Expect Persecution

Transcript

GR 685
9/30/1984
Expect Persecution
Matthew 10:34-42
Gil Rugh

The focal point of Matthew 10 is Jesus sending out the apostles as His official representatives to the nation Israel. As representatives to the nation Israel, the apostles were not to go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans because setting up the earthly kingdom depended upon the reception of the Messiah by the nation Israel.
Since the nation Israel did not believe in the Messiah when He came the first time, the kingdom was not established at that time. Instead, Jesus was crucified. But the Bible says He is coming again, and when He comes the second time, He will be received by the nation Israel and the kingdom will be established.
Matthew 10 has information for the apostles who were His representatives in connection with His first coming to earth, but the chapter also has material related to those who will represent Him in preparation for setting up the kingdom at His Second Coming. Some of the material in this chapter relates primarily to the first coming of Christ while some relates to His Second Coming. The establishment of the kingdom for the nation Israel will be the ultimate result of it all.
Matthew 10 is applicable to His followers today because much of what is true for those representing Christ in announcing the kingdom is true of those who represent Him at any time. The attitude of people toward His representatives is reflected in what Jesus is teaching in this passage. Jesus taught about the persecution His followers will experience, particularly the reason there is such persecution and how to view that persecution while carrying on the ministry.
Jesus began this section by speaking in Matthew 10:34 about the division He is going to bring: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” The Old Testament prophesied that when the Messiah came to earth, He would set up a kingdom of peace. When Christ spoke of the division He would bring, this came as a shocking statement to the Jews.
Isaiah wrote about the time when Jesus Christ will rule over the earth. According to Isaiah 2:3, Jerusalem will be the capital of the world: “For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Isaiah speaks in verse 4 of the rule of Christ in the context of the earthly kingdom: “And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.” Some people take this verse out of context and try to apply it to disarmament today. It has nothing to do directly with the activities of the nations today, but rather it is referring to the time when Jesus Christ will be ruling on the earth. At that time there will be no need for weapons of war because there will be no warfare. All the nations of the earth will be under the reign of Christ, so there will be no conflict. His kingdom will be a kingdom of peace.

Isaiah also wrote what has become a very familiar passage in Isaiah 9: “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this” (vs. 6,7).
As a result of these passages, the Jews anticipated peace over all the earth in connection with the coming of the Messiah. But Jesus warned them not to even allow the thought to enter their minds that He came to establish peace. He was telling them that He did not come to bring peace, but He came to bring a sword.
What kind of Messiah is this who establishes conflict rather than peace? Jesus is referring to the fact that with His coming, He is bringing people to a decision. They must be brought to a verdict concerning His ministry. By His very presence, people are called to make a decision. Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with Me is against Me.” Therefore, a barrier is set up by His presence. Because He was rejected by the nation, no peace would be established on the earth.
It is true that Christ brings certain kinds of peace, one kind being peace between the individual and God. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When a person believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior, he is declared righteous by God and brought into a relationship of peace with Him. You are given peace within yourself when you believe in Christ. Philippians 4:7 speaks about the peace of God which “will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Christ brings peace to the hearts of those who trust Him.
Another kind of peace is described in Ephesians 2 where Paul says that Christ “broke down the barrier of the dividing wall” (v. 14) between Jews and Gentiles. When people believe in Jesus Christ, no matter how diverse their backgrounds may have been, they are brought into a relationship of peace with one another.
Christ does bring peace of various kinds. But the peace that the Jews were anticipating was not brought at His first coming. Rather, He is warning them that His coming will bring division, conflict and a sword-a sword being a picture of division.
Jesus tells in Matthew 10:35-36 how serious the division is and how deep it runs: “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.” Conflict will be the result of Christ’s coming. Families will be divided as a result of this.
It was the practice that when the son got married, he brought his wife into his parents’ home, and they all lived together in one household. In these verses Jesus gives an example showing how the members of one family living in the same household will be divided and set against one another because of Him. The word that is translated “set” in verse 35 means to divide in two, to separate in feeling and interest. Jesus says His coming will divide members of a family against each other. There will be a marked division as people are turned against one another in the same family because of Christ. Family relationships are the closest bonds we have on earth, and they are often the most important and significant relationships to us. Yet these relationships are going to be broken by Christ, and enmity will be established among members of the same household.
Matthew 10:36 indicates that your personal enemies will be the members of your own household. This is the opposite of what you would expect. Our family members, the ones closest to us, are expected to be the most loyal to us. But
Jesus said that as a result of His coming, members of your own family will become your enemies.
