Resurrection Economy
The Unifying Lies of Money
I am convinced most Americans who identify as “Christian” are unconvinced in the resurrection of the dead.
Growing up in 90’s American Christianity, I was taught that “eternal life” means going to Heaven when I die—an everlasting paradise that is, by definition, otherworldly. This idea is not only un-Biblical, it’s honestly strange to imagine someone coming to that conclusion when reading the Bible cover-to-cover.
The Old Testament books almost exclusively talk about everyone going “down to Sheol1” when when they die, and the New Testament writers almost exclusively talk about the “resurrection of the dead”, “entering the kingdom of Heaven”, and “eternal life”.
The problem is, art and media targeting a Christian audience has largely focused on the “kingdom of Heaven” and “eternal life” imagery, yet fully divorcing them from their contexts and meaning. Eternal life is to know God and His Son2, and the kingdom of Heaven is a thing that is coming to earth—right now through the Church, and coming in full one day at Jesus’ return.
I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this poor understanding of what is to come is a major stumbling block for how those who desire follow Jesus see their earthly wealth and possessions. It deeply affects how we understand words and ideas like “investment” and “stewardship”, and it radically alters how we understand the ripple affects of our decisions with money.
And honestly, this poor understanding and conviction about the resurrection is ensuring that many people in our communities will enter the kingdom of Heaven poor in eternal wealth, if they enter at all.
Some Groundwork
The hope that Jesus gives His followers is not that they will die and enter an exclusively spiritual paradise, escaping the problems of the world. Our hope is that as we follow Jesus into death, we will one day follow Him into resurrection, and that at the day of resurrection, God will restore all things and bring about the new Heaven and new earth.
This reality of the resurrection of the dead is so essential to discipleship to Christ that the author of Hebrews calls it an “elementary teaching”.
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
Hebrews 6: 1-2 NASB (emphasis added)
But the teaching isn’t just that the dead will rise, but that on that day there will likewise be a judgment.
Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, a time is coming and even now has arrived, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this; for a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come out: those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the bad deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
John 5: 24-29 NASB (emphasis added)
This is often referred to as “the last day” or “the day of Judgment” or (as in the passage above) “the resurrection”—some to life and others to judgment.
For those of us in Christ Jesus, we will not receive the due punishment for the lives that we have lived, for that punishment has already been rendered in full on Christ on the cross. For those who have chosen not to submit to Jesus’ lordship and follow in His way, they will be outside of grace and will take upon themselves the full weight of their actions.
Yet for those of us in Christ, we will still experience varying realities in this coming kingdom based upon how we lived once we began following Jesus. Despite what has been taught in many popular churches, our experiences in this new earth after the resurrection will not be identical.
In other words, there will be treasures in Heaven dolled out based upon the faithfulness of the lives lived by Jesus’ followers. Some will receive many blessings, some few.
Now the one who plants and the one who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire.
1 Corinthians 3: 8-15 NASB (emphasis added)
In this passage above, Paul is very clear—the works of this life will result in either loss or reward, even for those covered by the blood of Jesus. Some will enter into the coming kingdom like people just barely escaping the flames of judgment, while others will enter in to stand before Jesus and hear “well done, good and faithful servant”3.
Jesus proclaims this over and over and over again through His teachings, calling for us to store up wealth in the life to come—the life that will not end and that life that is more real than the life we live now.
Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor does a moth destroy.
Luke 12:33 NASB
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6: 19-21 NASB
And is this not the obvious meaning for His many parables of servants stewarding their master’s wealth? In the end, some servants receive more than others, based upon how trustworthy they were with what was given.
What these treasures are, exactly, and the details of how this will manifest is unclear, but the fact that there will be differing rewards based on how faithful someone lived there life is beyond doubt.
The question, in the end, isn’t whether the Bible teaches the resurrection and rewards in the life to come, but whether or not we actually believe it? Confession means little when there is not a life of repentance that conforms to that confession.
Wealth Redefined
Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that the Son may glorify You, just as You gave Him authority over all mankind, so that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth by accomplishing the work which You have given Me to do. And now You, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world existed.
John 17: 1b-5 NASB
Whatever treasure I will be given in the life to come, it will be treasure that deepens my intimacy with God.
If that idea stirs nothing in your heart, it is likely all your treasure is here on earth. You see, if you long for rewards that amount to possessions—financial security, nice things, hefty bank accounts, etc.—then the thought that your reward is deeper relationship to Jesus will be unsatisfying. Your heart has been given to that which you have already been storing up.
The kingdom to come cares little for your nice HOA, 401k, BMW, or other pointless acronym. It will all burn up, forgotten and pointless when the life-that-is-true-life comes with Jesus’ return. Everything that is true, that is real, that is good, and that will last is found in Jesus.
Everything.
And it is with this understanding that we redefine all the formative words around money. “Wealth”, “stewardship”, and “investment” are flipped on their heads in the teachings of Jesus, and the modern church in America has greatly erred their handlings of these terms.
Consider Jesus’ parable about the “shrewd” manager recorded in Luke 16. Often this has left Christians (myself included) scratching their heads and shrugging their shoulders.
Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. And he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ And the manager said to himself, ‘What am I to do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ And he said, ‘A hundred jugs of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred kors of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ And his master complimented the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it is all gone, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
“The one who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and the one who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true wealth to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Luke 16: 1-13 NASB
This isn’t the first time Jesus centers a story around someone who is unrighteous, for it forms in us the question, “well, if the unrighteous person would do x, should I not go above and beyond if I am a follower of Jesus?”
In the context of this parable, even the unrighteous manager understood that earthly money is to be used to deepen relationships to others, how much more so for those of us called to make disciples of all nations?4 I mean, consider this for a moment. Jesus is claiming that all earthly wealth is to be used to build human relationships.
How does a 3-6 months savings account accomplish this, especially when we have neighbors who are hustling two extra side jobs to pay the bills? Who gives a rip about employee 401k matches and pre/post taxes on retirement when we could be using that money today to love a neighbor? We may not even live to use those savings, and even if we did we’ll just die one day and be poorer at the resurrection. Why was a “larger home so that I can host people” better than just inviting people into a shed-sized apartment and helping others take care of their needs?
Like, really, how would any of this make sense if we believe in a resurrection?
If the resurrection is real, and all of Jesus’ teachings on wealth are to be believed, then
True wealth is that which Jesus rewards us with on the day of resurrection.
True stewardship is giving freely of all we have to make friends and love others.
True investment is using our money for God’s kingdom, and thus not seeing a monetary reward in this life because we would rather see it in the life to come.
If you (like me) have been taught that “stewardship” has anything to do with withholding from someone because of fear they will be “unwise”, or because you can put that money somewhere with a higher return on investment, then that teaching was not rooted in Jesus’ teachings, life, death, burial, and resurrection.
In other words, it was not “of God”.
Jesus lived and taught with the kingdom of Heaven ever on His mind, and He is trying to teach us to be the same way. The only people who make any meaningful difference here in this life are those whose minds are so desperately focused on Jesus and the life to come.
The God who rained down bread from Heaven has never said, “oh, I only wish Bob would have put more money into retirement” nor sat there biting his nails in concern because Lucy’s bank account had less than the $1000 emergency fund in it. Every single person who, out of a love for Jesus, has given money to the point of worldly recklessness has gained a thousand times that in the life to come. Meanwhile, many people living a Dave Ramsey approved life are likewise saddening their Messiah, who knows they are choosing mud pies over the “holiday at the sea”5 He has for them.
A Call to Passion
Here is a longer quote from C.S. Lewis’ The Weight of Glory, which I referenced above.
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
We must not be troubled by unbelievers when they say that this promise of reward makes the Christian life a mercenary affair. There are different kinds of rewards. There is the reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it and is quite foreign to the desires that ought to accompany those things. Money is not the natural reward of love; that is why we call a man mercenary if he marries a woman for the sake of her money. But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover, and he is not mercenary for desiring it…
Jesus is our Bridegroom, our best friend and He who should consume all our affections. We simply cannot love both Him and money. Either we love Jesus and hate money, or we love money and hate Jesus6.
Lewis is right, we are far too easily pleased. The illusion of financial security, the feeling that we have become rich or secure, the lie that we can store up earthly and heavenly treasures simultaneously… they are all symptoms of lukewarm love.
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have no need of anything,” and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to apply to your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. The one who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne.
Revelation 3: 15-21 NASB
Be zealous.
Here, in the American church, such a statement would cause deep divides, much suspicion, and claims that the speaker was a fool. That is because we are like the church in Laodicea (the group being addressed in this passage). We say to ourselves “we are rich” because even our churches have investment accounts and we have become so “wise” in money. But in truth, our refusal to pour all that we have onto the feet of our first love has left us wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
Oh God, forgive us.
But even as Jesus rebukes this church, He offers a way forward. We can become zealous for Him and we can repent, and in so doing we will purchase for ourselves “gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to apply to your eyes so that you may see”.
True wealth. True clothes. True sight.
Given only with repentance, demonstrated by zeal.
This is the Jesus economy, where those who have made themselves poor for the Gospel in this life will be raised again to riches that are so wonderful they bringing us somehow even closer to He who we love. But all of it must be born out of a furious and deep love for our Messiah that cannot be faked or forced.
In reading this, if you know that your love is not with Him, is not drawn to Him, is not zealous for Him, then today I urge you to sell what you have and give it to the poor. In doing so, you will make the decision to put your wealth in Heaven, and in so doing you will find your heart there also.
Isn’t that interesting? Giving sacrificially is both the response to love for Jesus, and often the gateway to deeper love for Him. Or, in other words, we do not wait for a loving emotion to rise of us before we give, we give knowing that we will love Him more when we have stored up our treasure with Him.
Oh the goodness of God, so patient with us and abounding in love. Let us serve Him, and not our financial plans for the year. Let us enter into His economy, even if it means poverty in this one.
But whenever you give a banquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, and people who are blind; and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
Luke 14: 13-14 NASB
Or “Hades”.
John 17:3.
See Matthew 15 and Luke 19 for two examples.
See Matthew 28.
Adapted from a longer quote, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” This means if we love Jesus, we will come to hate money. To excuse this away only shows our true love.
I've heard some people use this as an argument against cremation or organ donation.