Reading
SAA Notes
If there is no God, then death makes a wise and righteous life irrelevant and pointless, for the righteous and the wicked share a common destiny. This is the evil that happens in everything under the sun! Our hearts rebel against this destiny, and we cling to life – verse 4.
SJA Notes
“It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice.”
The same event happens to us all.
In Matthew chapter 5, in the sermon Jesus preached on the mountain, He says,
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”
The sun rising is the beginning of a new day, a wonderful thing!
And this happens for good and evil people both.
Rain is life to a dry land, nourishment to thirsty crops!
And rain falls on the farms of those who love God and those who don’t.
Jesus forces the point deeper in Luke chapter 13,
“Do you think that those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Death comes to us all.
It is the same even that happens, both to the righteous and to the wicked.
BUT – Jesus tells us that _perishing_ is an event that can be avoided.
Perishing is death to death, the wide road, the broad gate; Hellfire for all eternity.
UNLESS YOU REPENT – This is the crux, the heart of the matter. Repentance.
So while the same even happens to us all in death we can avoid perishing by repenting of our sin and believing in Jesus our Saviour.
* Father God,
Thank You for Jesus – That in Him we are rescued from perishing.
Amen.