LIFE is one of God’s most wonderful gifts. Without its possession the wonders of God’s creation cannot be realised. It is a gift which God alone can give. No creature, however high in the scale of being, has ever been able to give life. A creature can destroy that which it could never give, and which it can never restore; but it is God’s great prerogative to give that which had not been, and to restore that which had been taken away. Man in his journey through time is brought face to face with two tremendous facts in human experience—life and death. We are so familiar with the terms that we have deluded ourselves with the belief that we understand fully what they mean. Scripture throws a flood of light on the dark mystery of death; but how little after all do we understand what it means. It is clear from the teaching of Scripture that it is not cessation of being, for once we have come into being we shall exist as long as God Himself exists. Neither does death mean a cessation of activities, for we shall be active in the world to come, either doing the will of God perfectly in Heaven, or serving the devil in hell. Death may be said to be the transference from one sphere to another, as in natural death, from this world to the world to come. But in this transference, while there is activity in the new sphere, all activity in the former sphere has ceased. Hence death is recognised as the end of man’s work in this world. Now this is what took place when man died spiritually. He passed out of the kingdom of God into Satan’s kingdom; his activity in God’s kingdom ceased, and ceased for ever, as far as his own power was concerned; but there was no cessation of activity in the new sphere, for though dead in trespasses and sins, yet men “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephes. ii. 2). And as no power in heaven or earth has ever been able to bring back the dead to this world but God alone, so no power but God’s can bring back the spiritually dead from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God. We catch a glimpse of the awful mystery of death in its power to keep that which it obtained. And were it not that there is a stronger than death, “life that shall never end” could never have been. But that is only part of death’s power—if we have ever experienced the grief and sorrow that is caused through breaking up the tenderest and most intimate relationships of life, we have a ray of light shed on its awful power to separate. It separates husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, soul and body. Now this is a separation that man cannot bring to an end. But when we turn away from natural death to view it spiritually, this aspect of death has an added solemnity, and ought to fill us with feelings of the deepest apprehension, when we remember that as the wages of sin it separated us for ever, as far as our own power was concerned, from Him with whom is the fountain of life. And were it not for the bright and cheering hope that is held out to the followers of the Lamb, of a life that shall never end, and which is brought to light in the Gospel, the whole human race might fold its hands in despair as it faced the future enveloped in this dark mystery. The Lord of glory came into the world to destroy the works of the Devil, who had the power of death, and herein is the wonderful wisdom of God in the Cross revealed that it was through death, the death of God’s Son, that the gift of life which shall never end came to the Church of the living God. That death was something more to the Saviour than it is to the great bulk of mankind, is made plain in many passages of the Gospels, and also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where we read: “Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared” (Hebs. v. 7). Among the priceless blessings He came to bestow, He mentions everlasting life. He came to give life, and to give it more abundantly. This life was to be obtained not by any good that was in the sinner, but by the infinite merits of the sacrifice of the Great High Priest who brought His people nigh to Him, with whom is the fountain of life. Out of this infinite fulness of the life that was in their Redeemer have they all received. The Lord made no promise to save His people from the experience of natural death, nor from its power to separate soul and body; but He has made it very clear that the separation between God and all those who believe in His name is for ever at an end—they have passed from death to life, and the glorious hope is held out to all His ransomed that the separation between soul and body is not final and complete, but only temporary: for His work was not simply to redeem a part of man, but man as God created him, soul and body. Now this wonderful life which is brought to light in the Gospel is much more than never-ending existence; death may reign supreme and yet there may be no cessation of being, as we have seen; the wicked shall exist for ever, but they shall not enjoy everlasting life. For the realisation of this blessing there must be union to Him, who is the Resurrection and the Life, and this union is effected by His Spirit. The hope of eternal life, which is a good hope through grace, is set before us in the Gospel. This hope is no mere sentimental fancy with no other foundation than this, that somehow or other we will find ourselves in Heaven at last, but it is a hope resting on the finished work of Him who could say after death had done its worst—”Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for ever more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Rev. i. 18). With such a hope and with such a promise, when the final parting with time comes, God’s people may well lift up their heads as they approach the swellings of Jordan with the calm assurance that all is well. It is with no feelings of dismay that they need survey the future and the meeting at the judgment seat if so be that they have passed from death to life.
The Scripture speaks of the path of life that leads into the presence of God, where there is fulness of joy, and to His right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore. Such is the hope that is set before God’s people, and if Moses could say—”We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you; come thou with us and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel (Num. x. 29), with how much a fuller meaning may the believer say the same? But between them and the full realisation of that hope there flows the river of death. Bunyan tells what feelings of dismay overcame Christian as he was passing through the river. He did not feel the ground so quickly beneath his feet as he had anticipated, for the waters were very deep, but Hopeful encouraged him:—”Be of good cheer, brother; I feel the bottom, and it is good.” But Christian could only reply—”Ah, my friend, the sorrow of death hath compassed me about; I shall not see the land that flows with milk and honey.” But after being in a muse a while, he cried out—”Oh! I see Him again, and He tells me, When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee” (Is. xliii. 2). After this he found ground to stand on, and “the rest of the river was shallow; thus they got over.”
But though the river must be crossed and its waters may be deeper and chillier than ever we dreamt of, yet the future for God’s people is bright with a promise that all the darkness of death cannot dim. In his wonderful message to the Corinthian believers, the Apostle, speaking of the final triumph of their Lord over all His enemies, says:—”The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Then he tells them when this is to take place, viz.—”When this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality; then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (I. Cor. xv. 54). On the morning of the Resurrection what a fulness of meaning will be in the words—”O Death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?” when they will be uttered by a countless number, for whom the separation and bitterness and sorrow of death are for ever past. And with a sweeter music than ever Israel sang its sweet song, and on another hill with more refreshing dews than ever fell on Hermon’s hill, they shall sing:—
For there the blessing God commands
Life that shall never end.
CLEAVING TO CHRIST.
All I want is a frame of mind best suited to Thy glory. And what is that? Truly that when I have nothing, feel nothing, can do nothing, am worse than nothing, that then, even then, I may be rich in Thee amidst all my own bankruptcy? This, dear Lord, is what I covet, and if Thou withholdest all frames which might melt or warm or rejoice my own feelings, yet if my soul still hangs on Thee notwithstanding all, as the vessel upon the nail, my God and Jesus will be my Rock that feels nothing of the ebbs and flowings of the sea around, whatever be the tide of my fluctuating affections.—Dr Hawker.