Articles
Two Men Face Death
I have recently heard of two men facing death. Joe and Bob (pseudonyms) have completely different views of their mortality, and both struggle with challenges presented by them.
Joe. Joe is a doctor and an atheist. Joe’s sister-in-law (we’ll call her Debbie) is a Christian, and Joe has been contemptuous of Debbie’s faith throughout his life. Once he derisively asked her: “What if you spend your life worshiping your God and serving other people and then find out in the end that none of it was true? You’ve wasted your whole life.” Joe said many other cruel and unkind things to Debbie through the years.
In spite of Joe’s ridicule and dismissiveness, however, Debbie kept on praying for him, showing him kindness and compassion. After years of battling a renal disease, Joe’s health is now critical. In his suffering, anxiety, loneliness and insomnia, Joe has started texting Debbie in the wee hours of the morning. He refuses her offers to pray for him and rebuffs attempts to talk with him about his soul, but he reaches out to her instead of others in the family for comfort.
On the other hand, Debbie is distraught that she has not prayed enough for Joe and is confused as to why Joe still rejects Jesus at this late hour of life. Some misguided thoughts about prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit have discouraged Debbie due to Joe’s stubborn adherence to his unbelief. She expects more out of her prayers and Joe’s free will than she should.
Thoughts: First, Joe is not the first atheist to fear death but refuse to turn to God in their final hours. Because faith in God offers so much joy, hope and strength to the believer, it is difficult to understand how an unbeliever can reject God even when facing death. But while the possibility of coming to Christ remains until our last breath, it is also true that unbelief creates thought patterns that are difficult to break even when death looms. Perhaps it is pride, perhaps it is sheer intellectual conviction which accepts an uncertain fate beyond the grave, but multiplied thousands of unbelievers leave this world every day refusing to repent and seek God’s mercy. This is particularly painful when those who do are our loved ones.
Debbie, however, is taking false hope from Joe’s late night texts. When I observed that regret and repentance are not the same thing, the light bulb in her head seemed to turn on. Joe may regret many things he said to Debbie about her faith, and he even may call out to her in his time of desperation, but this falls short of the change of mind that God demands of sinners in order to receive forgiveness. King Saul represents this “regret without repentance” mindset (1 Sam 24:16-20) as does Judas (Mt 27:3-5).
Joe must be miserable in his final days. On some level he sees that Debbie is a woman of great faith and integrity, even in view of his own abuse, but at the same time he cannot bring himself to embrace the object of her conviction. And so his life ebbs away in doubt, despair and mental agony.
Bob. Bob has already passed away, but he spent his whole adult life as a preacher of the gospel. Bob was well known far and wide through his writings, gospel meetings and work among various churches. But after all his studies, teaching, counseling of others, etc., someone who knew him well commented, “During his final days, when he still had his mind, Bob was afraid to die.” The one sharing this was puzzled that Bob had not worked through such doubts in his studies.
Thoughts: I commented that such a view may be, in part, generational. I have known of other adults of the late 20th century who had been fed a steady diet of anti-Calvinist, anti-institutional, anti-denominational teaching which tended to emphasize high standards of doctrinal integrity, conditional forgiveness, pure attitudes and the recognition and confession of individual sins. To be clear, these things are not invalid. That is, it is my conviction that Calvinistic “perseverance of the saints” is wrong; that human institutions/innovations are unbiblical; that denominations are sinful perversions; that the spiritual battlefield is primarily in our minds; that our sins must be confessed and repented of. However, I question the historical approach to these things which, in my opinion, often stressed human performance – i.e., “getting it all right” – over the grace and mercy of God.
I realize this paints with a broad brush, but my conclusion is based on years of reading articles, commentaries, debates, etc., counseling many fellow Christians and my own personal struggles. The question is: Does a Christian have any assurance at all in his/her salvation? Is it possible to have comfort and peace in our final days, confident of our eternal destination? Or is the outcome of our judgment a big mystery until the moment we stand before Jesus to receive our sentence? Consider the following:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim 4:7-8).
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:1-2).
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:1).
“Having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us … let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water …” (Heb 10:19-22).
Our assurance is not based on flawless performance but on God’s grace. If we adopt a merit-based view of salvation, Satan will use our weaknesses and imperfections against us to undermine our peace and confidence. It is imperative that we work daily on our relationship with the Lord, drawing close to Him and seeking His loving superintendence of our lives, so that our death becomes a welcome escape from this corrupt world and entrance into the fellowship of our Savior whose own death made heaven possible.
