Dear Dad: You Stand On The Stage of Eternity

The fear we feel before some sort of performance is known as stage fright by those who perform on stage. Kind of makes an obvious sort of sense when you think about it. We feel the same way about that most dreaded performance while we wait in the wings of the stage to eternity. "What if I am wrong?" is perhaps the most common question of those who face quite literally the performance of their lives.

As I leaf through the Bible, I like the answers that God has provided through Isaiah, Paul, and of course His Son.

But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

Paul then said: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Romans 3:23)

And Isaiah again:

All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

The answer to that question, "What if I'm wrong?" is answered quite emphatically in the Word: I am wrong... and so are you, and so are we all. As I stand on the stage of eternity, I will be found wrong, with no hope in myself for salvation and eternal life. My best hope in myself is that there is nothing after this life but dissolution of the body and soul into nothingness. What kind of hope is that?!

Who is this 'Him' that God laid my iniquity on, anyway? Of course we know that is Jesus the Christ who took my iniquity on Himself. Why did God do that if my best hope is that there is nothing more after this life and I might as well lay it aside, hopeless and bereft of dignity at its sorry end?

There is another hope and He has a name I trust. His name is Jesus and in Him my hope becomes reality. There is more after Paul states that all have sinned. In the Bible his famous quote stops with a comma for good reason. Read of our great hope in the rest of Paul's words.

"...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:24-26)

That man whom God laid our iniquity on paid the price for our sin, that is propitiation by HIS blood, that we through faith in Him are living proof of HIS righteousness, that He has satisfied God's wrath on our sin, by solving that riddle only God could solve: How does God show His love through salvation of those who cannot pay the price for their sin and satisfy His own justice at the same time? God came down in His Son, Jesus the Christ, paid the price we could not and as Paul said, is just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

That is all there is: Ask Jesus to forgive your sin and believe that He will do what He said.

In the love of Christ Jesus, who will see us together in eternity,

Your son, Denzil