It is important that we grasp this concept. This division among families is caused by the fact that Christ has come and announced Himself as the Messiah and the Savior. He has said that if you are not with Him, you are against Him. So those who believe in Christ are opposed by those who do not believe in Him, and there is enmity and strife on every hand.
Many people are experiencing this in their own families today. Often family members cannot understand what happens when a person trusts Christ as his personal Savior, gives testimony to that faith and becomes a member of a Bible-believing church. They view this decision as a personal rejection. The consequences in relationships vary from one family to the next, but some have indicated to me that their parents, brothers or sisters no longer speak to them because of their decision concerning Jesus Christ. In those situations it has divided the family. This is just what Jesus said would happen.
Matthew is the only one of the gospel writers who records the material found in chapter 10, but on different occasions, Christ said almost exactly the same thing. A similar statement is found in Luke 12: “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (vs. 51-53). The most intimate in family relationships are shattered because one has become a believer in Jesus Christ and one has not. One is now a child of God, but one is a child of the Devil. Enmity, tension and strife are the result.
It is helpful to understand these consequences from the very beginning. Jesus is setting out from the beginning what it will cost to be His follower. He is describing the commitment He will demand. By describing the division He will bring, He wants people to understand at the front end what following Him will mean.
There is a great danger that our love for our families will stand between Christ and us. Some may be intimidated from becoming His followers because they are afraid of the division of the family. Families can put intense pressure on family members, so Christ emphasizes in Matthew 10:37-39 that He must have our total allegiance. He must come before our families, before our health, even before our own lives. He must take precedence over everyone and everything.
My understanding of this passage is that Jesus is talking about the issue of whether or not you are His follower. To put it another way, He is speaking of being a believer in Christ or not being a believer in Christ. He is not making a division between committed believers and uncommitted believers. He is not referring to those who want to believe in Him but are not willing to be completely committed. His description is of anyone who wants to be His follower. He demands complete, absolute allegiance.
I do not believe a person can experience salvation if he wants to trust Christ but still have his parents first in his life. I am convinced that at the moment a person trusts Christ, he gives perhaps the greatest priority in his devotion to Christ that he ever has in his earthly life. There must be unreserved commitment to Jesus Christ at the moment of salvation. You must trust Him and Him alone first, foremost and only as Savior and Lord. In that instant of time, salvation is brought about by the ministry of the Spirit in the life of the one who believes. Commitment to Christ must take absolute precedence over everything else.

As Christ lays out at the beginning the cost of being His follower, He says you are not fit unless you put Him first. He is not willing to be second, third, fourth, or fifth. It is a great injustice to give believers the idea that they can be followers of Jesus Christ but allow other things to take precedence. You are not fit to belong to Jesus Christ if you put your parents or your children before Jesus Christ. That does not mean you do not respect your parents or you do not love your children, but it means that the priority of your life must be Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:37, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” The word that is translated “love” in this verse is not the Greek word agapao, which is the love of the will or the intellect. The Greek word is phileo, a reference to family love. Jesus is saying that even the bond of family relationship which believers have with Him must supersede the bond of family relationship believers have with their physical families. One who has more family love for his physical family than he does for Jesus Christ is not fit for Him. He takes precedence and preeminence over everyone else.
Even though it may divide my family, they must understand that Christ must come first. I love my parents, my wife and my children, but Jesus Christ is first. My decision to believe in Him and become His follower must be made regardless of what my parents, wife and children think. That decision must be made with the awareness that it may shatter my family. My family may never, ever be the same again. I must realize that if my family members do not believe in Him, the relationship we enjoy as a family may be shattered. They may be antagonized by my identification with Him and the continued presentation of the truth concerning His finished work.
Jesus is saying that if you do not put Him before your family, you are not worthy of Him. One commentator stated, “To question whether one loves father or mother more than Christ is put to the test in any case in which the wishes of parents stand opposed to the will of Christ.” We sometimes get confused after becoming believers, so that is why Christ lays it out here in the beginning. In another passage, Christ encourages us to count the cost before getting involved. Some people become believers in Christ, but then get entangled in things of this life again, and they become more concerned about what people think and how their family responds than they are of the importance of their relationship with Christ.
Just in the last few weeks I learned of a man who has a job because he goes to a certain church. It is not a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church, but he would lose his job if he did not go to that church. His priorities are in the wrong place and in the wrong order.
