WE ARE CONSIDERING what happens to those who die outside Christ. One thing we can be sure of is that everybody will have an adequate chance to say yes or no to the love of God. Many have never had such an adequate chance. Will they be denied that chance? Knowing the love of God as seen in Jesus, we can say that that is impossible. Certainly the love of God is not exhausted in this life. When people have not had an adequate chance in this life they will be given an adequate chance in another.
I do not say they will take it. They often refuse it in this life, and they may refuse it in the next life. They may persistently refuse it. In which case death follows that refusal—spiritual and physical death. If that process is kept up long enough, would the personality decay? Would it finally destroy itself? Would it render itself unfit to survive? From what we see now, the answer would have to be yes. The moment a person steps out of Christ a change takes place—for the worse! Deterioration sets in. If that process is kept up long enough, the personality will deteriorate to the point of extinction. The personality will perish. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The opposite of eternal life is to perish. The punishment is the perishing. That punishment is self-inflicted—God doesn’t do it; we do it! We light the fires that are not quenched till we burn up our very persons. We allow the worm that dieth not to eat away our personalities until we perish. The life forces are snuffed out and the personality is gone.
O God, our Father, we see that the most serious thing in this sin business is that it separates us from Thee—from Thee who art life. We embrace death when we embrace sin. Help me this day—and always—to embrace Thee and life. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: As poison is to the blood, as ugliness is to the eye, as hate is to the heart, so sin is to me.
