Two aspects of death - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

If you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord.
John 8: 24; Revelation 14: 13.

3. Two aspects of death
Statistics record many attendant circumstances under which people die, yet whether we die at home, in hospital, or on the roads, for God there are only two possibilities: either one dies without faith in the Saviour Jesus Christ, or one dies "in the Lord".

The former is the fate of all who continue living as they were born, if they fail to bother about matters of faith or form their own opinions and reject the salvation that God offers through His Son Jesus Christ. For whoever dies as an unbeliever, Christ has a solemn word: "If you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins." That means having to appear before the Judge, our holy God, as a guilty person. Then our sentence must be passed. Even the sins that we have forgotten or consider only minor offences will condemn us, and no lawyer will defend us.

God, in His grace, has prepared a way for everyone to die in another fashion as a believing Christian. Dying "in the Lord" means belonging to Christ, being justified through Him before God. That alone gives us security before the judgment throne.

Those who are lost are not only the most guilty, but all who will not hear of the Saviour. Nor are the ones who will have a place in heaven the most respected people, but those who by faith in Jesus Christ "die in the Lord".

(to be concluded on Monday)

Today‘s reading: Ezekiel 30: 1 - 31: 18 · Psalms 132: 1 - 18