Pastor John,
A few weeks ago I received a letter from a woman who had visited the house while Beth and I were away. In the letter, the woman spoke of some literature she had left in our door entitled “Why must we die?” She said she hoped we would read the literature and that she could visit us again sometime in the future to discuss.
I was moved in my heart by the woman’s sincerity. The letter was handwritten and the individual stamps were affixed by the sender.
I did read the material she left in our door, and when I reached the end, I realized that it hadn’t answered the question at all. But more importantly, I realized that I DID know the answer to the question in the pamphlet… “why must we die?”
Many years ago you visited the saints in Louisville and you asked us all that very question – “why do men have to die?” We all ventured a guess that day, mostly (and quite often) repeating the same answer in one form or another, “because man sinned.”
After many attempts you gave us the right answer; “because God is holy.” That is why men have to die, all men, “because God is holy.”
Men have to die because of Who God is, not just because of the things that men have done.
Men commit crimes worthy of death every day in this Nation, but the leaders of this country fail to require their execution. Children commit atrocities every day against their parents and they go unpunished. It is not a man’s actions alone (apparently) that demands the death penalty, but to whom those actions are against.
This country’s failure to carry out the death penalty on people that commit heinous crimes is not because of newfound enlightenment or mercy as many promote, but it is instead because of immorality in the people responsible for carrying out righteous judgment. Those responsible for executing judgment do not feel worthy to carry out such fitting punishment because there isn’t enough difference between them and those they are condemning.
The reason grown men and women allow foolishness and disobedience from their children is because their hearts are too much like their children’s and too far away from God to require righteous behavior. They don’t feel worthy to require God’s higher standard.
Mercy for the unrepentant is not mercy, it is just moral failure on the part of the judge.
But I understood something else pastor John, something wonderful! The very thing about God that requires all men to die because of Adam’s disobedience in the garden of Eden, is the same thing about God that allows all men to be forgiven of their sin if they will just repent. The holiness of God that demands death for disobedience, demands life for those who are repentant. Praise God that is good!
Jerry