Some people feel they cannot leave their present church and go to one where the Bible is taught because their parents or children would not understand. They are fearful that it would divide the family or that their parents would disinherit them. Jesus is demanding that He come first. The only thing we have to decide is what Jesus requires. That greatly simplifies life. We often make our lives more complicated by not simplifying them according to the Word of God. That which God demands of me as His child should set the pattern for my life.
It is necessary that I explain my decision to my parents, children or other family members in love and in kindness to the best of my ability, but the course of my life is set. It does not really matter how they will be affected by it. I have already determined what I am going to do. Jesus Christ must be first. Such a decision greatly simplifies life. I want to explain it to them as much as possible in the power of the Spirit so that the Spirit might use it in their lives, but I cannot consider whether I am going to do what God demands of me because of how it may affect my family. How many people are sinning in godless churches because their family grew up there and would not understand if they left? Have they never read Matthew 10? Have they not understood that such a decision makes them unfit to be Christ’s followers? He must take precedence and have the priority in our lives.
In Luke 14 the occasion again is different, but the subject is very similar. “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (v. 26). A disciple is one who is a believer, one who belongs to Christ. Jesus Christ must be first. The word Jesus used, translated “hate”, does not mean the negative idea of hatred and scorn, because the Bible tells us that we are to love our parents and our children. But when comparing our relationship with our family members and with Christ, He deserves our loyalty and love above all others. All of our decisions must be made in light of our relationship with Him.
Luke’s record continues with the same emphasis in verses 27 through 32: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.”
Christ is saying that before we decide to follow Him, we must consider what it costs to be His disciple. It is eternally true that God offers salvation at no cost. He has paid the price in full. There is nothing we can do to earn His salvation. But it is also just as true that when you believe in Jesus Christ, your life is no longer your own because you have been bought with a price. Therefore, we are required to glorify God in our bodies (see 1 Cor. 6:19,20).
Many people have some kind of confused idea that we can have the best of both worlds. They think that we can be children of God, yet live to please ourselves. But Jesus says He wants us to know from the beginning what it means to be His follower. We must be willing to follow Him with reckless abandon whatever the cost or whatever the results.
If it shatters your family and means that your parents or children never speak to you again, that is a small price to follow Him. The cost of your job, your wealth, your honor, your prestige, and your health is small in comparison to what it means to be His follower. Christ places high demands on His disciples. In our society we have lost sight of this, as Christianity has become tolerated and acceptable.
Jesus shows in Matthew 10:38 that our relationship with Him must take precedence over even our own lives: “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” No consideration is given for someone who wants to be a follower of Christ but who will not take up the cross. Every follower ought to realize that he must take up his cross and follow Him. In biblical times the cross was a sign of shame, humiliation and identification with the crime one had committed and the punishment he was receiving for that crime. So when we take up the cross, we are identifying ourselves with the suffering, scorn and rejection that Christ experienced.
An effort is being made today to try to make Christianity acceptable. Its acceptability is conditioned to a large degree on the compromise of Christians and their testimony. You are acceptable as a Christian today if you do not ruffle anybody’s feathers, if you mellow the truth of the Word of God so that people are not offended and if your life blends in with the lives of unbelievers so that nobody sees a difference. But that is not the kind of follower Jesus Christ is talking about. It concerns me that many of those who name the name of Christ may not even belong to Him in light of the truth that Christ is setting down in Matthew 10.
What Christ is saying here has its focal point in the last three and one-half years of the Tribulation as the pressure will be applied to a greater degree on believers than ever before. But it is important for us to grasp what is involved in being followers of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we have no conception of what Christ intended. A Christian from Russia who was visiting this country a few years ago said that from his observation, most of those who call themselves Christians in the United States would be under church discipline in Russia. He views our Christianity as not being identified in an acceptable way with Jesus Christ. This is one of the great workings of the Devil. He uses different approaches in different places. In some places he uses persecution. The great tool he has used in the United States is acceptance. We do not want to offend anyone. As a result, we have developed a tepid, ineffective Christianity. This is not the kind of Christianity Jesus Christ is talking about. We must be willing to suffer the worst persecution and humiliation for His sake.
