The Coronavirus has given mankind an entirely unique opportunity. The entire globe has never come to the grinding halt that we’re experiencing today. Humanity has never been so universally humbled. In the midst of the global pandemic panic we all have significantly more time and motivation to consider life and eternity. Take a few minutes for sober reflection.
What are you living for? What would your close friends and family say you’re living for if they took a hard look at your life, at where you spend your time, at where you spend your money, at where you spend your energy, at what you view on television, at what you view on the internet, at what you delete from your history, at what fills your social media, at what makes you happy, at what makes you sad, at what makes you angry, at what you laugh at, at what you support and vote for, at your daily prayer or lack thereof, at your daily Bible reading or lack thereof, at your worship or lack thereof, at your obedience to the Great Commission or your lack thereof, at your empathy or apathy toward the genocide of 1.6 billion babies since 1980, at your empathy or apathy toward billions of sinners perishing in their sin, and at what you’re willing to suffer and die for?
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” -James 4:13-14
You’ve got one brief life to live, one opportunity to glorify your God and King who set His eternal love upon you; who was pierced for your iniquity upon a cruel Roman cross; who took the eternal wrath of the Father that your sin deserved; who laid down His holy life for your wretched life; who rose from the grave on the third day conquering sin, Satan, and and the curse of death on your behalf; who ascended on high to sit at the right hand of the Father to intercede on your behalf; who is preparing a place for you to abide forever under the eternal love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — a place where there’s no more sin, pain, disease, death, or tears — a new heavens and a new earth in which only righteousness dwells.
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!” -1 Timothy 1:15
How then should you live? How are you loving your God and King? What are you doing about your King’s mission to save sinners? What are you doing with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Who is hearing the the Gospel of Jesus Christ from your lips and fingertips? What are you actively doing to seek to save sinners who are one breath from eternal wrath? How are you loving the men, women, and children all around you that are perishing in their false religion and idolatry: Muslims, Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhists, Hindus, Oneness Pentecostals, etc…? How are you loving the men, women, and children all around you that are perishing in their sin: liars, thieves, drunkards, fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, non-binaries, rapists, child molesters, murderers, baby murderers, agnostics, atheists, and every other god-hater who’s one heartbeat from eternity in Hell?
“To live is Christ and to die is gain.” -Philippians 1:21
The Apostle Paul found the secret to getting your best life. Here it is. LIVE FOR CHRIST! Be all in for Christ. Be busy about Christ’s business of saving sinners. Knowing — to die is gain. Knowing — your best life is later. Knowing — your best life is the eternal life that your God and King purchased for you at the cross. The secret to getting your best life is to die to self in this life, take up the cross in this life, and unashamedly proclaim Christ and His Gospel from the rooftops with certain confidence that your best life is the eternal life yet to come.
“[Jesus] said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” -Luke 9:23-26
If you have confessed Christ as Lord — now is the time to consider your life; to consider the brevity of your life; to consider the meaning and purpose of your life; to consider how you’re spending your one precious life; to consider how you’re living the life that God authored for His glory; to consider how you should live in Christ; to consider eternal life yet to come; to commit yourself to the truth that your best life is later; to cry out to God that you might die to self truly, take up the cross daily, follow Christ fully, and unashamedly make the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ heard in this diseased, dying, damned world that will soon burn with the heat of a thousand suns.
If you haven’t confessed Christ as Lord — now is the time! Flee from sin. Flee from death. Flee from Hell. Flee to Jesus Christ: the only Savior, fully God, fully man, born of a virgin, crucified for sinners, buried, resurrected, and seated at the right hand of the Father as the only Mediator between God and men. Confess Christ as Lord and be saved from the eternal and just penalty sin called Hell. Your life is a vapor. Soon it will be gone. You’re one breath and heartbeat from eternity in Hell. Here’s the sober truth. You may be dead by the end of today. You may never see tomorrow. Even if you see ten thousand tomorrows — all too soon — death and Hell are going to swallow your precious life and soul. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. Now is the time to flee to Christ and find forgiveness, grace, mercy, and eternal life. Outside of Christ there is only the certainty of death and Hell to come. In Christ there is life now and forever under the fullness of God’s love.
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” -2 Peter 3:10-13
