ARE you ready for eternity? “I hope so!” Are your sins forgiven? “I hope so!” Too often “I hope so” is merely a polite way of putting off giving a direct answer to a question too little liked. Sometimes it expresses the true state of a heart which dares not, yet longs to say, “I am sure!”
Let us get to close quarters, dear reader, for sooner or later to close quarters you must come with death and with eternity. Are you ready? Are you now, this moment, prepared for eternity, being fit for meeting God? Not fit in yourself, for that you never will be, but fit because Christ has made you so, because He has washed you from your sins in His own blood. It is impossible to be more fit than Christ makes us. If He has washed us from our sins in His own blood, it is He who has done this great work, and by His blood alone, which was shed for us on the cross. The work is perfect.
“I hope so!—nay, I believe, I am sure” said a young man to us the other day. He had hoped for a long time, but as the Scriptures were presented to him, he set aside his questionings, and took God’s word as God utters it, and accordingly became sure. He had at last “set to his seal that God is true.” (John 3:3333He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. (John 3:33))
Are you ready for eternity? Do you answer, “I am, by God’s grace. My sins are forgiven me for His name’s sake”? (see 1 John 11:1212Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. (John 11:12)).