I gotta a story to share with you.
One evening around 9 pm while returning home from work, I saw a man being wheeled away in a stretcher in front of a ramen shop located near my home train station.
Standing behind the poor fellow on the stretcher was a big burly dude surrounded by cops.
He had just been arrested.
The shop owner and waitresses were standing outside with looks of horror on their faces.
What happened was the big burly dude and the man now on the stretcher had gotten into a fight over a seat in the crowded ramen restaurant.
Tempers had escalated to the point where the big dude did some major damage to the man on the stretcher.
According to eyewitnesses, the bigger man threw his opponent on the ground and stomped on his chest with both feet crushing the man’s upper body into submission.
The news later reported the man on the stretcher died.
The other man was sent to jail and later got a life sentence.
This all happened because of one vacant seat at a ramen restaurant.
I wonder how the big and burly man, now a murderer feels, as he sits wasting away in a prison cell where he will be for life.
Surely, he must have known that taking a minor scuffle too far would lead to serious consequences.
He must have known that letting his temper get out of control to the point where he inflicted major and destructive violence on another person in a public place would result in arrest and then judgment.
So why did he do what he did?
Well, let me reframe that question.
Why do we disobey God when deep down inside we know there will be consequences?
Why do we sleep with another man’s wife?
Why do we dishonor our parents?
Why do we lie and steal?
Why do we do bad things when we know there will be consequences?
The consequences may not be immediate.
The consequences of Saul’s disobedience weren’t immediate.
But the day of reckoning will for sure arrive.
The same thing could be said of the devil himself.
Satan, one of God’s most beautiful and intelligent creations, must have known the outcome when he decided to rebel against God.
You would think any sane person would never attempt such a thing.
Yet Satan did what he did and is now destined for eternal destruction.
That is why it’s so important to follow this advice from the prophet Isaiah.
“Seek Adonai while He is available,
call on him while He is still nearby.
Let the wicked person abandon his way
and the evil person his thoughts;
let him return to Adonai,
and he will have mercy on him;
let him return to our God,
for he will freely forgive.”
-Isaiah 55:6-7
Notice the immediacy present in those verses.
There’s a strong emphasis on getting right with God today…EVEN NOW.
We may have heard wonderful testimonies of deathbed conversions.
But based on the testimonies of thousands of pastors, preachers, or rabbis, I wouldn’t rely on these last-minute deathbed conversions.
If it happens at all, it’s a very rare occurrence…
And more often than not the last words being uttered are words of desperation, not repentance.
They are grasping at straws after having deliberately lived a life apart from God.
Both “Old” and New Testaments warn that without sincere repentance and behavior that corresponds to that repentance, the time may come when we will cross over to a point where God’s offer of mercy will no longer be available.
For sure, death is that final divine line in the sand that once crossed over can never be reversed.
Of course, I’m not saying sincere and real deathbed conversions don’t happen.
Only God knows the true state of one’s heart at death.
I’m sure the thief on the cross was saved when he said to Yeshua…
“Yeshua, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Yeshua answered…
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
My point is don’t trifle with something as important as the state of your soul.
Repent NOW because the Kingdom of God is at hand.
The bottom line is we don’t know who God will abandon and condemn this side of heaven and who He will be patient with until death.
We can guess, but we can’t be sure.
Ya feel me?
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“And so I tell you, every kind of sin
and slander can be forgiven,
but blasphemy against the Spirit
will not be forgiven.”
-Matthew 12:31
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Might the comma be after “today”?
Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.
I just copied and pasted it from Bible Gateway.