"But we all, looking on the
glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18
JND).

The glory of the Lord as seen in
Moses’ face alarmed the people; they could not bear that glory. But we behold
that glory in Christ and yet are not in the least afraid; we find liberty,
comfort, and joy in looking at it. How does this immense difference come about?

I can steadfastly behold His
glory without becoming frightened because the glory of God is in the face of a
Man who has put away my sins, who has borne the wrath of God on account of my
sins, and who is in the glory in proof of it (Heb. 1:3).

When I see Him in that glory,
instead of seeing my sins, I see that they are gone. Where are my sins now?
Once they were found upon the head of that blessed One; but they are gone,
never more to be found. He who bore them all has been received up to the throne
of God, and no sin can be there.

By beholding His glory, we are
changed into His image. It is the Holy Spirit taking of the things of Christ
and revealing them to the soul that is the power of present practical
conformity to Christ. I delight in Christ, I feast upon Christ, I love Christ.
It is not simply the glory that attracts me. It is Christ Himself whom I love,
Christ whom I admire, Christ whom I care for, Christ whose flesh I eat and
whose blood I drink. Is it a wonder that I am like Christ? The Christian thus
becomes the epistle of Christ. He speaks for Christ, owns Christ, acts for
Christ. He does not want to be rich for he has unsearchable riches in Christ.

He does not want the pleasures of
the world for he has pleasures at God’s right hand for evermore.

It is not my looking at myself
but my looking at Christ that is God’s appointed means for my growing in the
likeness of Christ. We see it beautifully in the martyrdom of Stephen.
"He, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and
saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God" (Acts
7:55). And look at his attitude as he is being stoned to death; just like his
Master, he prays for his very murderers:"Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge" (7:60).

The soul at perfect liberty with
God looks peacefully and happily at the glory of God as seen in the face of
Jesus Christ. And because he sees that glory and knows what it means, he walks
before God in holy confidence. At ease in the presence of God, he becomes
"the epistle of Christ" (2 Cor. 3:3) to the world, showing out to all
that he has been there.

May we more and more make our
boast in Him in whose face all this glory is displayed—the Lamb who has died
for us and cleansed away our sins by His own most precious blood.

In 2 Cor. 3:18 we find true
Christian growth in grace. First, Christ has to be revealed to the soul, and
then as you go on day after day, as you are occupied with Christ, you become
like Him. You never have to advertise your holiness. This will not be necessary
if your heart is taken up with the Lord Jesus. If occupied with Him, other
people will soon realize that you are becoming more and more like Him as the
days go by.

You may have heard of Nathaniel
Hawthorne’s story of ‘The Great Stone Face." He tells of a lad who lived in
the village below the mountain, and there upon the mountain was that image of
the great stone face, looking down so solemnly, so seriously, upon the people.
There was a legend that some day someone was coming to that village who would
look just like the great stone face, and he would do some wonderful things for
the village and would be the means of great blessing. The story gripped this
lad, and he used to slip away and hour after hour would stand looking at that
great stone face and thinking of the story about the one who was coming.  Years
passed, and even through young adulthood and middle age he still went to sit
and contemplate the majesty, the beauty of that great stone face.  Then old age
came, and one day as he walked through the village someone looked at him and
exclaimed, “He has come, the one who is like the great stone face!”  He became
like that which he contemplated.  If you want to be like Christ, look at
Jesus.  If you want to grow in grace, contemplate Jesus.  You find Him revealed
in the Word, so read your Bible and meditate upon it.

We sing the song, “Take time to
be holy, Speak oft with thy Lord.”  One servant of the Lord always interrupted
when this hymn was given out and said, “Please let me change that first line;
let us sing it, ‘Take time to behold Him.’” As we behold Hm we will become
holy, for we will be transformed into the same image form glory to glory .

(From Addresses on the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians. Used by permission of Loizeaux Brothers, Inc., Neptune, New Jersey.)

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.

"All things are yours:
whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things
present, or things to come" (1 Cor. 3:21-23).

Death is here mentioned among the
"all things" which belong to those who are Christ’s. As the apostle
is evidently speaking of privilege and blessing, it follows that death must be
understood as coming as a blessing, if it comes at all, to those addressed in
these words.

