No one disputes this statement of the Bible. In every village a cemetery is a reminder of this inevitability: to die once. Out of sympathy, out of courtesy, or because we are directly affected by a bereavement, little time sometimes passes without our meeting, often with the same people, in this gloomy meeting place. We part without daring to ask: And next time, who will it be? For inevitably our turn will come.
Human life presents itself entirely as one great countdown. The process of aging and death is under way in a human being from birth. But with two major unknowns: the final destination, and then the point we have reached.
Unknown destination
Unknown? Are we really so sure? Or do we simply prefer not to ask ourselves any questions about it? Let us admit that this is an irresponsible attitude. First, it is not logical. None of us would board a train without knowing where it will take him. Second, it is hardly courageous! We prefer not to think about it!
And we are right to be afraid. The Bible verse we quoted goes on: “to die… and after this the judgment.” What is there after death? This is the question of questions. The Bible answers it with this one word that sounds harsh, and yet which we cannot get rid of: JUDGMENT. No indeed! Not everything is over when the earth closes over a coffin. If the body, which is dust, returns to the earth, “the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12.7). To God, to hear an appraisal there and to receive a recompense.
Our present life, a short preliminary period in the eternal history of our soul, is nonetheless heavy with consequences. It is a test! What use will we have made of our freedom, our time, our health, our faculties? And above all, what place will Jesus Christ have held in our life? Will we have found in him first a Savior, then a Lord?
The point we have reached
These days, these seconds trickling by, whose number dwindles relentlessly down to the brutal zero, how many of them do we have left to live?
We have no idea, say some, and that is one of the reasons that make death so dreadful: it can suddenly ruin all our plans and break our dearest ties.
We have no idea, agreed, answer others; but it is better so. What is the use of spoiling this fleeting time, these sparingly measured moments, with the obsession that they will perhaps soon be over?
We have no idea, indeed. But that is precisely what should urge us to prepare ourselves today for this solemn face-to-face with the Judge to whom we shall have to give account. He himself invites us to it: “Prepare to meet your God… (and here each one can put his own name)” (Amos 4.12). How? By anticipating the judgment, that is, by freely confessing to God our state of sin and accepting his forgiveness: the free salvation obtained for us by the work of Jesus Christ.
Certainties
No more than others does the believer know when his earthly life will end. On the other hand, as for the hereafter, he possesses great certainties drawn from the Word of his God. And first of all this one: DEATH IS CONQUERED; “O death, where is your sting? O death, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15.55-56).
He can face his own death without anxiety; he is ready. The judgment and condemnation that awaited him on the other side have been borne by Another. “Our Savior Jesus Christ has abolished death” — “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1.10, Romans 8.1).
Sin, that sting which armed death like the stinger of a venomous animal, has been removed from it by the cross of Jesus. As a result, death has lost for the Christian its anguishing character; it is no longer a catastrophic end, but the way into a wonderful future; it is no longer the loss of everything dear to him, but the presence of the One he loves above all. It is the door he passes through to go to heaven: on this side fatigue, worries, suffering; beyond, rest, peace, happiness without cloud and without end.
Do you not want to settle now the grave and great problem of your eternity, by simply accepting the salvation that Jesus offers you and for which He Himself paid the full price?
Christian Publications of Valence