The story is told of a barber,
newly saved, who desired to witness to his customers of His beloved Saviour. He
was full of zeal, but was lacking in experience and wisdom. One day, after
lathering the face of a customer, the barber terrified the man when, with his
razor poised to begin shaving him, he blurted out, "Are you prepared to
die?"
How about you? Are you prepared
to die? Do you have the assurance of going to heaven when you die? The Bible
tells us that we can have that assurance:’These things have I written
unto you who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that
you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). The reason we can be so certain is
that our salvation depends not on our own sporadic works of uneven quality but
on the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ performed for all mankind at the
cross of Calvary. Have you put your faith—your entire trust and dependence—on
the Lord Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation? Do you believe that when He
suffered and died on the cross, He died for you? (Isa. 53:5-12).
But now let me turn my attention
to you, my readers, who are true, born-again believers in Christ. To you I
would pose the same question:Are you prepared to die? Since the Bible teaches
that the Lord Jesus is returning to take the dead and living believers in
Christ home to be forever with Himself (1 Cor. 15:51,52; 1 Thess. 4:15-18), let
me rephrase the question a bit:Are you prepared to depart this present
world—either by death or by the return of Christ? And to this I would add a
related question, Are you prepared for the departure of your loved ones by
death?
In this series of articles we
shall consider various aspects of these two questions on how we as believers
can and should prepare for death—both our own and that of others.
Preparation for Heaven
In one sense, every true believer
in Christ is totally prepared for heaven. The work has been finished by Christ
(John 19:30), and the believer has eternal life (John 3:16) and is safe and
secure in the hands of both the Son and the Father (John 10:27-29). The
following hymn expresses it well:
Our names from the palms of His
hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart they
remain,
In marks of indelible grace;
And we to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The spirits departed to heaven. A.M.
Toplady
Are there other ways in which we
ought to be preparing for heaven? When we go on a trip to another state or a
foreign country, do we just drive around aimlessly, or do we study travel
guides ahead of time to find out how to use our time most efficiently and to
make the trip as pleasurable, interesting, and instructive as possible? Just
so, all believers in Christ will soon be taking a trip to heaven. How much time
are we spending studying our Travel Guide to Heaven— the Bible? Do we read and
reread the passages in the Book of Revelation (4:1-5:14; 19:1-9; 21:1-22:5) and
elsewhere (Isa. 6:1-3; Ezek. 1; 2 Cor. 12:2-4) that give us pictures of heaven?
If you were invited to spend an
hour with a celebrity, would you not spend time trying to learn as much about
him or her as you could so that you could converse intelligently with that
person? If you had an opportunity to spend a few minutes with a brilliant
scientist, would you not prepare a list of questions ahead of time so that you
could learn as much as possible in the time available? Just so, are we now
preparing for our meeting with Christ in heaven? Do we read and reread the
passages that speak of the life, work, and teachings of Christ? Are we
interested enough in our Creator and our Redeemer to be looking forward to
seeing Him, hearing His voice, taking walks and field trips with Him, and
asking Him lots of questions concerning Himself, His sufferings on our behalf,
His creation, and things in the Scriptures we don’t understand?
The following is an analogy for
the young men to think about:Suppose you are engaged to the most attractive,
beautiful, charming, gentle, intelligent, loving, personable, and spiritual
young woman in the entire community. You are the envy of all the young men who
had their eye on her. She is a prize—a gift from God. You have made plans to
get married twelve months from now. Now, can you imagine having the following
thought:"She has agreed to marry me; she’s mine. Since we are going to be
married for the next fifty years or so, during which time I will be committed
to her, I think I will spend the next twelve months getting to know and
enjoying the company of as many other young women as possible." What
foolishness! Why, you would be spending as much time as possible with this
wonderful girl and longing for the time when you are married and can get to
know her even better.
Every believer in Christ is
betrothed to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). In heaven we will be united together with
Christ as bride with Bridegroom (Rev. 19:7-9). And this Bridegroom is the
strongest, most knowledgeable, most wise, most accessible, most faithful, most
holy, most loving, most gracious, most forgiving, most gentle, most humble, and
most wealthy Man in the entire universe. Why, then do we spend so much time and
focus so much attention on objects in this world other than— and even
diametrically opposed to—our heavenly Bridegroom? This is foolishness in the
extreme!
But some might ask, "Does it
really matter how we live our lives as far as our enjoyment of heaven is
concerned? Isn’t it true that every believer in heaven will be equally happy
and will all enter into the same knowledge?" There is some debate on these
questions. Scripture tells us that "In Thy presence is fulness of
joy" (Psa. 16:11) and "Then shall I know even as also I am
known" (1 Cor. 13:12). These verses suggest a common portion for all
believers. However, there are other scriptures that suggest that differences
will exist among the saints in heaven. Let us explore this a bit.
"Lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts, and where thieves do
not break through nor steal" (Matt. 6:20). What are these treasures that
we are to lay up for ourselves in heaven? I suggest that they represent all
that we say and do that will have effects that last throughout eternity. For
example, they are the results of the time, labor, and wealth that we have spent
preparing ourselves for heaven, giving the gospel to the unsaved about us,
encouraging our fellow believers, and helping to restore backsliders to Christ
so that they in turn might do works that will abide for eternity. When you—when
I—get to heaven at last, will we find any treasure laid up there? Of course,
Christ will be our Great Treasure there, but the Lord speaks of a treasure that
we are to lay up for ourselves. He seems to be telling His
disciples in Matthew 6 that the amount of treasure they will have in heaven is
related to their words and actions and decisions made on earth.
In the same vein, the Apostle
Paul instructs us, "Charge those who are rich in this world … that they
do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to
communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against
the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life" (1 Tim.
6:17-19).
Then, of course, Scripture
clearly indicates that there will be rewards in heaven for faithfulness on
earth. In the parable of the talents we read, "Well done, good and
faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you
ruler over many things" (Matt. 25:21,23; see also Luke 19:17,19). The
Apostle Paul writes of the responsibility of those who seek to build upon the
foundation which is Jesus Christ:"If any man’s work abide which he has
built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved" (1 Cor. 3:9-15). The
Apostle also tells us that the reward of suffering is to reign with Christ (2
Tim. 2:12).
We also have several mentions of
crowns to be given out for living faithfully on earth:"I have fought a
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all those who love His
appearing" (2 Tim. 4:7,8). "Blessed is the man who endures
temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the
Lord has promised to those who love Him" (Jas. 1:12). "Feed the flock
of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof … being examples to
the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown
of glory that fades not away" (1 Pet. 5:2-4). "Be faithful unto
death, and I will give you a crown of life" (Rev. 2:10).
Now those who earn crowns are
definitely not going to let it "go to their heads." In our glorified,
sinless, and unselfish state, we will realize that anything that we did right
and that brought glory to God was only done according to the power provided by
the Holy Spirit working through our new natures. So we will not take any credit
but give it all to God. Therefore we read, ‘The four and twenty elders fall
down before Him who sat on the throne, and worship Him who lives for ever .and
ever, and cast their crowns before the throne" (Rev. 4:10).
Some may ask, "If we are
just going to give any crowns we may earn back to the Lord, what is the point
in trying to earn them in the first place?" Think about the following
parable:Suppose you are invited to a birthday party for your best friend, a
person you really love and admire. At first you keep thinking, "I must get
him a really nice gift to show how much I think of him." But you
procrastinate, and then forget about it in the press of other obligations. You
remember the party just in time to get yourself there, but how disappointed and
embarrassed you are that you have no gift to give to him.
Will there be disappointment and
embarrassment in heaven? Probably not, at least in the sense we think of those
terms. But I believe there will be a sense of loss (1 Cor. 3:15) in having had
plenty of opportunities for laying up treasures, building upon the foundation
with gold, silver, and precious stones, suffering for Christ’s sake, and
enduring temptation, but not capitalizing on those opportunities. As a result,
such a one may not have any crown to cast before the throne, and may not have
occasion to bask in those precious words, "Well done, good and faithful
servant" (Matt. 25:21).
Even though it would appear that
all who go to heaven will be perfectly happy and content there, the scriptures
we have been considering in the previous paragraphs suggest that our capacity
for enjoyment in heaven is dependent upon the degree of our faithfulness to
Christ, our enjoyment of Him, and our interest in heaven while still on earth.
I was rather shocked one day when a professed believer referred to Adam and
Eve’s life in the Garden of Eden as "humdrum," implying that the real
excitement began after they sinned. This person’s life, while showing some
fruits of salvation, was largely taken up with entertainment, excitement, and
competition. Is there not with many of us a desire to get as much as we can out
of this present world, sensing that our favorite pleasures will not be
available to us in heaven. How is it with you, dear brother or sister? How is
it with me?
In this connection, please bear
with yet another parable:An international culinary convention is soon to be
held in your city. The best chefs in the world will be engaging in a cooking
contest with several different categories of dishes. When the taste-testing and
judging is completed, a banquet will be held in which the remainder of the food
will be served to fifty winners of a drawing plus one guest each. And guess
what? You are one of the lucky winners! On the big night you and your companion
are on your way to the convention center where the banquet is to be held. You
are speculating about the kinds of exotic dishes that you might encounter. The
more the two of you think about it, the more you wonder if you will really
enjoy it. Just then what comes into view but … the golden arches! And you
decide to pull in and have hamburgers and french fries at McDonald’s rather
than risk the uncertainties and unknowns of the banquet.
That sounds pretty silly, doesn’t
it? But I wonder if we sometimes behave that way with regard to the things of
heaven. Are we willing to settle for the "Big Mac" quality of joy and
pleasure that this world has to offer when through walking moment by moment
with Christ, depending on Him, learning about Him, serving Him, obeying Him,
praying to Him, learning and doing His will, and becoming like Him, we could
begin to enjoy here on earth the banquet of blessing that will be ours in heaven
for eternity?
To maximize your happiness and
pleasure in heaven for eternity, as well as to maximize your peace and joy in
this present life, begin making preparations for heaven … right now!
In the next issue or issues, if
the Lord has not come yet, we shall discuss preparation for separation from our
loved ones due to death, preparation for the dying process, and dealing with
the death of a loved one.