It is a common thought in
Christendom that when death comes, even to the household of faith, it comes as
a penalty. But is this a true thought? Did not Christ bear the whole penalty of
sin on the cross? and are not believers divinely seen to be "dead with
Christ" (Rom. 6:8)? Therefore they are beyond death in the sense of a
penalty. And if death should come to such before the Lord comes, does it not
come as a servant, to take off the fetter which keeps them in absence from the
Lord?

It is worthy of remark that God
in His grace not only bestows actual blessings—that is, things which are
blessings in themselves.

But He also takes those things
which are not blessings, but which are the results of sin, and having put away
the sin through the cross, uses those results for blessing. In this way
"all things work together for good to those who love God" (Rom.
8:28). This blessed truth applies even to death. Grace has put a silver lining
into that dark cloud, has made a road of light through the dark valley.

What is meant by death being
ours? We note in pur verse that death is placed in company with persons—Paul,
Apollos, and Cephas, men who are "ministers by whom you believed" (1
Cor. 3:5; 4:1). Therefore, along with these three ministers, death is a servant
to those who are Christ’s. It would not be well for all the household of faith
to remain awake during the long, dreary night that is now centuries long for some.
So this dark servant is used to put them to sleep, one by one, until the day
dawn and the Lord come.

The next question that arises is,
How did death become ours? We owe this to the Lord Jesus and His death. He who
knew no sin gave His life in love as an atonement for sin, thereby dethroning
death and assigning it a new place, even that of serving those who accept God’s
salvation.

We read that "our Saviour
Jesus Christ…has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel" (2 Tim. 1:10). He has abolished it as a
king and detained it as a subject, abolished it as a master and
detained it as a servant. Precious truth for faith!

In Heb. 2:14 we read that God, in
the Person of His Son, partook of flesh and blood "that through death He
might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver
those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage." In what sense had the devil the power of death? He had not power
to take life—he could not kill people; but he managed to induce Adam, the
representative man, to sin, and of course the penalty previously and divinely
announced must follow. This was the nature of the devil’s power over
man—getting him to do that which according to God must bring in death.

How did God defeat him who had
thus the power of death? It was through the death of His divine Son as an
atonement for sin that He destroyed, or annulled, dethroned, or brought to
naught "him who had the power of death." How infuriating must it be
to the great adversary to see that which he meant for evil used in grace in the
service of those whom he sought to destroy! And how happily may the children of
God pass their days in this scene, instead of spending a lifetime—through fear
of death— subject to bondage!

Another testimony on the question
of how death became ours is given in 1 Corinthians 15. The apostle, after
stating that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again, exclaims in
the triumph of faith, "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is
your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law;
but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ" (15:55-57). Yes, Christ went down into death to extract its sting,
bearing the full curse of the law (sin’s strength); and as a proof that He had
fully satisfied divine righteousness and holiness, that He had perfectly
glorified God in finishing the work which was given Him to do, God brought Him
out of death and set Him at His own right hand. In this way death became ours.
Its sting being gone, it cannot harm. As death visits, then, the
household of faith, it must do so in grace—it must do so in service.

Let us now dwell a little on the
blessedness of death being ours.

If death be ours—our servant—
then we need not pass our days here in fear of it. The fear of death is natural
to the natural mind. This is observable, both where the Bible is read and
known, and where it is not. A little while ago I talked with a missionary from India who said, "The Hindus have an intense fear of death." He narrated how they
dispose of their dead. They burn the body and carefully preserve the ashes;
then they take the ashes to their sacred river, the Ganges, and having put them
in a tiny boat with a little lamp, commit them to the river. The missionary
observing a Brahmin doing this to his dead, asked him why they put a lamp with
the ashes. The reply was, "It is to give a little light; death is so
dark!" Christianity as taught in the New Testament can alone take away the
fear of death and enable souls to pass their days in rest and peace, free from
dread and uncertainty.

If death be ours, then we shall
not see it or taste it should it come. Jesus said, "If a man
keep My saying, he shall never see death." Those who heard Him, in
repeating His statement, used the expression, "shall never taste of
death" (John 8:51,52). The blessed Lord Himself, taking our place, saw death
in its reality and He tasted it in all its bitterness. Hence, the reality
and bitterness of death is gone for those who have faith in Christ.

If death be ours, then, as Christ
could not employ a useless servant, we cannot pass through it without being the
gainers. The Lord said to the dying penitent at His side, "Verily I say
unto you, Today you shall be with Me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). The
Apostle Paul speaks of being "willing rather to be absent from the body
and to be present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8). He says, "For to me to
live is Christ, and to die is gain…. For I am in a strait between two, having
a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better; nevertheless to
abide in the flesh is more needful for you" (Phil. 1:21-24).

