I Am Looking Forward to Death

Not Dying. Death. I am looking forward to death. Not dying. Death. Dying is the ugly part, but death for the faithful child of God opens what comes after the ugly part has passed. There are only a few people on this earth who really know me. With them, I can lower my guard. A hard sentence receives context. A bad day remains one day instead of becoming the whole case. That small freedom makes me long for heaven. Heaven is the world where the redeemed will deal with one another in the light of the full truth. Every soul will be known truly, judged rightly, and dealt with according to the full truth. God already deals with us through the full truth. Nothing is missing from His knowledge. He judges with the whole case before Him.

Until I Went Into The Sanctuary. Asaph knew what he saw. The wicked were prospering, and the ungodly appeared to be getting away with it. What he saw nearly became the whole matter in his mind. “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Ps. 73:2-3). Limited knowledge presses hard when it feels complete. Asaph had facts in front of him, but those facts were not the whole case. His own understanding could not carry the weight. “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end” (Ps. 73:16-17). God corrected Asaph in the sanctuary. Asaph did not become God there, and he did not receive every hidden fact in every wicked man’s life. He stood before God, and the visible world lost its power to act like the final court. Something like that happens when the Lord’s people assemble. The building is not the house of the Lord; the people of God are. When the Word is opened and worship places my mind before God, I remember that what I can see is not the whole world.

A Foretaste Of Heaven. The church is designed to be a foretaste of heaven. Brethren still deal with limited knowledge here, but the Word teaches us to deal with one another as people who know God has the whole case. We tell the truth and act responsibly while refusing to treat partial knowledge as final judgment. That is why the church should be the safest place on earth to be known. A brother can confess sin and receive correction without being reduced to the worst thing he has done. A wounded soul can ask for help without his weakness becoming his name. That does not make sin small. God has named sin, and Christians must not rename it. The church becomes a foretaste of heaven when brethren tell the truth under the rule of God and still remember that God knows more than they know.

Righteous Judgment Is Narrow. Jesus commands righteous judgment. He also forbids the kind of judgment that stops at appearance and speaks as though appearance is the whole case. Man can only obtain limited knowledge, so man’s judgment must stay within the limits of what God has revealed and what man can actually know. “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (Jn. 7:24). We must act with limited knowledge, and we must remember that our knowledge is limited while we act. If we wait for perfect knowledge before we act, we will never act. If we act as though our present knowledge is perfect, we will judge unrighteously. If I am driving through a neighborhood behind a car with its left turn signal flashing, I know one thing for certain: the left turn signal is flashing. That signal gives me enough information to order my conduct. I should slow down, pay attention, and drive as though he may turn left. That is wisdom. The evidence in front of me makes the turn likely enough that I would be foolish to ignore it. But if I treat that signal as the whole case, I will often be wrong. He may have forgotten the signal. It may be on by accident. The bulb may be malfunctioning. I know enough to act safely. I do not know enough to speak as though the matter is settled. A Christian may know enough to act. That does not mean he knows enough to condemn. Righteous judgment is narrow, and righteous condemnation is narrower still. A man may know that a brother has missed the assembly. That fact may require concern, a call, a visit, and a question. It does not give him the whole case. His absence may come from rebellion, or his absence may come from sickness that no one has learned of yet.

The Whole Case Belongs To God. God has revealed enough through Scripture to teach the rule. He has not given me private revelation to judge every hidden case. The preacher’s duty is to teach the revealed rule, the hearer’s duty is to obey that rule, and God’s office is to judge the whole case. If I stepped into that office, I would keep people out whom God would receive, and I would receive people whom God would reject. I feel so strongly convicted of this that if I saw Adolf Hitler in heaven, I would not question God’s righteous judgment. I would understand that my knowledge is incomplete. “That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from Thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right” (Gen. 18:25)? The Judge of all the earth does right now, and He will do right then. He knows the whole case now, and every redeemed soul will live in the light of His full knowledge then. No soul in heaven will be handled by limited knowledge.

Conclusion. That is why I am looking forward to death. Not dying. Death. I am looking forward to the world where the redeemed will know one another in the light of the full truth. I am looking forward to the freedom of being known without being misread, corrected without being reduced, and received without pretense. Heaven is the world where God’s people finally deal with one another according to the whole case.