|
|
Different species place their bets on life's roulette wheel
in different ways. If you're an oyster or a salmon or a fruit fly, the process is over quickly enough: lay a huge number of
eggs somewhere safely and die. If you're a tigress or a dolphin, the process isn't so simple: you have to bear the young,
rear them, provide food on a daily basis and guide them to maturity. If you are a human, you get a little bit of extra grace: you can be useful to your grandchildren, so there
is some pressure to stay alive that little bit longer. And then there's the bonus: being human, you have
all the resources of society and technology to keep you safe from predators and healthy and active for just a bit longer.
But sooner or later, the biological clock begins to run down.
Cells that had faithfully renewed themselves begin to fail. A heart that pounded away in perfect synchrony begins to run down
after a couple of billion beats. Joints that withstood rugby, football, rock'n'roll and the gymnasium treadmill start to creak.
Skin that bloomed in the spring sunshine begins to weather and flake in life's autumn. Brains shrink, spines curve, eyes begin
to fail, hearing goes, organs become cancerous, bones begin to crumble and memory perishes.
We read in the Bible (Heb. 9:27): "It is appointed unto
men once to die, but after this the judgment." Then in the same Bible we read (Psa. 116:15): "Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of His saints." As we read these two verses in the Bible, to our minds come the question, "how
could the death of a person headed for God's after-death judgment be precious in the sight of the Lord?" In Hebrews 4:13 we read that "all things are naked and open unto
the eyes of God with Whom we have to do." God's Son, when on earth, stated that not even a sparrow falls to the ground
without the observation and knowledge of God.
 There have lived on
this earth, perhaps, twenty billion human beings, all descendants of Adam. By Adam sin "entered into the world and death
by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12). "There is not a just man on earth
that doeth good and sinneth not" (Eccl. 7:20). We are told that on this earth at this present time, there are nearly
two billion persons. Therefore, the estimate of the descendants of Adam, whom God has seen die, is more than eighteen billion.
Little wonder Job asked the two great questions, "Man wasteth away and where is he?" And, "If a man die shall
he live again?" Where are those eighteen billion dead people? Where now are your loved ones included in the list of the
dead? It may seem rather selfish, but it is an indication of wisdom and intelligence for each of us to ask, "where will
I be after I leave this world?" No other question is more important.
We are told in Romans
14:12 that every one of us shall give an account of himself to God." We are told in I Timothy 2:4 that God " . .
will have all men to be saved." In Romans 3:23 and 6:23 we are told that ". . . all men have sinned and come short
of the glory of God" and that ". . . the wages of sin is death." We have already quoted the verse, "It
is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." But hear this wonderful good news: The
free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," Who "by the grace of God tasted death for every
man" (Rom. 6:23 and Heb. 2:9). . . . . When the dead sinner believes unto the saving of his soul he immediately becomes
a living saint.
|
