I was looking over an obituary a friend shared on Facebook and, though it said nice things about the deceased, it didn’t specifically say the man was saved. Words that are meant to comfort grieving loved ones said he was no longer in pain, but didn’t say anything about his faith in JESUS CHRIST. I know that isn’t the place or time to speculate on someone’s salvation, so I left a condolence message like everyone else.
Funerals can be good places to speak to people about their faith and their own mortality. With a death so close to them, they may be more open to making sure they are ready to go. The one it won’t help is the deceased. If they never asked JESUS to forgive their sins and accept Him as LORD and Savior before they died, they are “beyond help.” No amount of crying and begging on your part can change their situation. They could have been close to accepting JESUS, but put it off until next time. Perhaps they were a really good person and helped many people during their brief time in the world, but now they must pay for their own failures. JESUS died to take away their sins, but they didn’t accept His gift.
I try to be careful when speaking to people about their loved ones who have died and their salvation was in doubt. It is horrible to think of someone who once was here with us and now is writhing in agony in the eternal fires of Hell. I usually say something about not knowing what they may have done as their life faded away, but that is little comfort when so much is at stake. I try to change the emphasis from the dead person, who we can’t help, to the living people who still have a chance. Every funeral should be a wakeup call for us to redouble our effort to tell the lost about JESUS. If we had awakened a little sooner, maybe one more soul would have been saved, but now they are “beyond help.”
The ones we don’t need to worry about are those who accepted JESUS before they died. Paul said “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:22 KJV) and those were not empty words. He was facing death and said he “had a desire to depart” but “to remain” was better for others. He didn’t fear death and neither should any born again Christian. Heaven is so much better than remaining here in this life! Don’t morn those who go before you if they are saved. The only reason to stay here is because our work is unfinished. We need to preach the Good News of the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST to a lost and dying world.
What are you going to do now that you know? First you need to make sure that you are saved. You can be sure because “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…full of grace and truth” (Phil 1:14 KJV). The WORD is GOD and He says “ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jer 29:13 KJV). The WORD tells us “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV), so accept JESUS as your Lord and Savior and you are saved. Continue in the WORD and you will find what GOD wants you to do and the benefits you can have right now. After that you can share the Good News you have found with others, before they are “beyond help.”
Wayne Lance (2019)