A reality we can't avoid

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many... Hebrews 9:27-28

I read in the paper recently that you can buy an app for your smart phone which will remind you five times every day that you are going to die. Ninety-nine pence it will cost you. Cheap at the price?

In the world of ancient Rome a victorious general returning from battle might have a slave standing behind him in his chariot whispering in his ear, “Remember you must die”. The idea was to keep him grounded while the crowds roared their admiration and sang his praises. Surely you don’t need to be among the high and mighty to benefit from such a reminder? 

We live in a culture where most of us prefer to brush the whole subject under the carpet. Just a week or so ago I was chatting to someone I don’t often see, and remarked that we ought to keep in closer touch because “We don’t know how much time we’ve got”. I was being a little light-hearted, to be honest; but she quickly replied, “Oh, I don’t think about things like that.” I got the impression that I had touched a raw nerve.

The people who have produced the app make it clear that they don’t mean to be morbid. No, on the contrary, their very positive view is that we could all live more productive and focussed lives if we only took our own mortality more realistically. And that, surely, is right: there is at least a chance that our lives would be more balanced, that we would use our precious time better, and that in the end we would achieve more.

The only weakness I can see in that app is what it doesn’t say. Yes, we would do well to look firmly in the eye of death; but as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says, we are not only “destined to die once” but destined also “to face judgment”. 

Ah... judgment! Doesn’t that give it a whole different dimension?

The Bible never encourages the belief that after we die, that’s that: end of story. No: death is a prelude to more - and solemn - things. We will stand before God, and the lives we have lived while on this earth will be subject to his scrutiny: our deeds, our words, even our thoughts. Paul puts it with crystal clarity: “... we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

If you believe in Jesus you might protest against that idea - doesn’t the same Paul tell us that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)? Isn’t the whole point of Jesus’ death on the cross that he has paid the price for our sins? Don’t these verses in Hebrews 9 make that very point: he “was sacrificed once for all to take away the sins of many”?

Yes, of course. But there is a difference between “judgment” and “condemnation” (in fact, they are two related but distinct Greek words). Condemnation - well, that speaks for itself; it means judgment which results in a bad outcome. Judgment - that means simply a just verdict. 

Which means that when we Christians face divine judgment, the lives we have lived will be exposed to God’s eye, even though our sins are forgiven. There will indeed be “no condemnation”, as Paul says - but I suspect that, for most of us, there may be plenty of room for shame. Putting it another way, I don’t think many of us - certainly not me, anyway - will feel particularly comfortable on that day.

If the idea of judgment makes us feel this way, perhaps we should ask ourselves the question: Would we prefer that there is no judgment at all? Would we rather that God were simply to turn a blind eye to sin and wickedness? Would we be happier if even great evil were forever unpunished?

If that’s the way it was, it would make nonsense of any notion of right and wrong - just “eat, drink and be merry”, for what does it matter? It would make nonsense of conscience; it would take the shackles off self-control and self-discipline, and the result would be sheer moral chaos. The difference between good and bad would be dissolved - don’t grumble, for example, if somebody lies to you or does you a bad turn, for, well, why shouldn’t they? And why shouldn’t you do the same to them?

The fact that there is judgment to come is, though it seems strange, ultimately good rather than bad news. It means that God intends at last to straighten this crooked world out. 

So - all credit to the people who produced that app. All we need to do now is listen to the Bible, move on that vital step further - and take seriously that final Great Day.

Lord God, bring me to that place where Paul found himself: able to rejoice that to me to live is Christ - and to die is even better. Amen.