And without the immortality of the soul, the Arbiter could not decide upon the manner how man's freedom is exercised during his earthly life. And the logical connection is complete: faith in God necessitates the belief in the afterlife-that man is made to last forever.

My problem however is that given it is that I believe in God, that I'm on my way to spiritual recovery, would I let the promise of eternity be the driving force of my life? Must I do something good and righteous because I believe that God has something better in stored for me after this life?

I believe otherwise. I have faith in God because He is my God, not 'primarily' because He has a bag of promises. I served Him and His purposes because I know it is what I'm made for, not because I would be getting something in return.