As the world falls apart, so will many Christians, and I do not mean those who are only professing the Lord Jesus Christ with their lips. “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” (Prov. 24:10)
This is not a loss of salvation, those who have been crucified with Christ are not those spoken of in Luke 21:36, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” We have the assurance of our salvation, these in that verse are those who will not falter from their trust in the Lord during the Tribulation days, who will not love their lives to the death.
That does not mean they will not be scared, and our assurance of salvation does not mean that we will walk boldly with no fear to imprisonment, torture and death. It means that we and they trust in the knowledge that what is happening in our lives is the will of God.
One does not sweat great drops of blood unless there is a form of fear. You may choose another word if that one offends you in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, anxiety, trepidation, nervousness, pick whichever soothes your mind, but when the day of the cross came for our Savior, He asked that there might be another way. There was not, and the way of your death, if you have been born again, is just as predetermined by the Almighty as His was. “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:15)
If your life was spent in glorifying the Living God, you may rest assured that your death will also.
The thief on the cross, the centurion at the moment of Christs death, after His resurrection, billions of people since then, your fear of that moment will not hinder the will of God, your strength in it will add no strength to the Almighty.
The resolute answer can only be this from you, “Thy will be done.”
My friends, my soul is willing, but my flesh is afraid. I do not like pain, I have had all of it that I care to have, but I have learned this from it, it does not last, one pain may be replaced with another, but whether it is mild or excruciating, I know that this too shall pass. The door of death opens quickly for some, for others it takes much time, that is not to be our concern, what is on the other side of it is. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18)
Do not deceive yourself here, it is not only the flesh that may fear that moment, the mind will join in with it, but faith says Thy will be done.
I do not speak as anything more than a man here, but I believe that everyone who has been crucified with Christ will die in such a way that will bring glory to His name, if your life has been as such, so will your death be.
How many others that were present that day heard what the thief on the cross said and were encouraged, how many of the Roman soldiers heard that centurion and began to ponder and question just who that man was up there on that cross between those two thieves? How many have died with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on their lips since that day?
The Living God has decided how you will end your life here on this planet, you are the one that has to decide how you will live it for Him. In the middle of the night while sound asleep or in the jail cell, it should make no difference to us, that He be glorified should be on our mind.
I must repeat this verse over and over, and you must see it as truth. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21)
