WHAT comes after death?”
“Resurrection!”
“Yes, but where to?”
“Hell!”
Then silence for a moment, as the terrible reply recoiled upon the speaker.
“A short conversation,” the reader may say.
It was so. I was hastily passing a group of young men who loitered at the outskirts of a Scottish village one Sunday evening. They seemed full of mere animal spirits, and thinking little indeed of the subject which I took the bold liberty of introducing, in a way so informal, upon their attention.
They were doubtless taken by surprise. In a moment their wild hilarity was arrested, as their minds were thus suddenly directed to the great hereafter.
Now I regard such surprises as valuable acts of service. By them one does not “cast pearls before swine,” but the rather he fulfills the exhortation to be “instant in season, out of season.” For in our day of immense religious formality, people expect to be preached to at stated hours, and never else―just as we anticipate the arrival or departure of a train, as advertised in the timetables, and only then; so, to break up such lifeless formality by an unexpected declaration of the Word of God, may prove, in His grace, a means of reaching some thoughtless soul, and of leading him to conviction of sin and conversion to God.
Saul of Tarsus was converted by such a surprise when on his murderous way to Damascus.
I have heard of a certain preacher being asked how it happened that he was, to all appearance, so much more blessed to souls than another who was more highly educated, more eloquent, and whose sermons were so full of argument and logic. He, replied that Satan knew the exact point to which his neighbor’s logical sermons would carry the audience, and therefore warned them against that point before it was reached; whilst he, in preaching, beat about zig-zag, and perplexed the audience, so that he caught them on the back-coming. His point was, not logical conclusions, but the salvation of souls.
“You say that I am a rambling preacher,” said George Whitefield; “yes, but I am rambling after you!” God blesses “out of season” surprises. The devil loves formalism. Ah! but souls must be awakened, and, even at the charge of rudeness, it becomes the servants of Christ to seek, by all means, to reach the perishing and careless souls around.
But now, what does come after death? That young man said “Resurrection,” and he was quite right. Every one shall rise again. “All that are in their graves shall hear his voice [the voice of the Son of God], and shall come forth [that is resurrection], they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:2929And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:29)). There can be no exception; all that are in their graves―from Adam downwards, for death does not end our history―all shall come forth.
He was right. I was surprised that he answered my question so quickly and correctly. He did not believe in “annihilation,” or a reduction to nothing. No, he believed in a state after death―a state into which death introduces; and how did he describe that state? “Hell,” was his awfully solemn reply.
The thought of heaven, or blessedness, did not enter his mind. Perhaps, poor lad, he reasoned from his present condition to its future equivalent―from what he was now to what he should be then―from sin now to “hell” then. Dark premonition indeed!
Look at these three words― “Death,” “Resurrection,” “Hell”!
How appalling! How awful!
Yet such words are, no doubt, mirrored on the conscience of many a hopeless man and woman, to their anguish and despair.
They have sinned; and, putting cause and effect together, they can see no way out of the fearful but accurate conclusion.
They have heard and understood the verse which says, “As it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)) ―and have thereby obtained only misery; but they have never heard, or at least understood, the verse that immediately follows, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” Had they done so, their fear would be gone! Thank God for that verse! Death is followed by judgment; quite true, but not all the truth, for Christ died, was made sin, bore the judgment, was once offered as sin-bearer.
The “as” that attached to us in verse 27 is answered by the “so” that attaches to Christ in verse 28. The balance is perfect, the substitution complete!
But for whom?
For the believer in Jesus; ― “and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation”―so ends our verse! But how different the prospect!
Instead of looking for death, resurrection, and hell, ―to look for Jesus and salvation; to anticipate not death, but the longed-for change that shall take place “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” and then to meet the Lord, and be forever with Him!
To the unbeliever there is―Death, Resurrection, Hell!
For the believer who lives till Jesus comes― the “change” ― “caught up”― “with the Lord!” Let me urge you, dear reader, to believe in Jesus, for that supremely important act makes all the difference between an eternity in heaven, and an eternity in hell.
J. W. S.