Benjamin Franklin once quipped, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
While this is a humorous way of distilling the inescapable truths in life, it isn’t accurate by Biblical revelation. It does, however, reflect on the sense of futility one might experience in this world. King Solomon wrote similarly in the Book of Ecclesiastes:
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
– Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
– Ecclesiastes 2:18-26
Solomon, in his unique way, was saying much the same thing Benjamin Franklin said millennia later. That is to say, that we are on a course of certainty where we work hard until we die (“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” – Colossians 3:23) and when we die, we give all that we’ve worked for to someone who didn’t work for it. There must be more to life than this! Hold that thought.
What will be your legacy?
That’s a big question, isn’t it? Most of us have architected lives built on routine, so much so that it’s easy to view life as drudgery. From this perspective, our “legacy” is that we just walked through life on autopilot (see previous blog, Survival Mode, for more on that). Life, as Solomon wrote, is an exercise in futility. But…
There’s no such thing as futility if you have purpose.
If everything you do, large or small, has value, meaning, and contributes to a cause greater than yourself (namely, others, ala Philippians 2:3), then every day is a new day and a new opportunity to bring glory to God. Can you say the same about your job, your life savings, your reputation, or any of the religious deeds you perform in a hyper-routinized zombie state? The Bible calls such things, “wood, hay, and straw” (1 Corinthians 3:12).
Our legacy shouldn’t be the tangibles we’ve left behind after we’ve paid all our taxes and died, it should be our life, itself. More specifically, it ought to be our faith! This is what we see from the very beginning, as with Abel.
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.
And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
– Hebrews 11:4b
This is Abel’s legacy – his faith – and God is pleased with it! God was not pleased with Cain’s legacy of working hard in the field and producing self-righteous offerings to God, nor will he be with any of us who attempt to do the same.
We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.
– 1 John 3:12
As I taught recently from my pulpit, faith is the crown jewel we ought to pursue. Apparently, the apostles understood this when they cried to Jesus, “Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5)! If you love God your great desire is to please him, right? Well, it’s not your worldly successes or your legacy of personal achievement that God delights in – it’s your faith!
And without faith it is impossible to please [God].
– Hebrews 11:6
Paul wrote openly about his own personal legacy. Do you see what he focused on? This is the man who refused to be bound to the trappings of life (Philippians 4:12-13).
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
– 2 Timothy 4:7-8
Paul’s legacy, like Abel’s, was his faith. In fact, that’s what he emphasized in his self-assessment at the end of his journey on Earth. This was also his prayer for those in the Body of Christ.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
– Colossians 1:9-12
To be pleasing to God is to be right with Him (aka – to be righteous). As the Bible states, “but my righteous one shall live by faith” (Hebrews 10:38). While death and taxes may be inevitable features of life on Earth, they become our defeat when taken as dictates over life, itself.
We ought never suppose that we are defined by the details of our lives, for that’s all they really are, details (2 Timothy 2:4), aka the cost of doing business for the Lord (ala Luke 19:11-27).
Our legacy is our faith.
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him,
not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
– Philippians 3:7-9
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins