MAN anticipates; he looks ahead; he has expectations beyond today. It is the natural result of intelligence that he should do so. His expectations may be fanciful, still he expects. He is governed, more or less, by the future.
Not so a dog! He has no future; he lives by the moment. As to the morrow, he has neither fear nor joy; he is destitute of prospect. His life, whatever the effect of memory, is spent under no influence but one of present pain or pleasure.
And so with all lower animals. They have no regard for the future, and that because they are under no moral responsibility. They live their little lives; they die and are no more. They are “beasts that perish.”
But man is responsible to God; he has conscience; the knowledge of good and evil is planted in his bosom. He associates himself, however unwillingly, with a day of reckoning. He feels that he must give an account of his stewardship, and owns that, in justice, he must reap what he has sown. Hence he looks beyond this life; he may fear, or he may hope, none the less he is governed by the future. He reasons, naturally, that if the present life has been spent well, he will be rewarded; if ill, he will be punished. Such is his natural reasoning, nor is it, in one sense, wrong. Philosophy would give it an unqualified approval; but then the great question is: ―
How much good must he accomplish in order to merit reward, and how little evil should he do in order to escape punishment? These difficulties are insuperable, and leave the hapless enquirer in despair. Philosophy―that is human wisdom—is utterly unable to shed a single ray of light on the subject. But, thank God, revelation can do so. A light from heaven has streamed over this dreary chaos. Truth, clear and faultless, has spoken. A way from out of the hopeless morass has been made. Who will hearken? who will respond?
Notice, first and foremost, God says that “There is none righteous, no, not one!” Second, He adds: “There is none that doeth good, no, not one”! (see Rom. 3:10-1210As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:10‑12)). There is “not one,” either in nature or in practice, whom God can call good! This is humbling! It levels all of us to one common platform of sin and guilt. It dashes in pieces all hope of reward for personal goodness. It makes salvation impossible― absolutely impossible―except on a ground entirely different from our deserts.
This may appear staggering, but it is the very basis of all our hope.
The proved and demonstrated ruin of man is the occasion for the display of the grace of God! Let me quote from the same chapter, two more verses which place the truth of each of these facts in juxtaposition― side by side―so that the reader may see at a glance the divine solution of the difficulty: ― “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”―that shows where we are.” Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”―this gives God’s wonderful provision. His grace is the spring. Redemption in the blood of Christ is the ground. Justification, and that from all things, is the result―for all who believe, and trust, freely, as apart from every idea of merit on our side. This is revelation! Oh! how it beggars all human philosophy! It clears the way for the further truth of chapters 5:1-2, where we are “justified by faith,” “have peace with God,” and “rejoice in hope of his glory”! Our past is justification! Our present is peace with God! Our future is His glory!
Such is the Christian’s future! And a certain one it is, bright and blessed! It is all of grace, and therefore all, and wholly, to the glory and praise of God.
Then is there no reward? Surely there is. We shall receive according to the deeds done in the body and have our place in the kingdom. This is accordingly a solemn fact—but for heaven we are fitted by sovereign grace alone―like the thief on Calvary―whilst for the sinner there remains only “a certain looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation.” How dark his future―a long, dreary night without dawn or break of day―forever.
Each of us has a future. Dear reader, what shall your eternal morrow be? You know the way; enter now! You know the truth; believe it now!
J. W. S.