God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 11
THE LAST BATTLE / THE HOUR OF DEATH
Death is not a natural part of the life that was originally granted by God. It was only by the sin of man, under Satan's tempting, that death arrived. Spiritual death was immediate and physical death followed by aging. Before sin, there was no suffering or sickness, and no death. Death became “the wages of sin” (Rom 6:23) and it shall be the last of the enemies defeated and abolished (Rev 20:14).
Hell is mobilized around the death of man, where the souls of the lost are fully given over to it. However, death is also the great occasion of God's divine mercy. The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing (Mark 14:33-34). Man is alone and poor at the moment of death. He has no more future in front of him, except one coming in eternity. The decisions that count can be delayed no longer and it is at this moment that grace works it's greatest miracle. Heaven and hell face each other in that moment for the final duel for that one soul.
Death is the door to eternity. Whether it will be an eternity of blessing or curse will depend on spiritual decisions made before. There is the death of the one who dies in the Lord, which is filled with peace and hope, and there is the death of one who has lived a lifetime without the Lord, which opens up eternal darkness and regret. Whoever has behaved as if God did not exist can be saved in the final moment of life only by a miracle of undeserved mercy at it's finest.
The death of Jesus remains our best example. Having passed through temptations, tests, and unimaginable suffering, He dies completely entrusting Himself to the Father, whose will He fulfilled on earth. All the darkness of the world's sin was placed upon Him and weighed heavily on His heart. Here is the redemption from death's curse. Dying like Jesus (in complete trust in the Lord's grace and mercy as one does when born again) opens the door to eternal life of glorious blessing. One thief on a cross next to Jesus slipped away into the eternal darkness, welcomed there by Satan. The other thief, who had led a life of sin and knew it, opened his heart in contrition and followed Jesus into paradise. In that moment grace knocked upon a hardened heart one last time and the answer to that knock changed the eternal destination of that soul.
When a soul comes to that moment unprepared, without faith, hope, or repentance, Satan rejoices. He has done all he can to assure the capture of that soul. He appears victorious.
But one last “YES” to the Lord will bring the gift of paradise from Jesus, just as it did to the thief. One best definition of hell is appropriate here as we study:
HELL IS DISCOVERING THE TRUTH ONE MINUTE TOO LATE