Dear Friends of “Dial Daily Bread,”
Fast forward to the last part of the last book of the Bible—Revelation. In chapter 20 we come upon the last great Judgment, when the second resurrection has already happened, and every human soul who has ever lived finally stands together before the Great White Throne. He who sits thereon is Someone very special before “whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them” (vs. 11).
The opening of the “books” is a simile for the final Judgment that faces every soul.
Every human soul who is savedwill give thanks and praise to the Lamb one hundred percent for his or her salvation.
Every lost soul will face a revelation new to him or her: each will realize too late that Christ has already died for his or her sin—there is no need for them to come into final condemnation except they have treated the sacrifice of Christ in the same way that Esau treated the birthright that was his already. He “despised” it and “sold” it for a tiny, temporary indulgence of “appetite.” When he realized what he had done, he cried buckets of tears (Heb. 12:16, 17), but he could not undo what he had done.
Esau’s judgment is more factually said in the Genesis story: Esau “did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way; thus Esau despised his birthright” (25:30-34). All his life he tried to “repent” with his tears, but the birthright was gone forever.
Have you ever thought what your “birthright” is? It’s the eternal salvation that Christ has already purchased for you with His blood. And has given to you already.
The way Romans 5 describes it is this: “The gift of God is not to be compared in its effect with that one man’s sin [Adam’s]; for the judicial action, following on the one offence, resulted in a [judicial] verdict of condemnation, but the act of grace, following on so many misdeeds, resulted in a [judicial] verdict of acquittal. ... It follows, then, that as the result of one misdeed [Adam’s] was condemnation for all people, so the result of one righteous act [at Christ’s cross—the only one ‘righteous act’ ever performed on this planet!] is acquittal and life for all” (Rom. 5:15-18, The Revised English Bible).
At the end of the 1000 years the lost will at last understand this. They had the birthright, it was in their hands, but they threw it away.
Father, save us from ourselves, today!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 6, 2008.
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