A Spurgeon Devotional - May 14, 2010

Thoughts On The Last Battle

"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Corinthians 15:56-57

While the Bible is one of the most poetical of books, though its language is unutterably sublime, yet we must remark how constantly it is true to nature. There is no straining of a fact, no glossing over a truth.

However dark may be the subject, while it lights it up with brilliance, yet it does not deny the gloom connected with it. If you will read this chapter of Paul's epistle, so justly celebrated as a masterpiece of language, you will find him speaking of that which is to come after death with such exaltation and glory, that you feel, "If this be to die, then it were well to depart at once."

Who has not rejoiced, and whose heart has not been lifted up, or filled with a holy fire, while he has read such sentences as these: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

Yet with all that majestic language, with all that bold flight of eloquence, he does not deny that death is a gloomy thing. Even his very figures imply it. He does not laugh at it; he does not say, "Oh, it is nothing to die;" he describes death as a monster; he speaks of it as having a sting; he tells us wherein the strength of that sting lies; and even in the exclamation of triumph he imputes that victory not to unaided flesh, but he says, "Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

C.H. Spurgeon

For further Meditation: Death is no laughing matter, but for the Christian it need not be a crying matter either. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)

A Spurgeon Devotional

A Psalm of Remembrance


"So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us." 1 John 4:16a

"Have you considered my servant Job?" "Ah," says Satan, "he serves you now, but you have set a hedge about him and blessed him, let me but touch him." Now he has come down to you, and he has afflicted you in your estate, afflicted you in your family, and at last he has afflicted you in your body. Shall Satan be the conqueror? Shall grace give way? O my dear brother, stand up now and say once more, once for all, "I tell you, Satan, the grace of God is more than a match for you; He is with me, and in all this I will not utter one word against the Lord my God.

He does all things well - well, even now, and I do rejoice in Him." The Lord is always pleased with His children when they can stand up for Him when circumstances seem to belie Him. Here come the witnesses into court. The devil says, "Soul, God has forgotten you, I will bring in my witness." First he summons your debts - a long bill of losses. "There," says he, "Would God suffer you to fall thus, if He loved you?" Then he brings in your children - either their death, or their disobedience, or something worse, and says, "Would the Lord suffer these things to come upon you, if He loved you?" At last he brings in your poor tottering body, and all your doubts and fears, and the hidings of Jehovah's face. "Ah," says the devil, "Do you believe that God loves you now?"

Oh, it is noble, if you are able to stand forth and say to all these witnesses, "I hear what you have to say, let God be true, and every man and everything be a liar. I believe none of you. You all say, God does not love me; but He does, and if the witnesses against His love were multiplied a hundredfold, yet still would I say, "I know whom I have believed."

C.H. Spurgeon - Sermon #253