Greetings, faithful readers! I’m coming at ya from an afternoon spent sitting in the BMV renewing my driver’s license. With the new super duper industrial strength “compliant” version, you don’t actually leave with your license in hand. You leave with your old license – now hole punched like swiss cheese in the corner – and a temporary paper printout of the new one. I have a confused look on my face in the new pic. I don’t know why they didn’t retake it. But some degree of horrifying is what one expects from a driver’s license pic, so whatever. I’m just excited I passed the vision test. Does anyone else get nervous about that?
This morning’s devotion struck me.
That one line leapt off the page. “The world does not understand such vulnerability.” Indeed. Everything about modern society says be strong, be perfect. Even those who believe “such vulnerability” are prone to doubt it. Or we feel we need to defend it, as if we’re capable of such a thing. The best defense is a good offense. But is it?
I was talking with a friend about deathbed confessions the other day. We were acknowledging that when an unbeliever dies, it is possible for them to become a believer in their last breath. The legalism prevalent in my youth would say, “But they hadn’t been baptized!!! Surely they went to straight to Hades.” Acts 2:38 does say …
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
But then there are those pesky other verses about “by grace” and “whoever believes”. I saw a video of Francis Chan discussing the subject several years ago. This one isn’t the one I was thinking of, but it explains where he stands, which is, “Why do you care? The bible says do it, so do it.” By the way, there’s some bonus David Platt at the end of this clip.
Beep beep beep! We interrupt this post for a short aside.
Once upon a time a friend connected me with a gentleman she thought would be a good match for me romantically. As we were “talking to” each other (that’s what the kids call it these days, right?) … via phone calls and email, we hadn’t gone out yet … he emailed me a question. He wanted to know my view on when the moment of salvation is for a person. Upon reading my response he replied he could never date someone who believed that.
Bahahahahahahahaha!
Wait, let me catch my breath.
Bahahahahahahahaha!
I was already thinking this was not a match because the guy acted about a hundred years old. It was chivalrous of him to save me the trouble of having to be the rejector.
Anyway.
Deathbed confessions. I shared with my friend a phrase I’ve heard one of our preachers use.
“I trust in God’s common sense.”
It’s a helpful phrase in addressing some of the more difficult theological questions. Many of the “but what if” questions.
“But what if they repented on their deathbed but didn’t get baptized?”
“But what if they believed and repented in those last moments but were unable to speak the words?”
“But what if, even after studying scripture, they believed XYZ wasn’t a sin so they never repented of it?”
“But what if they said they were Christian but I never saw the fruit?”
(Fruit of the spirit. Go read Galatians 5.)
Just because we believe someone to be an unbeliever doesn’t mean they actually are. The fruit of the spirit is a decent indication but way way far away from foolproof. Maybe the seeds you planted and your example got through and they didn’t tell you.
Just because someone was an unbeliever their entire life doesn’t mean they didn’t take care of things right before the end. It’s still a really great idea not to wait to “repent and be baptized, love God, love people, make disciples”. There is no guarantee we will have the chance right before the end. There is no guarantee we will recognize “the end is near”.
We could practice whataboutism all day long, but we all have more important things to do. So here’s the paraphrase.
If you haven’t done the repent and be baptized thing, go do that ‘cause the bible says do it.
Take comfort that your loved ones whose salvation you doubt might have repented. We’ll find out later.
Trust in God’s common sense.
