To have one’s existence in this fallen world is solemn. Let us consider four reasons for this.
1. Because we are all sinners.
We were all born sinful. Adam represented all mankind and so we fell in him. He sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, which God had warned him not to do; he had been told: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2:17). Adam did eat the fruit; so he had to suffer the consequences; these were not only for himself, but for all his natural descendants. We can sum up the consequences as: being under the curse of God, for “cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal 3:10). God demands perfection from His creatures; so the most insignificant sin, as we might term it, brings us under that curse, and it does so because every sin is tremendously serious; it is committed against an infinitely-holy God. To be under the curse of a perfectly-holy, infinitely-powerful God is a very solemn position to be in.
The curse of the law includes death. There is (1) natural death, the solemn separation that comes between the soul and the body, which results in the soul being carried away to either heaven or hell. Then there is (2) spiritual death, the absence of spiritual life – the total inability of the soul to carry out any spiritual duty. It is solemn to be a soul that is unable to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is unable to love God, or to keep any part of God’s law. Finally, there is (3) eternal death, never-ending separation from God and from all possibility of blessing. In hell, the full force of divine punishment will fall on sinners; as Jesus Christ solemnly warned, “there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 13:50).
2. Because God sees each of us always.
“The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Prov 15:3). No matter where we may be, we can never hide from God’s presence; we can never go where He cannot see us. So Adam and Eve discovered when, with guilty consciences, they sought concealment among the trees of the Garden of Eden. They were trying to do the impossible. David asked, “Whither shall I flee from Thy presence?” (Ps 139:7). He knew he could not do so; he knew that at every moment God could see all he did and said and thought.
It is solemn that even the righteous are not free from sin. God sees the guilt of their sin but, for the sake of the saving work of Christ, He does not lay their guilt to their account; all their sins are forgiven. What is more, sin is no longer on the throne of their hearts. Yet sin is still powerful, and believers are subject to the wiles of a tempting devil, who has had thousands of years of experience in that evil activity, though God will prevent them being swept off the Rock, Jesus Christ. Many of them are weak in faith and much less prayerful than they ought to be, and God sees it all. Yet He will preserve grace in their souls. And, what is more, He will bring His work in each believer to completion, so that, when death comes, they will be brought as perfect souls into the perfection of heaven.
While it is solemn that believers continue to sin in this life, yet God continues to care for them, as He watches over them and sees all the dangers that surround them and delivers them from everything that would harm them. He has given them a multitude of precious promises, including, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5).
But the Lord also has His eyes on those who are evil, and that is very solemn; He sees all their sins. They have no respect for the full implications of any of the commandments. While they may have some outward acceptance of some of these commands, they do not submit to God’s authority over their thoughts. Psalm 12 speaks of those who say, “Our lips are our own: who is lord over us?” And no doubt they think, Our thoughts are our own: who is lord over us? Not least, the Lord sees their rebellion as they go on in unbelief, refusing to acknowledge Him as their God.
The prospect of a lost eternity adds solemnity to their rebellion. Ours is a generation whose philosophy very largely is: Let us “eat, drink, and be merry” (Lk 12:19) – with emphasis on being merry. This generation may not be unique in craving entertainment, but it certainly is unique in the possibilities for accessing entertainment from almost every part of the world. What need then they have to stop and take seriously their situation on their way to eternity and to say, almost as Moses did, but with application to themselves: O that I were wise, that I understood this, that I would consider my latter end! (See Deut 32:29). And taking their solemn position seriously, they ought to go on to ask the Lord to make them wise now.
3. Because death is not the end of our existence.
Since we are sinners, we cannot continue indefinitely in this life. Soul and body must be parted from each other and must remain apart until the resurrection, when body and soul will be reunited. But, solemnly, there will be “the resurrection of life” and “the resurrection of damnation” (Jn 5:29); those “that have done good” will go to heaven and “those that have done evil” will go to hell.
The point just now is that no one may assume that death is the end of human existence; nor may anyone assume that to go to heaven is inevitable – for Scripture teaches otherwise. God is setting before us in His revelation the realities of our existence in this world: that eternal consequences follow from the way we live our lives here. If we do good – if by God’s grace we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ – then at death we will enter the blessedness of heaven. But, solemnly, if we do evil and nothing but evil – continuing in unbelief, the most serious sin of all – we must exist, not for a limited period but for ever, in the awfulness of hell.
4. Because we must all appear before God in judgement.
Proverbially in human affairs, justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done. And God will show, when He will bring this world to an end, that He has acted in perfect justice to everyone by either bringing their souls to heaven or sending them to hell. God has seen all that individual sinners have done in this world and has understood the motives behind everything. Accordingly that evidence will be brought forward to show God’s justice in the way that He is dealing with everyone. There will be no possibility of anyone having any ground whatever for claiming that they are being dealt with unjustly.
How solemn it will be for any sinner to hear these words addressed to himself, in perfect justice: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41). How solemn for an ungodly individual to know that the gracious words, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34), are addressed to others but not to himself. How especially solemn this will be for those who once heard the gospel and rejected it, who heard that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to save sinners and who, guilty though they were, would not come to Him although Christ’s ambassadors called them to do so.
Yes, there is a solemnity to life. Yet the righteous, those who have come to Christ by faith, are called to rejoice. Paul is insistent when he writes: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil 4:4). What reason they have to do so! Their sins have been forgiven; a new nature has been created within them; they are on their way to heaven; and God has promised that He will always care for them. Yet let them continue to examine themselves as to whether they have indeed believed. But let those who have no right to assume they are among the righteous not despise the opportunity they still have to seek salvation. Let them seek the Lord while He may be found but let them not rely on their own endeavours.