Netflix and Some Unexpected Thoughts on Eternity

I had one of those lightbulb moments while watching Netflix the other day. I know I am just as surprised as you are. Who expects to get hit with deep theological thought while watching Netflix? 

I had finished up the last series that had caught my attention and was searching for something new. Nothing really appealed to me. So I gave into peer pressure and clicked on the latest series that they were obnoxiously promoting called “Altered Carbon.” Overall, the show is just a “meh” from me. The basic premise is the human consciousness can downloaded into some high tech gadget and installed in a new body (called sleeves on the show). Of course, this leads to a number of moral and ethical dilemmas that must be grappled with in this new societal structure. One the most important questions, as presented by the show, is what do we do about inequality - as in why do the rich get the best sleeves while everyone else gets the leftovers? 

However, this was not the question that caught my attention. What caught my attention was the issue of perceived immortality. 

For within the show the rich had perfected methods in which their existence could be safeguarded. They created multiple clones of themselves so a body was always available, and they kept “back-ups” of their consciousness to prevent experiencing “real death.” If the body they inhabited was injured or became ill, with a click of the button they could be transferred into a new sleeve  and continue on with their lives without too much inconvenience. 

The result was a society in which the rich lived decadent lives financed by fortunes that had been accumulated over multiple normal lifetimes while everyone else was left scrounging around for the hope of immortality or decrying the possibility as an abomination. Like almost every show of focused on this particular issue, the problem became that humanity without fear becomes a race that is governed only by their appetites and desires. In search of a new thrill or adventure, these jaded individuals devised more and more perverse ways of amusing themselves. (Really, it get quite dark. So I do not recommend this if you are of a more sensitive nature than me). 

In the final episodes the darkest truth is revealed - if you live forever, then you must live with the memory of all that you had done. 

The thought shook me. After all, one of the key components of our faith is eternal life. The promise and hope that as believers we will not taste “real death” and that we will experience eternity in the presence of our God and King. 

The piece that really got me was I think for the first time I realized why forgiveness of our sins is such a huge issue. Now bear with me on this one, because I know that on the surface this seems like something I should have known. And I think we all do if we are believers. We know that forgiveness is a necessary element of our faith. That we are all must acknowledge our sinful nature, the deeds we have done, the thoughts that we have entertained, the words that we have spoken that have injured our relationship with our Creator and ask him to forgive us for harming his heart with our sins. So often it is presented as the admission to into the Kingdom. 

But what if we have been looking at it backwards? 

Critics of our faith have pointed out that if God chose to forgive us all that he could. He didn’t need our permission or repentance to make forgiveness a reality. And they are right. God is sovereign, He gets to do whatever, however, whenever, to whoever he wants. So make his expressions of love contingent on our decisions? Why not just save us all whether we repented or not? 

But what if the act of repentance isn’t an admission fee? What if it isn’t some arbitrary God put in place so that he can feel good about his power over us? What if the act of repentance is a gift of love in and of itself? 

Think about it. How many times have you awoken during the day to replay an embarrassing moment? How many times have you attempted to sleep while you brain replays that horrible thing you said to someone you love? How often have you had fight back disgust over your decisions or your failure to even consider the impact your decisions had on someone else? 

Now imagine an eternity with those things embedded within a perfect memory of the past. An eternity where you can not shake free of the guilt and those times of failure haunt your every hour. Consider a future where you can never escape your failings, your cruelties, and your greed. And you must live with those thoughts and memories rattling around inside of you eternally in the presence of a perfect God. 

We could never be whole in such a reality. We could never find peace or joy in such a place. In the end, we would cry out for mercy of death and the release of nothingness. In comparison, hell would be a blessed relief.  Or we would become jaded monsters unable to give or receive love because opening the door to any emotion would overwhelm us with shame. 

Maybe, just maybe, in surrendering our sins the only God who can redeem isn’t the cost of admission. Maybe it is God’s grace and wisdom enacted, demanding from us the one thing that can hurt us more than anything else - the crippling knowledge of why we do not deserve to stand or kneel before his love. Maybe, blotting our sins, casting them as far as the east is from the west, is sovereign love enacted on a level that I had failed to give him credit for in the past. 

The depth of his love and the beauty of this thought overwhelms me and frees me to celebrate God in a way that I never considered before. It erases those niggling doubts and questions I had fought back so that I could be at peace with conflicting idea of a God of love demanding tribute so that I might know him. I can rejoice that he knew my need for freedom and wholeness before I understood even a glimmer of why or how it might be accomplished. I can be grateful for an eternity without sleepless nights, the plague of guilt, or the bondage of shame. 

For those of us who confronted our sins, repented, asked for the gift of his forgiveness, the only memory of any significance that we will live with in eternity it the memory of his love and faithfulness to redeem.