Who We Truly Are Without God In Our Lives.
Roughly fifteen years ago, I witnessed a wise, elderly minister preach this from the pulpit: “We stand on the precipice of death each moment.” This instantly resonated with me so that tears welled up in my eyes. In fact, I began to cry. Why? Because it had been my experience in my life to that point, and it continues to be to this day. My dad had taught me this from my earliest age. He knew that it was true and faithfully passed it on to me. Indeed, he continues to instruct me in this regard today.
I was grateful that the minister unabashedly and powerfully proclaimed this doctrine in humility that day. The moment he uttered those words, I was convicted of this undeniable certainty in the depths of my soul, and I sincerely hoped the entire congregation was as well. This nine word sentence thoroughly illustrates and defines the life of each individual who has existed. Whether or not you are a Christian, this is true of you. Whether you humbly confess and exhibit your sincere love for Jesus Christ or boastfully declare and manifest outright disdain for Christianity, you continuously stand on the precipice of death. To be sure, as you read these words at this precise moment, you stand alone on your tippy toes on the very outermost ledge of death’s scarp. As you peer over the edge, you are certain that your physical and spiritual ruin lie but a miniscule fraction forward.
Do you know that this is true of you? Yes, you do, without a single doubt. Will you readily confess you do? Very likely, the answer is, “No.” Why? Because mankind is proud. All of humanity is completely selfish. Each one of us of our own volition arrogantly equates ourselves to the one, true, and almighty God, in spite of us knowing that we are absolutely unworthy of doing so. This very act itself is evidence that we are constantly at death’s door of our own accord. We do compare ourselves to the one triune God of heaven and Earth in each of our thoughts, words, and deeds. The outcome of this comparison is invariably constant. We are always fully conscious of the stark contrast between God and us. We are nothing apart from Him. He is everything in and of Himself. We need Him in all things perpetually. He never needs us in anything. We are sinners. He is perfect. This is not a secret to humanity. This is a truth that is assuredly known to every human being—period.
Therefore my fellow evildoers, we must stop denying this righteous certitude. We must acknowledge that it is our magnificent, glorious God who holds us in the palms of His merciful hands. He alone powerfully prevents us from happily and willingly leaping off death’s ledge to our definite destruction. We must confess that if we were left to our own devices, we would unquestionably live in a continual state of scaling death’s abrupt vertical face, for the sole purpose of hurling ourselves off its summit to our undeniable obliteration.
The point is that we steadily seek our own demise. How is this so? We love sin. Sin is seductive. We want to experience the earthly pleasures of sin in its every form. We desire sin’s invitation. We willfully allow sin to inveigle us to enjoy its irresistible and captivating energy. We crave this spirit of sin each day. Our predilection and enthusiasm for sin’s presence in our hearts and minds is ceaseless. This force is unstoppable, except for one Deliverer: our exceedingly mighty God in Jesus Christ. We understand sin means death. Because we are inherently inclined to perform all manner of wickedness and eagerly behave unrighteously, we actively will and demand our own spiritual death. We naturally long to live apart from our righteous God. In so doing, we readily wish eternal turmoil, torment, and damnation upon ourselves, where we will be completely separated from our holy God. Thus, we deliberately stand on the edge of death’s cliff and hope to launch ourselves off to eternally perish.
Remarkably, our compassionate God prohibits this. Only He keeps us from our certain spiritual mortality. He generously thwarts our ambition to climb Mt. Death. He alone graciously works righteousness in our hearts. Only He efficaciously allows us to serve, honor, worship, and adore Him. Our wondrous God alone powerfully saves us from ourselves. Praise God for this! Thank Him that we know this is true. Pray that He will remain faithful to daily deliver us from the precipice of death.