If death be ours through the
cross and through being identified with the risen Christ, then it may be said
that we have title to a part with Him in the resurrection of life, of which He
was the first-fruits (1 Cor. 15:20,23). While those who have fallen asleep in
Christ are thus to be raised at His coming, those who are alive and remain will
not sleep, showing that death has no real claim on believers; otherwise they
would have even then to die to meet the claim (1 Cor. 15:51,52; 1 Thess.
4:16,17). As Christ may come at any moment for His saints, our proper attitude
is to be watching for Him.

"Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who … has begotten us again unto a living
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for
you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time" (1 Pet. 1:3-5).

All this, and infinitely more
than a feeble mortal can utter or even conceive, is embraced in the truth that
death is ours. Our full blessedness in the heavenly kingdom, when the results
of sin are taken away forever, will be the outcome of the fact that while we
were in the midst of these results, they were our servants. Our being with the
Lord in glory will tell out forever that all things during our little day of
trial were jointly working for our real and abiding good.

Beloved, I would remind myself
and you that we are indebted to grace, and to what it has wrought in the Lord’s
death, for all this. It is not of ourselves, nor of works, that we have this
blessed portion and this bright prospect. The praise is all due to God and the
Lamb. If so, should not our hearts be won by a sight of such love? and ought
not our lives to be the outflow of hearts thus won? Oh, beloved, surely every
thought should be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. He died
that death might be ours, that we might not come into judgment, and that we
might be holy and without blame before God in love and favor forever. Let us
live to Him who thus died for us and rose again. It should be our joy to do
this.

(From Help and Food, Vol.
1.)

The Apostle Paul confessed to the
Philippians that he had "a desire to depart and to be with Christ"
(Phil. 1:23). But he went on to explain that as his work was not yet completed
he realized that his longings for home had to be restrained. In writing to the
Corinthians he had expressed this same yearning:"Willing rather to be
absent from the body and to be present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8).

Does this sound morbid? Was it
wrong for Paul to long for his heavenly home? Paul was no mere mystic. He was a
worker if ever there was one. He organized famine relief, he gave much time and
thought to marriage guidance, and he was a man full of concern for the aged and
needy. Most of all, he was a tireless messenger of the gospel. He knew of God’s
longing to fill His home with redeemed sons and daughters and so he never tired
of inviting people to come out of the cold of this world’s dark night into the
warmth and light of the Father’s love.

"Sunday school
sentiment," say the scoffers. "Pie in the sky when you die,"
sneer the materialists. Let them mock and jeer. God says that the real fools
are those who are trying to find permanence and security in earthly possessions
(Luke 12:20,21). I would rather be called a fool by men than by God. The truth
is that we Christians are here on earth to do a job for God and have no wish to
give that up prematurely. However, when that job is finished, far from
struggling and pleading to go on existing here, we should look forward with
pleasure to the joys of going home to God.

Have you ever appreciated
Christ’s comforting words to the dying thief? His words revealed His total
confidence in being in paradise Himself first. "Verily," "in
paradise," "today"—these were His words. He was going home! The
thrill to us is that He also assured the penitent thief that when he reached
the garden home of God he would be welcomed there by Someone he knew, even by
the Lord Himself.

There is so much that we do not
know about the state of the blessed dead as they await—with us—the second
coming of Christ. However, the New Testament gives us every reason to think and
talk in terms of arrival at God’s home, to be welcomed there by the One whom we
already know as the Son over God’s house. "I will … receive you unto
Myself’ were the consoling words of Jesus to the disciples with troubled hearts
(John 14:1-3).

We live in a world where death is
regarded as the ultimate calamity; where every effort must be made and no
expense spared to keep alive just a little longer. That is quite understandable
for those who will be eternally homeless, but for us it should be very
different. We want to live out our lives. We want to finish whatever job God
has given us to do. But when He sees that our task is accomplished, then we
want Him to take us home to Himself. If we keep our thoughts on the Father’s
house of many mansions we shall be able to obey the command of the Lord Jesus:
"Let not your heart be troubled" (John 14:1,2). Not a few people have
been won for Christ by seeing how Christians face death.

(From Toward the Mark,
Vol. 6.)