Love of Life

From: Echoes of Grace: 1956

• 2 min. read • grade level: 6

We know that love of life is implanted in the breast, not only of man, but of every living thing throughout creation. The sparrow flies from the hawk. The sheep flees from the wolf. The deer springs in terror from the lion.

Men do not willingly endanger their lives. We all have love of life in us. We normally flee from danger if it threatens us; all our instincts are exercised for our protection. We have eyes to see danger; our ears hear it, and our hearts beat the drum of alarm when we sense its approach. Then our feet help us to flee from it even before our minds grasp its full import. If we were in a house and heard the cry of fire we would rush from the flames. If we were aboard a sinking ship, we would spring into the lifeboat. God has armed us to seek to protect our natural lives.

But terrible danger threatens every child of Adam. Every soul born into this world is a sinner by nature and in desperate need of a Savior. (Rom. 3:10¹⁰As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (Romans 3:10).) God's wrath is soon to fall upon this scene because it refuses the Savior He provided—His own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:10-12¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. ¹¹Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, ¹²Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (2 Peter 3:10‑12).) Every soul who still rejects God's salvation—the death on the cross of Calvary of Jesus Christ—faces the awful danger of eternal loss. For him is reserved the blackness of darkness forever, the dread certainty of spending an endless eternity in the fires of hell.

"He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone... and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night." Rev. 14:10,11¹⁰The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: ¹¹And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:10‑11).

Dear lost soul, use your eyes! See your danger! "Flee from the wrath to come." Matt. 3:7⁷But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matthew 3:7). Attend with your ears the gospel message now going forth: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Acts 16:31³¹And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31).

"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Rom. 10:9,10⁹That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ¹⁰For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9‑10).

Man was driven out of the garden in which God first placed him. But from the paradise of God, the wonderful place of infinite blessing which God provides, and which Christ says He went away to prepare for His own, there will be no more going out.

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