You can listen to this article here.
There are three most noteworthy days in the life of every believer. The day we are born, the day we are born again, and the day we die. The Scriptures tell of a day whereby we are Sovereignly appointed to be born (Psalm 139:13-16, Ecclesiastes 3:2), and of another whereby we are Sovereignly appointed to be born again (2 Corinthians 6:2, Acts 2:47), and then of another when we have been Sovereignly appointed to die (Hebrews 9:27). On that third day, those of us who die in Christ will be more alive than we’ve ever been.
Is there any better news that this? If you do not think it so, check your pulse. If the thought of not being in Christ doesn’t even for a moment take your breath away, are you even breathing? This may indicate that you might not yet be spiritually alive and therefore unable to lay claim of the promises and truths that those in Christ possess to excite the heart. To that end, it is my hope that in reading this you might give pause, to examine your heart, to test yourself to see if you be in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). And, just so you know, no true believer is offended at the prospect or instruction to test themselves. We want to test ourselves, with a healthy urgency evidenced by the very Life that is in our being (Acts 17:28) to ensure and assure us of our faith in Christ. It’s actually a great indicator of true saving faith if the prospect of not being saved causes angst. Congratulations, you’re alive! For no dead person has the ability to care, to test, to have a heartbeat for the things of God (1 Cor. 2:10-16).
Our Best Days
For unbelievers, sadly whatever life they are living, whether it be rich, poor, easy, or hard, they are most definitely living their best lives now. For the believer, their best life is now and yet to come! Lest we become so heavenly minded we forget the life we’ve been given now, today—the joy of Salvation, the peace with God, the deliverance from sin and death! I almost wrote that a believer’s best life is only in the life to come but Ephesians 1:3 sprang to mind, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Wow, yes and amen! We have blessings now, in Christ. We have every spiritual blessing now and already. But wait—there’s more! There is even more to come. It is both/and, not only then but also now. My heart needs to recognize that, my face needs to demonstrate that, my life needs to exude that!
For those who are in Christ, Ephesians 1:14 speaks of the “guarantee of our inheritance”, and in death when we enter into glory that we “acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” What unimaginable joy is guaranteed to us and awaits us on the last day of our earthly life—the first day of our eternal life. For true believers, these spiritual blessings of eternal worth and inestimable value should cause our hearts to sing and our mouths to extol the Gospel of God to all who will hear.
The Request
So here is my request, a sort of living will and testament to any family or friends who may gather when I die; for only God knows the day and the hour He has appointed for me to die. May this request be known, taken seriously, and be carried out, whether I live another five minutes or 45 years!
On the day I die, it is my sincere request that you do not glorify my person nor the place to which I am going. For the place is most secondary to the Person in whose Presence I will be. May this truth be clarified. Please only glorify the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ—to whom all the glory of life, and life in death, alone is due.
For it is He who gave me my first birth (physical) and He who has granted me my second (spiritual). And it is He, from the Father, through the Son, who gifted me grace and life and faith, and by His Spirit helps me in my first dying, to self and sin, and it is He who resurrects me in my second dying, in my earthly body so I can live in my glorified one (Romans 8:30).
To any who might grieve, please preach Christ (1 Corinthians 2:2) and proclaim His Gospel of eternal hope as a comfort to the saints (1 Thess. 4:13). Also, please preach to those without Christ, to confront and compel them to bow the knee, to turn from sin in repentance and in faith to believe, recognizing and confessing Christ as Saviour and Lord of all! Either way, all will one day bow before Him and confess Christ as Lord (Phil. 2:10-11), why not make it today (2 Corinthians 6:2)?
Where I Will Be
In His Presence is where I will be. As it is written, for a believer to be absent from the body is to be in the immediate and indefinite presence of the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:9, Phil. 1:21). The Presence is the place and the Person is the prize: a true believer would never want a heaven without Jesus, would they? I have observed that this expression of longing for Him in eternity is missing from many hearts who glorify the place and the benefits over the Person and the Benefactor. May it be an opportunity to gently correct this and redirect them to Christ.
Furthermore, please don’t wish me or declare me as “resting in peace” for that is a godless, nihilistic, anti-biblical ideology. There is no such eternal thing! For unbelievers, the Scriptures know nothing of an eternal peace or rest, a conscious-less eternal float. Would it not be a heretical disregarding of my Holy and Righteous God, I might be tempted to wish it were so for their sake. And, not that it be true, but if it were, what a strange eternity that would be! Please rather beseech them to join all believers and place their faith in Name above all Names, in Christ Alone (Acts 4:12)!
For believers, eternal peace indeed awaits us in death but might we be reminded that we also enjoy Peace with God and the Peace of God in the here and now. His blessings are now. Our restings are now. But eternal lackadaisical resting on a cloud? To quote my favourite saying of the Apostle Paul, “By no means!” For the throne room of God is a place of active adoration, unending worship, and eternal praise to the King of kings and the Lord of lords—and may it be so in my heart even now! But on my last day and all my days into infinity, I will join the angelic beings and the saints around the eternal throng to sing the most celestial of hymns—“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:8.
Dr. Steven J. Lawson once said, “If you die in Christ, your last day will be your best day!” Then let that be said of my last day—the day of my death, for I will be more alive than I have ever been. And as I write this, I am reminded that I ought not to ask of my people what I can still do while I have breath. Nonetheless, it is my request that those who know me will use my death to preach the three noteworthy days of our Lord Jesus Christ: His immaculate birth, His vicarious death, and His glorious resurrection! And, having done so, then pray that the Spirit of God would so move, so vivify the heart of stone, that any unbeliever with ears to hear, eyes to see, and a tongue to confess, might confess Christ as Lord. Then, they will also be able to say that their last will be their best day! All Glory to God!