Jesus makes a paradoxical statement in verse 39: “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” It seems like He should be saying just the opposite. The statement sounds like a riddle. But He is making the point that those who save their lives by denying Jesus Christ preserve life as the world admires it, but they have really lost their lives because the purpose of life is to have a personal relationship with the God who made us. That is the very reason for our existence. Those who lose their physical lives on Christ’s account find true life. It may cost them everything to be a follower of Christ, it may cost them family, job, friends, health and even physical life, but they will enjoy God for all eternity. They are the ones who have really found life and what life is all about. This is related to what Christ was referring to in verse 28: “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

The one who denies Christ has lost everything and is destined for eternity in hell. Should we value our family, friends and even life itself above a relationship with Jesus Christ? One who does that has no concept of his own sinfulness or of the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is easy for the pressure of the world to creep in so that we become worldly. But we must be careful to realize that Jesus is saying that this is not an issue of worldliness, but rather it is an issue of no relationship at all. We must understand at the front end what Christ demands of one who is His follower.
Christ closes out Matthew 10 with a word of encouragement in Matthew 10:40-42. It is a tremendous encouragement that we as believers have been brought into a permanent, binding relationship with Him. That relationship with Him may bring division and destroy our relationships with our physical families, but we should take heart because we have been brought into a permanent relationship of love with Him. We are inseparably identified with Jesus Christ and that brings tremendous blessings.
Jesus tells the apostles in verse 40 that the attitude of people toward the apostles reveals their attitude toward Christ: “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” Christ came to earth to reveal His Father and to proclaim the truth from His Father. So the attitude of the world toward Christ is a reflection of their attitude toward God the Father. Therefore, the chain is complete. How people respond to the children of God reflects their attitude toward the Son of God which reflects their attitude toward God the Father.
If your family rejects you because of your relationship with Christ, they have not rejected you. They do not hate you because of any reason except your relationship with Him. You were doing fine in your family relationship until you believed in Christ. If you were to deny Him and go back to your old religious system, you could be a part of the family again and the tensions would be dissolved. What they cannot stand is your identification with Jesus Christ and your presentation of the truth concerning Him. It is important that you know where the point of tension is, it is with Jesus Christ. I believe that there is no one so difficult to share the gospel of Christ with as members of your own family, yet that is what Christ expects and requires. He does not tell us that where family is concerned, we should tone down our presentation. It is required that we represent Christ, that we speak the truth concerning Him in love and kindness, but it is also required that we not sacrifice the truth.
Many believers have experienced the divisiveness of the gospel. You may have experienced the tension of family get-togethers where unbelievers and believers are joined together. You know that if you bring up the issue of sin and salvation in Jesus Christ, it will destroy the get-together. Do you think Christ did not know that? He said He came to divide families. He divided His own family over this issue.
The danger is in deciding that we will not say anything about Christ. Sometimes we choose not to make an issue of it because we do not want to cause division in the family, but notice who causes the division-Christ. All we do is tell people about Him, and He divides.
If you have unbelieving parents and they hate you after you have witnessed to them, is their response to you personal? No, it is a response to the Savior you represent. What a joy it is to know that you belong to Him and that you are privileged to suffer for Him. Paul told the Philippians that believers have been given two privileges: “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil. 1:29). What a privilege to be so identified with Christ that people hate us because they hate Him.
Now be careful! The goal is not to go out and offend as many people as you can. It is possible to offend all kinds of people as you present the gospel. Some people offend because of their own ineptness and unkindness. There is no place for that. But if you present the gospel to unbelievers, one of the costs will be division. If you stand as a clear, living testimony proclaiming the truth of God, you will be divided from those who will not believe in Him. Enmity will be established. That enmity is caused by the proclamation of the person and work of Christ. It should not be caused because of your abrasive personality.
In the last two verses of Matthew 10, Jesus comes to the issue of rewards. He says in verse 41, “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.” He is not referring to general hospitality, but rather He is speaking of hospitality done because a person is a prophet or a righteous man. This is hospitality performed as an indication of receiving the person and his message, and thus, an indication of receiving the One the person represents. Jesus is not referring to someone who merely gave dinner to a prophet because he was a prophet and the person received the prophet and his message.
The reference to the righteous man in this passage has its background in the Old Testament. This speaks of one whose job is to proclaim righteousness and to lead the nation to that righteousness. It is connected with a prophetic ministry. All believers are to be righteous, but the inference here is to the spokesman who represents Christ and who leads people to righteousness. Jesus was referring to prophets who would lead the nation Israel to righteousness. Those who respond to them and welcome them because of their ministry and message will receive the reward the righteous people receive. That is a tremendous encouragement! We may not be able to be a prophet or a righteous man in the context Jesus is speaking about, but we can receive the reward of a prophet and of a righteous man by sharing in their ministries and by welcoming them, encouraging them and helping them.
