Chapter 37. USE 2
Chapter 37 USE 2 Secondly, hence it concerns us all to be vigilant while we live in this world, ensuring that God's work is done upon our hearts while we are here, that we may be reconciled to Him. For if the thread of our life is once cut and we are no longer in this world, leaving it without being reconciled to God, we are undone creatures forever.
We often say of those who are dying, "Alas, such a one is now no longer of this world." Well, they must have ensured that the work of reconciliation was done beforehand, for once you leave this world, you are gone forever. O, then apply yourself to this work while you still have time, and take hold of the means and opportunities which God affords you while you are still a person of this world; do not waste it.
Know this: it is a great mercy from God to continue you in this world because here you are under the power of grace. You are under that general grace of God that is indefinitely offered to every person, under that grace which has fallen upon sinners as great as you are.
Therefore, as long as there is life, there is hope.
I have made use of this point many times to show that this time of our lives is the time of grace and salvation, and it follows naturally and fully from the expression in the text. Therefore, I shall leave it.
But let me tell you this much: though God expresses this grace of reconciliation here to the world, if ever you are actually and indeed reconciled to God before you leave this world, God will make you no longer a person of this world. Even though you are in the world, you will no longer be of it, but above it.
Therefore, in John 17, you will find when Christ speaks of those the Father had given Him and who had believed in Him, He says in verses 14 and 16, "I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil."
It's true that when people have believed in Christ, they are in the world, and Christ does not pray that God would take them out of the world but that He would preserve them in it. This should teach us, by the way, to be content to live in the world, even though it is a dangerous and evil place. For it was as dangerous and evil a world in which the disciples and Christ lived. They were in danger of death for the profession of their religion, and yet, even though Christ loved His disciples, He did not pray that they should be taken out of the world.
Many discontented people will pray that God would take them out of the world. But no, says Christ; "keep them in this world." And then
He says, "They are not of the world." Indeed, God is reconciling Himself to the world, that is, to those who are in the world. But once reconciled, they are no longer people of the world, though they are in it. Therefore, if you are one whom God the Father and the Son have agreed upon from all eternity to be reconciled to Him in time, you will be brought to be one who is not of the world, even while you live in it.
Therefore, you who are not only in the world but are worldly people who focus only on the things of this world, know that the work of reconciliation is not yet done with your souls. What God has done concerning you in His eternal purpose from all eternity, we do not know. But as yet, the work is not done upon your soul; you are not reconciled to God. That is, you have not been brought into such a