November 29, 2013
Condemned Already
We often worry about the salvation of people who
are riding the fence, but we know that as long as they live, they still have
the opportunity to accept the Lord. One of my college textbooks was thought
provoking when it noted, “Believers enjoy eternal life in advance of the age to
come, so unbelievers stand under the sentence of condemnation in advance of the
Last Judgment.” It’s interesting that we have some level of comfort thinking
that the unbeliever is somehow living in a continual stay of execution until
they actually come before the judgment seat of Christ. We are so sensitive to
the possibility of someone labeling us ‘judgmental’, that it’s hard to look at
the unbeliever and know that today they are condemned.
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Gail;
-----I find it fascinating that the book of life was written with the names of the living before the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8 and 17:8) I don’t introduce the idea for a discussion about predestination, but just for the fact as the Word states it. The living were known before the foundation of the world. The name of the thief crucified beside Jesus who confessed and asked to be taken with Jesus was written in that book. If we had known him before that day, we probably would have figured him to be one of Hell’s coming minions. We would have been wrong.
-----We do not know about anyone’s prospect for eternal life until his life ends. And when can one say a life ends? It is quite obvious once it has ended. We don’t bury people until we are sure. For many practical purposes, buying and selling, eating, drinking, being merry, etc., that thief’s life ended when he was being nailed to the cross. Yet he still asked, and it was granted, because obviously, his life had not ended for the purpose of beseeching the Lord. So also, the fleeing thief ripped through the lungs by a .38 police special hits the ground with a few seconds of thought left. Don’t be surprised to find his name written in the Lamb’s book of life since before the foundation of the world.
-----I am still practicing the mental framework which recognizes everyone with whom I communicate as maybe being in the book of life no matter how they are presently professing and behaving. With this thought comes a recognition of the possibility that maybe some moment I might have with them will be the moment of a planted seed, or of water for one, or if neither, then possibly one of a little soil tillage. “Never give up,” is the drift.
-----Although I am yet in dire need of tuning my planting, watering, and tilling skills, I never look at anyone any more as a condemned one. I just don’t know. If I had access to the book I would know.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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