Thoughts On Immorality # 3

Thoughts On Immortality # 3

3. Our state in the unseen world of eternity depends entirely on what we are in time.  The life we live upon earth is short at the very best, and soon gone. "We spend our days as a tale that is told." What is our life? It is a vapor - so soon passes it away, and we are gone." (Psalm 90:9; James 4:14). The life that is before us when we leave this world is an endless eternity, a sea without bottom, and an ocean without a shore. "One day in Your sight," eternal God, "is a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8). In that world time shall be no more. But short is our life here, and endless is the hereafter. Our lot after death depends, humanly speaking, on what we are while we are alive. It is written, "God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger" (Romans 2:6-8).

We ought never to forget that we are all, while we live, in a state of probation. We are constantly sowing seeds which will spring up and bear fruit, every day and hour in our lives. There are eternal consequences resulting from all our thoughts and words and actions, of which we take far too little account. "For every idle word that men speak they shall give account in the day of judgment" (Matt. 12:36). Our thoughts are all numbered, our actions are weighed. No wonder that Paul says, "He who sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal. 6:8). In a word, what we sow in life we shall reap after death, and reap to all eternity.

There is no greater delusion than the common idea that it is possible to live wickedly, and yet rise again gloriously; to be without religion in this world, and yet to be a saint in the next. When the famous Whitefield revived the doctrine of conversion last century, it is reported that one of his hearers came to him after a sermon and said - "It is all quite true, sir. I hope I shall be converted and born again one day, but not until after I am dead." I fear there are many like him. I fear the false doctrine of the Romish purgatory has many secret friends even within the pale of the Church. However carelessly men may go on while they live, they secretly cling to the hope that they shall be found among the saints when they die. They seem to hug the idea that there is some cleansing, purifying effect produced by death, and that, whatever they may be in this life, they shall be found "fit for the inheritance of the saints" in the life to come. But it is all a delusion!

The Bible teaches plainly that as we die, whether converted or unconverted, whether believers or unbelievers, whether godly or ungodly, so shall we rise again when the last trumpet sounds. There is no repentance in the grave - there is no conviction after the last breath is drawn. Now is the time to turn from darkness unto light, and to make our calling and election true. If we leave this world impenitent and unbelieving, we shall rise the same in the resurrection morning, and find it had been "good for us if we had never been born" (Mark 14:21).

I charge every reader of this paper to remember this, and to make good use of time. What you sow in life that now is, you are sure to reap in a life to come. 

4. The Lord Jesus Christ is the great Friend to whom we must look for help, both for time and eternity. The purpose for which the eternal Son of God came into the world can never be declared too fully, or proclaimed too loudly. He came to give us hope and peace while we live among the "things seen", which are temporary," and glory and blessedness when we go into the "things unseen, which are eternal." He saw our lost and bankrupt condition, and had compassion on us. And now, blessed be His name, a mortal man may pass through things temporal with comfort, and look forward to things eternal without fear.

These mighty privileges our Lord Jesus Christ has purchased for us at the cost of His own precious blood. He became our Substitute, and bore our sins in His own body on the Cross, and then rose again for our justification. He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God. He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we poor sinful creatures might have pardon and justification while we live, and glory and blessedness when we die. (1 Peter 2:24; 3:18; 2 Cor. 5:21).

~J. C. Ryle~

(continued with # 4)