Children of the Light (iii)

I love the start of verse 9, ‘God hath not appointed us to wrath.’ If you have faith in Jesus Christ this morning, if you’re in the day, not the night, then God has not appointed you to wrath! That should  stun us, it should amaze us, it should knock the wind out of us. We should stand on our heads for joy because we...sinners like you and me, after all we’ve said, and all we’ve done, and all we’ve thought, we will not face the wrath of God that we deserve.

We’ve wasted our Father’s substance in the far city, and we come dragging our heels home, expecting the worst, and He comes out of the house running, and gives us new clothes, and new shoes, and calls for a feast. If we have faith in Christ, a different nature, different behavior, we are appointed to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ who died for us. As Christians we need to come back to this truth early and often. There ought never to be a day when we don’t thank Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins, and walking out of the tomb three days later. We should never lose sight of the glorious Gospel. Not ever.

And one day, the end of verse 10 promises us, we’ll live together with Him. We’ll live in Heaven. No sorrow, no tears, no sickness, no regrets, no misunderstandings, no nighttime, drunkenness, no sin. Just Jesus, and Him forever.

That last verse tells us to comfort and encourage each other with the truth of Heaven. We’ve all heard the knock on Christians that what we believe is just ‘pie in the sky when you die,’ we’re too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use. Well, if your mind is not fixed on Heaven, you won’t be any use on Earth. The hope of Heaven is our comfort at the graveside, at the hospital bed. It makes the good days sweeter and the bad days bearable. The hope of Heaven gives us our new nature, and makes sense of our different behavior.

So how about you this morning? Do you recognize yourself in the description of people who live in the day? Are you awake, or have you dozed off? Are you sober, or getting drunk on worldly pleasures? Do you feel like you’re wondering around lost, or is the Word guiding your way? Maybe you need to get saved, or maybe you need to start living like you are saved once more. Whatever you need, you need Jesus, because He has it. Let’s go to Him now.