27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment …
Gospel preaching often includes this verse to emphasize the utter weight of the salvation message. Two weighty truths assert the gravity and urgency of receiving the message of God’s grace. The first truth states the obvious, that of which every human being is aware but either fears as a terrifying anticipation or ignores as an inconvenient matter. In the western world, for the most part, we ignore death, even though the media is awash with images of death, whether news reports of killings, accidents and illnesses, the movie industry with its blood, killing and “shoot ‘em up” police, cowboy or espionage themes, and the plethora of novels with murder mysteries. Death is portrayed all around us, but controlled to scintillate and entertain.
In “real” death (as opposed to the stylized images of death), we maintain our distance, paying the funeral directors to actually handle the bodies, dress them up, sanitized them, lay them out in beautiful crates called “caskets.” All are designed to ameliorate the experience, adding to the anesthetizing effect, the sterilizing of death. The one present when death occurs has the shocking experience that puts him or her into that unique category of individual who actually sees dying close up. Yet this is rare.
The reality shockingly settles in at some point that death comes to all of us. None are immune. This is serious business and cannot, must not, be ignored. And this is why the issues of the Book of Hebrews are so important. They have an effect on the outcome of death for what comes next. Yet people go through life, hoping for a second chance, that in the future they may have a change of heart, a change of spirit, and begin to get right with God. Unfortunately, death does not abide by their time table. It comes, and there is no do-over.
The second truth of this passage is no less sobering. There comes a judgment for all of us. In the modern world, that idea has been demeaned as old-fashioned, that God is more benevolent than He is stern. However, the inspired Scripture, God breathed as it is, presents this notion as unequivocal. There will be a judgment,just as there will be death. We all have to answer to God. We have an appointment, and it’s in His calendar.
So we’d better get this message right, understand it carefully—our eternal life depends upon it. There is no second chance after death, nothing between expiration in this world and standing before God in the next to give an account.
Lord, thanks is but a small word to describe my appreciation for Your perfect, once-only sacrifice of Your Son, so that I no longer fear death or judgment.
Apologies, the previous version of the e-med had reference errors for the verses listed. These have now been corrected.
Chuck