Failure Isn't Final—but One Day It Will Be

Thank the Lord, on this side of eternity failure isn't final! If failure were final we wouldn't have a Bible, because all of its human authors were sinners—some of them quite notable ones. Because of his disobedience to God, Moses wasn't allowed to enter the Promised Land, yet he wrote the first five books of the Old Testament. David committed adultery, yet he wrote about half of the Psalms. Paul called himself the chief of sinners, yet he wrote about half of the New Testament. Mark deserted his missionary team and became the center of a conflict between Paul and Barnabas, but later he wrote one of the four Gospels and Paul said "he is helpful to me in my ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11). John was an ambitious, fiery young man—one of the brothers Jesus nicknamed "sons of thunder"—but eventually he wrote five books of the New Testament filled with love and truth. Impulsive and brash, Peter denied the Lord three times after boasting he would never fall away, yet the Lord used him to write two books of the New Testament.

If failure were final we wouldn't have a church, because all of its members are sinners saved by the grace of God. In the first century human weakness plagued the church with division (the Corinthians), laziness (the Thessalonians), and internal conflict over practical questions (the care of widows) and doctrinal issues (the role of circumcision). In addition to the other hardships of his ministry, Paul had to deal with interpersonal conflict and petty jealousies. "Some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry," he sighed in Philippians 1:15, "but others out of good will." Yet in spite of our sin and strife the church lives on, triumphant and strong. It is still the body of Christ, the fellowship of the redeemed, the community of the called-out. Christ continues to build it, and all the schemes of the evil one can never destroy it.

Our perfect God uses imperfect people to accomplish his perfect will.

If failure were final we wouldn't have hope. All of us have done things we shouldn't have done, thought things we shouldn't have thought, and left undone things we should have done. All of us have failed to obey the spirit and letter of God's law. Ephesians 2:1-5 (The Message) says, "It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ."

Praise God for his grace! "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared" (Psalm 130:3, 4, New International Version).

There will come a final day of judgment, though—a point of no return. There will come a day when the Lord "will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats," and some "will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life" (Matthew 25:32, 46). Jesus said, "A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned" (John 5:28, 29). But before that fateful day arrives, "Now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).

God offers us salvation through his Son. To reject his free gift is the ultimate failure. To accept it is the ultimate assurance of success.