Ultimate human fulfilment

The fullness of human happiness – or blessedness, which means the same – is to be found only in a harmonious relationship with the Creator God and Saviour, who loves us with infinite tenderness, warmth, compassion, and wisdom. If you’re looking for an authentic answer to our human predicament – be forgiven and get into that relationship. That is to “know God”, which is how Jesus defines “eternal life” (John 17.3). It means hearing Jesus’ call to repent, deny our selfishness, and commit to following him. Having taught his disciples for three years, Jesus said to them, “If you know these things, happy/blessed are you if you do them” (John 13.17). The obedient disciple is the fulfilled human being; the holier you are, the happier you are.

As Jesus began to delight his hearers with his passionate proclamations, from the very start in his famous Sermon on the Mount (found in Matthew’s Gospel chapters 5 to 7), he cried out, “Blessed are those who…” followed by virtues to acquire. By these beatitudes which include being “pure in heart”, and “hungering and thirsting after righteousness”, he was indicating the way to true happiness. The word Jesus used in the Greek original for “blessed” means “most fortunate” – but not just because of good fortune or luck. Rather, this is the greatest human fulfilment that God himself grants to those who come into that intimate personal relationship with him, where we receive and follow his wisdom, spurn the sins that he hates, entrust our whole lives into his loving hands, share our joys, our sorrows and our worries with him, and seek to please him in all that we do. 

I can say that this is no mere theory; I have lived this way as best I could from my youth, and can testify that in the good days as in the bad days (like when I had cancer, when my daughter was long in hospital, and when my wife died) God’s goodness and love upheld me.

True, at the beginning I struggled to yield all of my life without reserve to do the will of God, because I thought my way was best; but the day I did surrender was one of the happiest days of my life. If you’re afraid of totally submitting your will to the will of God, so was I. What helped me was to realise just how much God’s love, shown in the total self-dedication of Christ on the cross, dying to save me from hell, was the same attitude of love God has to me all the time. And it is from that kind and loving heart that my Lord and Saviour in his wisdom would choose what he considered would be the very best path for me. So I trusted him, and gave him my all, without reserve, and have kept that attitude all my life.

My recent blog posts have spoken about heaven. Why is heaven a place of supreme happiness and blessedness? Because the will of God is done perfectly there! Jesus indicated this when he taught us to pray, “Father… your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. On earth, we see a lot of terrible things that sin and wickedness do, and that God allows, as he respects our freedom. The prayer asks God to prevent the worst and instead see his holy will accomplished, “as it is done in heaven”. In heaven there will be no sin or evil, that’s why it is a place of supreme happiness.  

Will you be there? 

Clive Every-Clayton