Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Christ at the Campfire The difference a death can be.

On the way home tonight I was thinking about how different death is for the lost and the saved.

Death really doesn't matter that much for the saved, in fact could be considered (and often is spoken of) as a promotion. Just think, no more pain, hunger, weiriness or sorrow. While the cold truth of dying is sad, and the passing from the physical to the spiritual most likely painful, other than missing the company of our saved loved ones there is nothing truly sad about the death of one of the redeemed. Their sin is gone, there is no condemnation, and they are in the presence of their Father, Savior and God. It doesn't get much better than that.

For those who are still in their sin, however, it is the end of opportunity, the abandonment of all hope. They pass from life where they have pain and sorrow to an eternity of hopelessness where there is not even the empty hope of death and the peace of oblivion. They are gone, but not finished with suffering or sorrow. In fact, suffering, sorrow and never able to see the Living God is all they have left to experience.

The saved of God must eventually die in this world, as all flesh must. Does it matter if they die now, or a hundred years hence? Their future is secure. They fall asleep here, secuming to the blackness of death to awaken in the presence of Christ! In fact, while we might think it would be better if they lived a long and peaceful life, even that would be meaningless and forgotten in an eternity of joy. Precious to the Lord are the deaths of His saints. And to them, how wonderful it must be the instant after death.

But for the lost, how they should fight for each breath, how they should struggle for one more minute of opportunity where they might be saved, for with that last breath seeps away their last hope for all eternity. Never more will they have opportunity. Never more can they ever have hope. Their one time of seeing the loving, merciful God of promise will be to bow on their knees and too late proclaim that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father, and then to hear Him say, "Depart from me ye worker of iniquity, for I never knew you". And we will stand there as they are flung into the ever burning lake of fire and know that the only thing different between them and us is the blood of Christ, the blood our robes will be dipped in, the blood our souls have been wash clean of our iniquity in. Guilty we were too until He washed us in His own blood. Standing there we will know, there but by the grace of God go I.

Oh, how sad a day when the lost, young or old, pass from life to death, for only hell awaits. How we should pray for those we know while they still live, and strive to share with them the gospel of life. As it was for us, it is their only hope, for it is the power of God unto salvation!