It is a matter to take seriously that we must die. It is a matter to stab our consciences awake that God has appointed the time of our death. He has appointed that we shall die, and when we shall die. We die once, at the particular time he has appointed.
There is a further appointment. We have been appointed to face the judgment of God upon the affairs of our life. It follows that we must be given a resurrection to face the final judgment; the judgment is not after death so that it may be avoided by dying, but so that the accounts may be finalised. It is a thought to catch our breath that God is going to all the bother to raise everyone from the dead to face His judgment. Even if we are guilty of unbelief and unforgiven sin, and are, therefore, to be cast into eternal fire, yet God decrees we shall be raised to face judgment. If God is so serious about our rendering account to Him, should not we be also?
These words are so searching that they may cause us to panic. To add to our distress we may think that the time is so short there is nothing we can do to put matters right. The time is certainly short, but if the desire is there to put matters right it can be done.
As certainly as God has appointed a a time of death for each one of us; as definitely as he has fixed a judgment that cannot be avoided; so God has made a provision for the removal of sin. Because of the terrible appointments with death and judgment which no soul can face unaided, precisely to prepare us for that time of all times, Christ has been once offered to bear the sins of many.
'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.' He freely offered Himself on Calvary, but He was made an offering for sin by God. 'He hath put him to grief.' For that reason Christ came into the world. God cannot pretend that there is any sin which can be left unpunished. Every last punishment due to us for our sins was borne by the Saviour in our place as, once for all time, He hung on that cross.
All our redemption was accomplished there. God sets His approval upon our persons as not guilty, not because we have not sinned, but because He has paid the price for us. He has taken our awful load. He has made atonement for our sins.
Notice, he has borne the sins of many. Many may be a vast multitude that no man can number, running into millions upon millions, but it most certainly means not all. Not all will be saved. It is believers in Christ who are saved. We will soon find in our extremity that it will not do to mutter, 'I believe,' for, without content, our hearts will know such utterance to be meaningless to us and to Christ, the Sinbearer. No, those who, more than everything else desire to be done with sin and would repent of it, may come to the living Christ. His saving power is applied only to those guilty sinners who repent and trust before it is too late.