This is a word intended for those of you who have not yet seen the need to reflect upon any thoughts concerning your present spiritual condition and the impending eternal state that will come upon you in death. It is inconceivable that I should say nothing to you concerning your eternal destiny. Most people nowadays are not overly concerned with life after death. I hope this post will help to change that. So to you, beloved, I address my remarks and I pray they will take root in the soil of your souls and bear much fruit unto salvation.
But first, an illustration. There are many people all over the world who are on death row for horrible crimes. They sit in jail day after day, year after year, each one waiting for the sentence of death to be carried out. At first they are frightened and apprehensive about their execution, dreading that it could happen at any time. But after waiting for the execution that never comes, they begin to relax and to stop fretting and worrying. They begin to act as if there was no sentence of death. They begin to act in ways that are—relatively speaking, given their circumstances and lack of freedom—more or less normal. They go about whatever business the prison allows them, they form relationships with other inmates and even the guards; they dream, they plan and they harbour desires. So they continue, until that moment the almost completely forgotten sentence of death is carried out with swift justice. But by then it is too late for remorse or regret or repentance.
I put it to you beloved, that this illustration, imperfect though it obviously is, is nevertheless a picture of most people in the world today, including many of you. There is another example (among several) which is to be found in the Bible (Luke 12:16-21). It concerns a well-to-do farmer who looked at his abundant crops and decided he was doing so well that he needed bigger barns and silos so that he could store even more harvested grain. So he tore down his old barns and built newer, bigger ones. And on the very night they were completed he thought to himself how wise he had been and that now he could sit back, take it easy and enjoy all that he had built for himself. But as he was rubbing his hands together in gleeful anticipation of all the grain he could store and then sell, God said, “You fool! Tonight I will require your soul—this very night! Now what will you do with your fine new barns and silos and who will own what you have laboured so hard to build?” The story ends with the warning, “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Are you storing up worldly treasure for yourself, as did the man in the parable? Remember what Christ said on a different occasion: “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
The problem is that most people, like the criminal on death row and the farmer in the parable, give no thought to the sentence of death that has been passed on to everyone without exception and under which we live every day. Instead we live as if there is no death sentence against us and we live as if there is nothing to fear. And it would be a blessing for most of us if in fact death were the end. But that is not the case, at least not according to the Bible. Yet most people today, including many of you, Dear Readers, don’t think the Bible is what it claims to be: God’s Word and the Revelation of Himself and His ultimate plan for creation. What a perilous and foolish notion! In our own silly and infantile pride, we consider ourselves to be OK. We think that we can rely on our own belief that we have nothing to worry about; that even if there is a life after death, we’ll be alright. We don’t have anything to fear because we’re not like the horrid criminals in our illustration who have done something so awful as to deserve some sort of eternal punishment! We haven’t killed anybody. We’re not thieves, cheats, liars, pedophiles. We’re essentially good, decent people. We love our children and give to charity (sometimes). We might even call ourselves Christians or think that because we love the old hymns or believe in “God” that we have nothing to repent of and so nothing to fear. God surely couldn’t find fault with us?
No? What about the hypothetical possibility of being wrong. What if—against all “common sense”—it is the Bible that is true and the God of the Bible the ultimate determiner of all that is? Think about it, just for a minute. But please don’t think even for a second that God owes you anything except justice. And before you think that His justice is just what you want, consider the following propositions. If you seriously consider them, you’ll realize it’s not God’s justice you should want but rather His mercy. If God should treat you according to justice, you’re as good as doomed. Remember, God is perfect and eternal; therefore His justice must also be perfect and eternal. Do you really want to be judged by God’s perfect and eternal justice? I sure don’t!
Please consider whether or not you agree with the following propositions. If you don’t agree, it is of vital importance that you determine why not, and then change your whole mind before it is too late. If you agree, you had better do something about it—right now!
