The End

From: Echoes of Grace: 1983

• 2 min. read • grade level: 5

The end of another year is in view, and soon the clock will strike the midnight hour for the last time in 1983. The grains of sand are falling fast.

Soon this year will end. Soon, too, will end our time on earth.

How quickly time passes; the baby becomes the schoolboy, the schoolboy the teenager, the teenager the business man, the business man the elderly, and soon he is the aged one passing on.

A very few more turns of the wheel and all will be completed of our life here. But this life is only the first chapter in our history—a history to which "finish" never will be written. "End of Chapter One" may be written speedily, but Eternity is in view, and it is unending.

It is well for us to pause and consider our eternal destiny, and as we pass one another like ships on the trackless ocean, we ask, "Where are you going?"

Where will you spend eternity? Will it be with Christ in everlasting joy, or without Christ in everlasting sorrow?

Can we know? Absolutely yes. "We know... we have a building of God... eternal in the heavens," says the Apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 5:1¹For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1), voicing the Christian's confidence. It is the believer's portion to know how he stands as to the past, as to the present, and as to the future.

As to the past: "Ye know that ye were... redeemed... with the precious blood of Christ." 1 Peter 1:18, 19¹⁸Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; ¹⁹But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:18‑19).

As to the present: "He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life." John 5:24²⁴Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).

As to the future: "We know that, when He [Christ] shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." 1 John 3:2²Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2).

For the Christian, past, present and future are filled with Christ.

Our redemption was through Him.

Our life is in Him.

Our glory will be with Him.

All this is of His grace. We deserve nothing but judgment, but He gives all in the greatness of His goodness. He never fails the worst sinner who trusts in Him, or the weakest believer who relies upon Him.

Friend, you are leaving this world. The clock is ticking you on your way. Your pulse throbs you ceaselessly forward. Where are you going?

The same Word of God which tells of His love, tells of His righteous judgment. If we miss His salvation we will receive the judgment we deserve. And that too is FOREVER.

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Heb. 9:27, 28²⁷And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: ²⁸So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:27‑28).

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