God Takes No Pleasure

In the death of one who dies. (Ezekiel 18:32)

No Christian that truly knows, or thinks they know, the reality of life, death, heaven and hell, and the nature of the battle that rages between God and the prince of the power of the air, can easily dismiss sharing the Gospel with their neighbor. No Christian that truly understands the meaning of grace (unmerited favor), and how it was so richly and sovereignly bestowed on them can rule out God’s intention to draw another poor sinner to His blessed Son, no matter how vile or evil that neighbor appears. Were we not equally as sinful and demanded a Savior’s price, assuming that God chose to save any of us? Would we not argue with the Apostle Paul that we were the chief of sinners? Weren’t we, even as Paul, met on our road while in sinful passage, but found at a given juncture, where the Father graciously predestined to stop us, present His Son and bring us to sight through the Holy Spirit?

In 2 Peter 3:9, we are told, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”  At this point in time, Peter was writing to ardent and suffering Christians in Asia Minor (so ardent that Peter was compelled to describe; taking his reader’s point of view, that God was slack in not providing for the Lord’s promised return.)

How they must have longed for the promised return of the Lord and how greatly they must have suffered for their belief in the face of a pagan and evil world! Yes, God long-suffered their pain and circumstances, as He does for us today as we continue to wait for the last name written in the Book of Life to be called. It’s not that God does not understand the suffering and affliction of His people. He does. He suffers long with us. But he also knows that for us, and the last one called, the glory that will be revealed. As the Apostle Paul observed, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) As for those who die without Christ? Let me put Paul’s verse in the negative, ‘For I consider that the pleasures, wealth, and fame of the present time are not worth the compromise of the glory which shall be revealed to those who believe.’ Surely God knows the reality of hell and it’s eternal nature as the consequence of death and of our sin. Hence, God takes no pleasure, and we must be patient.

Nonetheless, wouldn’t it be lovely if either you or I, who as an Ambassador of Christ; our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, was the instrument that the Holy Spirit used to guide that final soul to eternal life and delight, and immediately following to hear that final blessed trumpet blast? Oh, if only we saw with such clarity, the reality of what was, is, and is to come! Yes, Lord Jesus come; come quickly!