If God should forever cast you off, it would be nothing less than agreeable with how you have treated Him. Instead of ignoring God, or worse, finding fault with Him, you should use your intelligence and your ability to think and reason about how you have treated your Creator and Sustainer, the One to Whom you owe your continuing existence. Remember, God is perfect and we are called by Him to be perfect also. God’s standards of excellence are rigourously exact. If conducted honestly, you’ll be forced to admit that you don’t stand up well to such an examination.
Do you love God? Do you think of Him constantly and wish to be with Him always. When a man and woman are in love, they want to be together every moment. Every minute away from the beloved is like a day, every day like an eternity. Is that how you feel about God? Do you think lovingly of Him or do you blame Him as being the author of your misfortune when things go wrong? Do you go to a place of worship with regularity, not out of duty but because you love Him? Do you spend time in the company of His saints? Do you pray? Do you study His word?
In all honesty, you have slighted God in thousands of ways already. Everything you are and all that you have is from God, but are you thankful? Have you sought God’s righteousness and not your own? Then why should God care for you? Why should He welcome you into His heaven? You have refused God’s call time and time again. He has called you to repent and believe many times. You know He has. He is doing so even now! Yet you continue to ignore the call. You are like the foolish virgins who slept through the coming of the bridegroom. And when He comes and shuts the doors of the Wedding Hall, it will be too late to complain (Matthew 25:1-13).
But it is not just “God” you have rejected. You have rejected His one and only Son, sent into the world to die for such as you so that your numerous sins could be forgiven. Christ testifies of Himself that He is the promise of eternal life in Heaven and without Him, there is no hope! How could God and Christ accept you when you care nothing for them and even treat them with contempt everyday?
If God should forever cast you off, it would be nothing less than agreeable with how you have treated others.
Everyone believes in fairness. We think it right when the cheater is cheated or the bully gets his come-uppance. You think like that, don’t you? You want to be treated with that kind of fairness, don’t you? But is that how you always treat others, with fairness? Do you always treat others as you would have them always treat you? Of course not!
In fact, you have treated others with shabby disrespect, and do so all the time. You tell tales about others behind their backs; you spread rumours; you criticize others for the very same faults for which you are guilty. Admit it! You want to be treated fairly by others, even though you don’t really treat them fairly; more importantly, you want God to treat you fairly. Yet you are so arrogant that you can’t see that if He were to treat you fairly and as you deserve, you would indeed be cast off and damned! You harm others by including them in your own deceit, as when you act out your feelings of anger or lustful desire. Fathers have harmed their sons; mothers have hurt their daughters. On and on it goes. Yet you still think that God should treat you with fairness because you’re “not such a bad person.” Really!
If God eternally should cast you off, it would be nothing less than agreeable with how you have treated yourself.
While you cannot save yourself, you have nevertheless refused to do what little you could on your own spiritual behalf. There are many sins you could refrain from, but don’t. There are many steps you could take toward your spiritual reclamation, but don’t. You could place yourself among the company of God’s saints, to listen and learn from them, but don’t. You could read the Bible, but don’t. So then, should God be forced to take better care of you than you take of yourself? Why should God seek your welfare and blessing when you don’t seek this yourself but in fact actually pursue a course in life leading away from God?
Beloved—you know who you are— I say these things for your good. I ask these questions in the hope that they will spur you on, first to honest examination and then to action. Don’t follow the easy way, the one that is broad and wide. This will only lead you to a fate far worse than mere death could ever be. Rather, first, give yourself to Christ and second, follow the more difficult way, the way of righteousness, the narrow road that will lead to a glorious life here and now and to an even greater glory than you can imagine after death. Don’t delay! Death will come like a thief in the night and rob you of your ability to repent and believe. Christ stands at the threshold of your life and is even now knocking at your door. Oh poor sinner, let Him in before it is too late. There is no second chance after death, only the judgment.
(This post is inspired by a sermon of Jonathan Edwards’ entitled The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners.)For another look at this issue, see the short article on my home page entitled Why You need to be Saved
Soli Deo Gloria.
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