Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. One of the Puritans wrote some
words to this effect. The arrows which mark out our
death have been let loose from the bow of God long before we
were born. He is indeed the God of life
and death, even as Job has said, man that is born of a woman is
a few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower
and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow and
continueth not. And dost thou open thine eyes
upon such in one and bringest me into judgment with thee? Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, not one? seeing his
days are determined, the number of his months are with thee.
Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. Even many
who make no profession of faith in Christ at all will readily
admit that the number of days which a man has upon the earth
is predetermined, and that he shall surely keep that appointment.
Yet they look upon that in a fatalistic view and simply resign themselves
to it as an inevitable occurrence. Those, on the other hand, who
have been led to see the workings and predestination of all events
in heaven and earth by the hand and purpose of a gracious and
absolutely sovereign God find a place of great comfort and
peace in that knowledge. Rather than a simple blind inevitability
born out of a cosmic necessity, they see the sovereign hand of
God working all things together for good to those who love him
and are the call according to his purpose. It is given unto
them to find comfort in the fact that he who has loved them with
an everlasting love has even laid down his own life for them,
as he tasted death for every man that he undertook to die
for. He has in that death, and his subsequent resurrection from
the dead, forever swallowed up the sting of death, and in its
place given them an abiding hope that their own death is but a
temporary sleep. Adam was made immortal creature
out of the dust of the earth. He was the highest creature of
all of those which were placed upon the earth. He was given
a nobility and depth of understanding which gave him power to rule
over all of this earthly creation. He had an ability to see that
the creation of all things was the handiwork of God. Yet Adam
disobeyed God and subsequently brought death upon his own posterity,
as he was banished from the garden wherein was the tree of life.
Adam was nothing but a natural man, and as such had neither
lot nor part in that kingdom of God which cannot be inherited
by flesh and blood. Some look at the creation of
Adam as an experiment by the Lord which went awry, as the
Lord simply left the outcome of it all up to the free will
of Adam. This is sometimes referred to as the probationary view.
Yet it is outside the realm of possibility that anything in
the heavens or the earth is left to occur by chance. since all
things must occur according to his own purpose. But our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. So we know that even Adam's acts of disobedience did
not take the Lord by surprise, nor did they occur outside of
his predestined purpose for the creation of the world. God created
the heavens and the earth as a display of His glory in sending
His Son to redeem that people which He loved with an everlasting
love. In this purpose He chose to magnify the glory of His grace
in loving them, even though they have sprung from Adam's loins
in the flesh as sinners condemned to die under the justice of a
broken law. Men could never have broken the law had he not been
made subject unto it, which he was in Adam. So it was necessary
for death to come upon all men that the glory of God's grace
might be magnified in the deliverance of his elect from the lasting
effects of death. In order for those which are
mortal to have any hope of entering into the kingdom of heaven, it
is absolutely necessary that they be changed. God has chosen
physical death as the means whereby he would redeem his people from
the curse of the law, in that he has sent his only begotten
Son into the world to die for sinners. He has become sin for
his people, and thereby taken upon himself the curse which
was due unto them according to the law. Thus he has satisfied
that curse, and they cannot be subject to the lasting effects
of death, since he has made them righteous by the imputation of
his own righteousness to them. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Death in these moral bodies must
occur in order that the heirs of the kingdom might be raised
from that death and fitted with bodies that cannot decay or be
corrupted. Therefore, the death of the saints
of God is precious in His sight, because it is the avenue through
which He would bring them to experience the same power of
the resurrection of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the firstfruits.
Death reminds us of what we are by nature and of our helpless
condition before a holy and eternal God. Death causes us to remember
the sin which does so easily beset us. It is a consideration
of death which causes those who are born again to have hope in
Him who has triumphed over sin and death. Is your hope in Christ? If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.