SOLEMN indeed is the lesson that these verses bring before us. Character tends to permanence. He who revels in filth and follows the ways of unrighteousness throughout his life here on earth, will go out into eternity only to be confirmed in his wickedness and never separated from it forever. On the other hand, he who turns to God in repentance and obtains new life in Christ through believing the gospel, will be characterized in his pilgrimage here by a love for purity and holiness, and will find his joy in seeking to walk before God in paths of righteousness. This delight in the things that please God will become more and more intense until called from this scene, when he will be fully conformed to the image of God’s Son and confirmed in holiness and goodness.
Death does not make bad people good, and, thank God, it can never make good people bad! It confirms people for eternity in the ways in which they have chosen to walk. “As the tree falls, so is shall lie.” Our state in eternity is unchanging.
‘Come, make thy choice —for life or death eternal,
Christ or the world—the broad or narrow way;
The Father’s Home, or the abode infernal,
Unending joy or sorrow—choose to-day.
Come, make thy choice! It may be now or never;
‘Tis worse than madness longer to delay;
Now is the hinge of all the vast ‘forever;’
Tomorrow never cometh—choose today.”
―Wm. Blane.