Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":
What do you say at a Memorial Service for a fellow Christian who has been mentally ill in an institution for decades? During all that time, he had no “good works” to be praised now, so that puts him squarely into Ephesians 2:8, 9, where we read that none of us has any “works” that can help us in the final Day.
We all belong in that poverty-stricken category, dependent only on the formula of salvation, “by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” That’s where we all are!
What has that “grace” already done for our brother?
(a) We know that the Lord Jesus is our brother’s Friend, not his enemy; He works to bring him into His everlasting kingdom, not trying to find some reason to keep him out. (b) From “before the foundation of the world” the Lamb of God was slain for his salvation (Rev. 13:8); God purposed that he should be saved. (c) His surviving loved ones can look forward with confidence to the resurrection when the Son of God returns in the clouds of heaven and summons the sleeping saints from their rest in the first resurrection. (d) When our brother gave his heart to the Savior in his youth, the Lord accepted his consecration, and IMPUTED to him His righteousness. (e) Throughout his life before his mental illness took over, the Lord Jesus in His capacity as the Great High Priest sought to IMPART to Him that righteousness; he cherished that “blessed hope” of being ready to meet the Savior (he’s had to go to his rest, but there will be a people on earth ready to meet the Lord when He returns).
And the Lord Jesus wants us to be in that number! Let’s thank Him, and let Him have His way. (The Prime Minister of Britain is warning the world that global warming will bring disasters not in some future period far off, “but in our lifetime.” Jesus speaks of His second coming, not as some far-off event eons away, but as something He wants to take place “in our lifetime.”) “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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