There are three most noteworthy days in the life of every believer. The day we are born, the day we are born again, and the day we die. The Scriptures tell of a day whereby we are Sovereignly appointed to be born (Psalm 139:13-16, Ecclesiastes 3:2), and of another whereby we are Sovereignly appointed to be born again (2 Corinthians 6:2, Acts 2:47), and then of another when we have been Sovereignly appointed to die (Hebrews 9:27). On that third day, those of us who die in Christ will be more alive than we’ve ever been.
Is there any better news that this? If you do not think it so, check your pulse. If the thought of not being in Christ doesn’t even for a moment take your breath away, are you even breathing? This may indicate that you might not yet be spiritually alive and therefore unable to lay claim of the promises and truths that those in Christ possess to excite the heart. To that end, it is my hope that in reading this you might give pause, to examine your heart, to test yourself to see if you be in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). And, just so you know, no true believer is offended at the prospect or instruction to test themselves. We want to test ourselves, with a healthy urgency evidenced by the very Life that is in our being (Acts 17:28) to ensure and assure us of our faith in Christ. It’s actually a great indicator of true saving faith if the prospect of not being saved causes angst. Congratulations, you’re alive! For no dead person has the ability to care, to test, to have a heartbeat for the things of God (1 Cor. 2:10-16).
Our Best Days
For unbelievers, sadly whatever life they are living, whether it be rich, poor, easy, or hard, they are most definitely living their best lives now. For the believer, their best life is now and yet to come! Lest we become so heavenly minded we forget the life we’ve been given now, today—the joy of Salvation, the peace with God, the deliverance from sin and death! I almost wrote that a believer’s best life is only in the life to come but Ephesians 1:3 sprang to mind, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Wow, yes and amen! We have blessings now, in Christ. We have every spiritual blessing now and already. But wait—there’s more! There is even more to come. It is both/and, not only then but also now. My heart needs to recognize that, my face needs to demonstrate that, my life needs to exude that!
For those who are in Christ, Ephesians 1:14 speaks of the “guarantee of our inheritance”, and in death when we enter into glory that we “acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” What unimaginable joy is guaranteed to us and awaits us on the last day of our earthly life—the first day of our eternal life. For true believers, these spiritual blessings of eternal worth and inestimable value should cause our hearts to sing and our mouths to extol the Gospel of God to all who will hear.
The Request
So here is my request, a sort of living will and testament to any family or friends who may gather when I die; for only God knows the day and the hour He has appointed for me to die. May this request be known, taken seriously, and be carried out, whether I live another five minutes or 45 years!
On the day I die, it is my sincere request that you do not glorify my person nor the place to which I am going. For the place is most secondary to the Person in whose Presence I will be. May this truth be clarified. Please only glorify the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ—to whom all the glory of life, and life in death, alone is due.
For it is He who gave me my first birth (physical) and He who has granted me my second (spiritual). And it is He, from the Father, through the Son, who gifted me grace and life and faith, and by His Spirit helps me in my first dying, to self and sin, and it is He who resurrects me in my second dying, in my earthly body so I can live in my glorified one (Romans 8:30).
To any who might grieve, please preach Christ (1 Corinthians 2:2) and proclaim His Gospel of eternal hope as a comfort to the saints (1 Thess. 4:13). Also, please preach to those without Christ, to confront and compel them to bow the knee, to turn from sin in repentance and in faith to believe, recognizing and confessing Christ as Saviour and Lord of all! Either way, all will one day bow before Him and confess Christ as Lord (Phil. 2:10-11), why not make it today (2 Corinthians 6:2)?
Where I Will Be
In His Presence is where I will be. As it is written, for a believer to be absent from the body is to be in the immediate and indefinite presence of the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:9, Phil. 1:21). The Presence is the place and the Person is the prize: a true believer would never want a heaven without Jesus, would they? I have observed that this expression of longing for Him in eternity is missing from many hearts who glorify the place and the benefits over the Person and the Benefactor. May it be an opportunity to gently correct this and redirect them to Christ.
Furthermore, please don’t wish me or declare me as “resting in peace” for that is a godless, nihilistic, anti-biblical ideology. There is no such eternal thing! For unbelievers, the Scriptures know nothing of an eternal peace or rest, a conscious-less eternal float. Would it not be a heretical disregarding of my Holy and Righteous God, I might be tempted to wish it were so for their sake. And, not that it be true, but if it were, what a strange eternity that would be! Please rather beseech them to join all believers and place their faith in Name above all Names, in Christ Alone (Acts 4:12)!
For believers, eternal peace indeed awaits us in death but might we be reminded that we also enjoy Peace with God and the Peace of God in the here and now. His blessings are now. Our restings are now. But eternal lackadaisical resting on a cloud? To quote my favourite saying of the Apostle Paul, “By no means!” For the throne room of God is a place of active adoration, unending worship, and eternal praise to the King of kings and the Lord of lords—and may it be so in my heart even now! But on my last day and all my days into infinity, I will join the angelic beings and the saints around the eternal throng to sing the most celestial of hymns—“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:8.
Dr. Steven J. Lawson once said, “If you die in Christ, your last day will be your best day!” Then let that be said of my last day—the day of my death, for I will be more alive than I have ever been. And as I write this, I am reminded that I ought not to ask of my people what I can still do while I have breath. Nonetheless, it is my request that those who know me will use my death to preach the three noteworthy days of our Lord Jesus Christ: His immaculate birth, His vicarious death, and His glorious resurrection! And, having done so, then pray that the Spirit of God would so move, so vivify the heart of stone, that any unbeliever with ears to hear, eyes to see, and a tongue to confess, might confess Christ as Lord. Then, they will also be able to say that their last will be their best day! All Glory to God!
You can listen to this article here.
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