"For What Is Your Life?"
We must die! We have no choice! By mortal observation and sacred declaration do we realize that "death" is our last appointment on the agenda of our earthly pilgrimage (Hebrews 9:27). It is a migration of our spirits we struggle to comprehend, but our finite minds cannot fathom. Only one possible alternative exists: to be shrouded in this tent of flesh when Christ returns at the end of the world. But in either case our state of being must undergo a radical and eternal change. For "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption"(1 Corinthians 15:50-52). So we wait; for we do not know when either shall appear (Matthew 24:36).
In the light of these sobering facts our sojourn here takes on new and vivid meaning. Material things are seen in a different light; for we hunger and thirst after those things that shall transcend death. We want to go into the judgment with the characteristics that shall abide and receive the blessings of Jesus. In summation, we want to go to heaven. We want to live so as to hear our Saviour say to us, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21).
We become, therefore, more aware of the inner man and its needs rather than the needs of the outward. "For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened" (2 Corinthians 5:4). We understand more fully why Paul said, "...but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal:" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). O how Marvelous! O how Wonderful! Through the sacred word, by the eye of faith, our God has blessed us to see the unseen - the eternal. With the father of the faithful we too can look "for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10).
Where at one time we were worldly minded with "...all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life..." (1 John 2:16); we now know that for our spirits to be prepared for our "long home" we must "hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:5, 13, 14).
For our spirits to be prepared to make their flight into eternity we must mold them with a love that always brings about a close submission to the will of Jesus (John 14:15). Because "whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him" (1 John 2:5). If man does not have to obey Christ in order to manifest his love to him, what other way is available to do so? We must say with Paul that all that really matters is, "...the keeping of the commandments of God" (1 Corinthians 7:19).
We no longer are anxious about the present because we are anchored in the future (Matthew 6:33). Men cease to cause fear in us because we are servants of God and fear Him (Luke 12:4, 5). Contentedly we work in the church of Christ adhering to the principle of "...whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him" (Romans 16:16; Colossians 3:17).
We still do not know when our appointment with death will be or when Christ shall appear the second time. But being faithful we know we are prepared and we rejoice in the "exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:4).
With a prayer on our lips and these peaceful and sublime thoughts in mind we can pillow our heads in rest at the end of a weary and toilsome day. We can now drift into a pleasant sleep, having the last cares of day vanquished from our spirits by the words of a sweet refrain.
"There is a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar. For the Father waits over the way, to prepare us a dwelling place there."
From Our Archives, 1995
By: David P. Brown