A spiritual lesson from Carousel!

I cried this afternoon! Yes, it's okay for a man to do so. The reason for my tears was, however, a wee bit unusual. I had watched a video of the musical "Carousel", in which my younger daughter was the female principal - Julie Jordan. This is not the place to provide the full story-line but, undoubtedly, if you don't know it, you will find it on the internet!

Julie falls in love with a fairground worker named Billy Bigelow, but the story of their relationship is tragic. Suffice to say that that relationship ends when Billy commits suicide rather than face a lengthy jail sentence, and leaves Julie with an unborn child. Some of the scenes are very moving - hence my tears!

It was the next part that started me thinking more theologically. Billy is taken to heaven to see the Starkeeper, a heavenly official and arrives at some gates. When he asks if these are the "pearly gates" he is informed that they are not. They are the "back gates". The Starkeeper tells Billy that the good he did in life was not enough to get into heaven, but so long as there is a person alive who remembers him, he can return for a day to try to do good to redeem himself. He informs Billy that fifteen years have passed on Earth since his suicide, and suggests that Billy can get himself into heaven if he helps Louise - the daughter that Julie bore after his death. He helps Billy look down from heaven to see her. Louise has grown up to be lonely and bitter. The local children ostracise her because her father was a thief and a wife-beater. Billy, who had earlier rejected the offer to return, is anxious to return to Earth and help his daughter. He steals a star to take with him, something the Starkeeper pretends not to notice and is taken back to earth by a guardian.

He invisibly attends Louise's graduation, hoping for one last chance to help his daughter and redeem himself. The town's elderly physician, Dr. Seldon (who resembles the Starkeeper!) advises the graduating class not to rely on their parents' success or be held back by their failure (words directed at Louise). He then prompts everyone to sing an old song, "You'll Never Walk Alone". Billy, still invisible, whispers to Louise, telling her to believe Seldon's words, and when she tentatively reaches out to another girl, she learns she does not have to be an outcast. Billy then goes to Julie, and speaks the words that he had never had the courage to speak in life - that he loved her. As his widow and daughter join in the singing, he is taken to his heavenly reward.

Of course, this is a mixture of the popular view that I gain eternal life by my own good deeds, and of reincarnation by which I am able to make up for past bad deeds by doing better in another life!

This is not the message of the Bible, the written Word of the Creator. It is much less complicated, more straightforward! I was born as a sinner. I may not have lived the life that the fictional Billy Bigelow lived, but I am every bit as much a sinner as he. My major problem is that my sin has made a great gulf between me and Father God - a gulf that I can never span by my own efforts. I can never "make up" for my sins by doing good deeds. Paul puts it like this: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - not because of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph 2:8-9). It is only by the grace* of God that I can receive eternal life. I do not deserve it; I cannot earn it; I cannot purchase it.

Only the sinless unique Son of God was able to pay the price for my sins. And He did! Jesus of Nazareth was the incarnation of Almighty God. He entered the world that He had created, in human flesh that He had created. He died the cruel death by crucifixion, because "... without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." (Heb 9:22). As someone has written: 'He paid a debt He did not owe; because I owed a debt I could not pay.'

There is, nevertheless, a cost to me - and to you if you take that step of faith, and receive the new life that Jesus. Immediately after writing those words already quoted, to the disciples of Jesus in Ephesus, Paul writes: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:10; emphasis added). As I live my life in, and for, the Lord Jesus, I will seek to do the good works that He wants me to do. However, I am doing them, not to try to attain salvation, but out of gratitude for the salvation that I have so freely received!

Are you depending on your own 'good works' for salvation? Do you think that you might have 'another chance'? Do not let the enemy deceive you. This life is not a dress rehearsal - it is the only mortal life you will live. 

If you wish to know more, please feel free to contact me at the e-mail address given at the top of the page. I don't check it every day, but I shall get back to you before too long! Alternatively, you might wish to check out some of the relevant links in the right-hand-side of the blog (scroll down!). Whatever you do, don't do nothing. Your eternal destiny is at stake.

* This is one of the words dealt with in my first book "Great Words of the Faith".  There are three books in the series (vol 4 is 'in preparation'!) all of which will help you in understanding the Christian Faith and answering those who question you about it. Remember, ALL royalties are sent directly to Release International to support the persecuted church. I receive nothing!