Forever - Paul David Tripp (Book Review)  

Andrew KerhoulasFebruary 15, 2012 

I began reading Paul David Tripp’s newest book shortly after I had finished How People Change, which he co-wrote with Timothy Lane. Essentially, Forever: Living with Eternity in View is an extended treatment of one of the most helpful moments in How People Change, where the authors spoke about the role of eternity in biblical change. There they suggested that, rightly understood, eternity should affect our present lives, and not merely our life after death. Tripp’s newest title stirred my temporal-driven heart by causing me to consider our imminent destination in Christ: eternity. The thesis is simple but gripping: “What if you can’t make sense out of life without eternity?” (10). Of course his nuance shifts greatly throughout, but this biblical principle remains a burning focus, an almost redundant monotony on every page. But it is precisely this repeated emphasis that I was most challenged by and grateful for. I will save most of my reflections until we survey the main thrust of Forever.

Tripp argues that inside all of us is a “cry for forever”. The evidence for this is all around us: Every problem, shortcoming, or instance that happens to us or in us is a cry for forever. In other words, eternity is “hardwired inside all of us” (15). But his overarching concern is that the world and the Church are full of people ignoring this reality. This he calls living with “eternity amnesia” (16). Our eternity amnesia problem has long been inculcated into the ideology of higher education, government, popular media, and a culture driven by consumerism. But this cultural problem begins in individuals. This is not something we may pin on those around us, this is my problem, and more than likely it is yours. Our problem, although it is simplistic, has complicated life to an overwhelming extent. Tripp shows that forgetting about forever rears its head in things like “living with unrealistic expectations,” “focusing too much on self,” “asking too much of people,” “being controlling or fearful,” and “living as if life doesn’t have consequences.” He makes it loud and clear that we are actually designed for forever. He is contemporizing C.S. Lewis’ famous words, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world” (25).

When we live as if this life is all there is, we compound both our individual and cultural eternity amnesia. The result is that eternity is neglected when we approach our faith, work, education, relationships, possessions, etc. The result of approaching life as if this is all we have, that this is all there is, is the idolization of things and opportunities. A helpful example of eternity amnesia Tripp uses is a hypothetical husband and father named Jack:

“Imagine if Jack understood that the deepest, most satisfying joys are not to be found in the possessions and experiences of this brief here-and-now moment…Imagine if he remembered every day that the God who was moving him toward eternity would give him everything he needed along the way. Then Jack wouldn’t need to work as much, he wouldn’t need to worry as much, and he could spend more time doing the most important work assigned this side of forever: lovingly serving his wife and joyfully parenting his children” (30). 

His point is that we need a “preparation mentality” not a “destination mentality” in this life (31). By making decisions as a practical eternity amnesiac, “we try to get from this world what we can only experience in the next. We try to pack into our present life all the pleasure, happiness, and excitement we can…” Then he stresses what our natural “destination mentality fails to understand: our complete, present, personal happiness is not what God is working on in the here and now. Why? Because the plan of his grace is to deliver us out of this world to one that is much, much better. Whether we live with eternity in view or not, there is one thing we all need to understand: God always responds with eternity in view” (31).

Tripp does much more to develop the biblical view of eternity, and helps us to avoid an escapist mentality. He’s already stressed that through situating our temporal lives in the eternal plan of God we live better lives now. In chapter eleven he situates eschatology fully in the context of redemption. For Tripp, Redemption in Christ is not merely the key to unlock the door of eternity with God. Ultimately, redemption is the destination. The gospel story never ends. To paraphrase the author, when we awake from eternity amnesia, no longer is the gospel simply a catalog of principles, proclamations, and commands. It becomes a cover-to-cover story, a story with a beginning and an end that never ends. The plot of God’s big story defined the plot of our little stories. The biblical story becomes my story (176).

In many ways this book is simply refreshing. As someone raised in the church, I know the four-fold plotline of redemption like the back of my hand. From a young age you might have learned it too: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. But by stressing the role of the final step as Tripp does in Forever, I think we can gain a better understanding of the first three. Eschatology is not reserved merely for the professional theologians among us. Instead the “not yet” of our gospel hope is meant to shape and undergird our perception of what has “already” happened in Christ just as much as the reverse is true. This is why the Holy Spirit aids us in fixing our eyes on what is unseen and eternal, fighting our natural tendency to live for temporal pleasure (2 Cor 4:18).

Eternity also spurs us to an urgency to love the unbelievers around us. We must not truncate gospel-reality by only clinging to the beautiful side of our hope in Christ –
the renewal of all things (Isa 60; Rev 21). A robust gospel view must also take seriously the other side of eternity, what Tripp calls the “dark side.” Hell is a real place (Matt 13:42). And far worse than fire and brimstone, it is eternal separation from our Maker and Redeemer. In contrast, the New Heavens and New Earth will be an eternal celebration where we are freed to perfectly glorify God.

We walk away from Forever recognizing that the greatest problem with our latent eternity amnesia is our selfishness. As we have seen, loving our neighbors and having an urgency to share the gospel in word and deed happens best in the plotline of God’s story and not our own. Tripp’s Forever is a welcome douse of water to stir us from eternity amnesia, and to more fully shine for Christ in this world (Eph 5:14).

For a chance to win a copy of Paul Tripp's new Forever conference DVD set, Follow and RT us @tcfgc by 10:00am, 2/16/12. 

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