If I were to stand by the side of a person who has been given an assurance that their final days are numbered, what would I say?
For some it would be words of comfort and confirmation of the blessed hope they had looked forward to. For others it might be of a hope beyond their ability to believe and the opportunity they might now have to put the exclamation point on their life. For there is a finality to life. It is celebrated while it continues and mourned when it is past. That is when heart and lungs cease to move, when the mind has no cognitive electrical activity, when there will be no more sunrises to awaken unto. Knowing the joy and terror of those thoughts, I would give this one great hope.
My words might be to recognize the pleasure and plunder they had enjoyed. There are many joys we experience to recall fondly. But I would also say the God of heaven declares in His word that He has winked at the times of our deliberate ignorance of Him, but now He calls them to repent. Even though their lives have been lived for their own selfish desires, whether good or evil in men’s eyes, God has not loved them less than any other and desires their fellowship and love. He still is reaching out in love to receive their simple obedience. He may indeed grant them physical healing but His desire is to have them receive the spiritual cleansing and restoration of the fellowship lost in Adam’s sin.
There has never been anyone so horrible, so vile, so wicked that God will not forgive if they would simply believe and ask. He still loves them. They are the reason He died on the cross. There are a thousand ways He could have died if He just wanted to show us that He could rise from the grave. His purpose was to let His blood be the offering which would atone their sin. His purpose is that they would recognize that He is God and that they are the rebellious sinner that they know they are. His purpose is for them to live with Him in eternity. He will not force them to live in His heaven if they do not wish to be there. Sadly, there is but one other choice.
Would this short conversation cause them to repent and believe what and whom they have rejected their entire life? No, it will not. Yet even knowing this I would choose to say these words. Because in the course of their life regardless of how long or short it has been, they have had multiple other opportunities to consider God’s love for them. Even nature itself declares there is a God. Many believers have testified of God’s grace and loving kindness in their lives. Funerals and sicknesses and horrific circumstances have been their reminders in their lives that there is a God and they are not Him. No, they might not believe because of this short conversation, but they might recall the lifetime of wooing and prompting by God the Holy Spirit who desires them to return unto the God of their only hope of salvation.
And if they might ask what they would need saved from, I would answer “Him”. He is not only the God of love and forgiveness to those who will repent and trust Him, He is also the God of vengeance and wrath toward those who rebel and reject Him. People often question the seeming contradiction of a loving God who demands Israel to destroy every man, woman, child and beast of His enemies. Yet in His love for His people He knows the compassion they might have toward those who would reject God might cause others to follow their evil examples. He has declared destruction and eternal judgment for those who will not acknowledge their creator and redeemer. The consequence of sin is death. The consequence of obedience is life eternal, forever more.
Almost everyone I have ever spoken to about it, have related that they know someone who is that kind of Christian. They have seen and heard their faith. They understand that the believers have a relationship with God which they do not understand. Even that one who has been told their final days are upon them, knows those people exist, those faithful believers. They themselves have not accepted that God’s rules apply to them. They have lived day by day for their own purposes and their own glory. Yet they have not considered their own destiny. They have not believed unto salvation. There is one truth which will haunt them forever unless they believe now. There is a God and you are not Him. There is one remedy for the condition they find themselves in. It is that God so loved every soul which is born into this world that He sent His only Son to die in their place so they might live with Him forever. There is one result of rejecting such an immense act of love. The worse thing that can happen to any living being is to be separated from its creator and the pleasure of His presence. All else is misery, pain and torment.
Would such an one listen and believe? Would any words I share, prompt the only decision which really matters, to come to pass? Would all that I say only be seen as forcing religious nonsense on someone who denies the existence of Jesus and doesn’t need that garbage? For some perhaps. Some will believe, some will not. In the end, I have hope. I have hope because someone shared hope with me when I was hopeless. Somehow, it made a difference. Somehow I believed. Somehow, beyond my understanding, they may also believe. So if I were to stand by the side of a person who has been given an assurance that their final days are numbered, what would I say? I hope I would say all of this. What would you say?