Jesus continues on the same point in verse 42: “And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.” If you do something in the name of a disciple because of your faith in Christ and because of the message the disciple proclaims, you will receive a reward. We sometimes lose sight of this fact and fail to relate it to sharing in one another’s ministry. I may stand and proclaim the Word of God, but those who encourage and support me in my ministry will share in its reward. You may feel that your contribution is insignificant, but in this passage, one who gives a cup of cold water will not lose his reward. The reward is what makes the job and what tells you its value.
If someone asked me to clean the church auditorium, I could grumble around and say, Cleaning the auditorium really will not make any difference. After all, that isn’t telling someone the gospel. But if someone said he would give me a million dollars to clean the auditorium, all of a sudden that would become the most important job I could do. Why? Because the reward would have established the value of the job. That is what happens in this passage.
Whatever I do for Christ or whatever I do for those who represent Him because they are representing Him will be rewarded by Christ. That puts it in a different perspective. It means there are no little things being done. When the Lord of lords and King of kings tells me He will reward me for it, that makes it valuable and important. For Christ Himself to reward me for it establishes its value.
The immediate context of Matthew 10 is the last half of the seven-year Tribulation where Satan will have as his goal the annihilation of the nation Israel. The description at the end of Matthew 25 is also of the close of the Tribulation. Christ will be the judge to determine who will go into His earthly kingdom and who will not. “For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me’” (vs. 35-40).
The principle Jesus gives is that those who receive you receive Him; those who treat you with kindness treat Him with kindness. We are inseparably identified with Him. During the last three and one-half years of the Tribulation when there will be tremendous persecution of Jews on the earth, only those who are true believers in Christ will offer acts of kindness to these Jews who are fellow believers in order to preserve them and keep them alive. That will be a statement of their faith in Christ.
These passages have nothing to do with seeing my neighbor cutting his lawn and giving him a glass of water. That is a nice thing to do, and I am not saying you should not do it. If you see me cutting my lawn, I will appreciate your bringing me a cold drink. But that has nothing to do with Matthew 10:42. This verse has been used for establishing all kinds of religious social programs, but it has nothing to do with such programs. Jesus is referring to acts done by believers to those who are proclaiming the truth of Christ. I have no problems with doing good to all men as you have opportunity, especially to those in the household of faith. But Jesus is talking about acts of kindness and love performed toward those who are representatives of Christ. They will be rewarded because they identify with Him and they believe the message and believe in the Christ the message represents.
The direct interpretation here is related to events going on in the Tribulation, but the application is for us as representatives of Christ as well. As we serve Him and make Him known, we share in one another’s reward as we support one another in our ministries.
Jesus is talking about persecution, suffering and hardship. He has told His followers why they do not need to fear. He has also zeroed in on why His followers experience persecution and hardship. As His followers, we ought to be able to put out of our minds all of those things that cause us to have sleepless nights, such as feeling that people do not like us, thinking that they rejected the gospel because we did not present it right or that we must have done something wrong. I do not spend any sleepless nights worrying about those things any longer. That does not mean that I do not want to be approved or that I do not want to become more loving or more effective. I do. But I realize that any time I faithfully represent Jesus Christ by my life and present the truth concerning His death and resurrection for sin, people who do not believe will be offended by it. The preaching of the cross is offensive to those who are perishing.
It is heartbreaking to have families divided, but one must realize that family division may be part of the cost of being a follower of Christ. I am personally privileged to have a Christian family, a great blessing from God. Why doesn’t God give every person such a family? Because it is not His purpose to do that. Each of us must be faithful in the situation and circumstances God has placed us. We must remember that Christ brings division and that He demands total allegiance. He must come before our families and even before our own lives, but He gives us the confident assurance that we are identified with Him and that He will reward us for faithfulness. We must keep those concepts in mind in every situation.
If all believers had this kind of commitment to Jesus Christ and this kind of desire to make Him known in every place regardless of the cost, we would see radical differences in our world. Our Christianity would really count. We would not be swept over with the wave of worldliness that has nullified our effectiveness.
What is your relationship to Jesus Christ? It is important not to paint the Christian life as a bed of roses, but Christ is the only hope. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you may lose your family, friends, job, health and even your life. But in all that, Jesus Christ is worth it. He will bring meaning and purpose to your life, even in trial and tribulation. He will bring you into a personal relationship of family love with Himself that is more intimate than anything you can enjoy in this life, and He promises you the joy of His presence forever. That relationship with Him is an unending, permanent relationship. You can have it by believing in Him as the Savior who died for you.