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Author: Unknown Tune: O God, Our Help in Ages Past

1. God's wisdom formed the vast design

To ransom us when lost;

And Christ's own blood and righteousness

Provided all the costs.

2. Strict justice, with approving look,

God's covenant was sealed;

When God incarnate undertook

To see the whole fulfilled.

3. Now sin appears deserving death

And would its curse impose;

But Christ our Substitute and Head

Has lived and died and rose.

4. Upon the merits of His blood,

Secure and saved by grace;

We dare approach the throne of God

In Christ who took our place.

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Our Lord has been pleased to call away to glory many of our dear loved ones. No words of men can make these trials easier, dry your tears, nor dispel your loneliness. But perhaps I can remind us of some things that we know and believe, and these shall be to us words of comfort.

1. They are WITH CHRIST IN GLORY. "To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord," and they would not come back to this earth even if they could.

2. They are PERFECT IN SOUL AND BODY! No more sin, no more pain, no more tears, no more sorrow! They are satisfied, for they are in His likeness-perfectly holy and happy.

3. They have NO UNPLEASANT THOUGHT NOR MEMORIES of anyone nor anything on this earth. "The former things are passed away; for God makes all things new." Don't grieve over any neglect, deed, nor word; it is forgotten in His presence.

4. They WOULD NOT HAVE YOU GRIEVE FOR THEM, but rather rejoice in their graduation, promotion, and victory. "To die is gain" and eternal glory! Their trials and tribulations are over; soon ours shall be.

5. There is NO TIME IN GLORY! Days and years have to do with earth, not heaven. "With God a thousand years is a day." My son did not go to glory thirty years ago; he went there TODAY, and so shall we! Time is no more when we leave this earth.

6. They are GONE FOR THE PRESENT, and memories of them are sweet and shall be with us throughout this journey. Remember, we have a life to live ourselves, our God to glorify, our children and others to serve, love, and encourage. WE CANNOT LIVE IN THE PAST and spend our days complaining of God's providence. Paul said, "Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Sons and daughters, take up your parents' mantle and serve your generation faithfully. --Henry Mahan

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I sometimes hear preachers say something like this: “Christ had to become all I am to save me.” Their view is that Christ is an absolute substitute. But where do they get this? Not the Bible! This may be logical to the human mind but it is not Biblical truth. The truth is, Christ came sent of the Father to BE and DO what I could not be or do! For Christ to be what I am He would have to become a sinner, and this would render Him an unsuitable sacrifice for sins. No, Christ came to be what we could not be, a sinless Substitute to die in our place before the holy justice of God. Being what we could not, He died as the Lamb without spot or blemish, satisfying the sin debt of all His elect by His death. “The wages of sin is death,” and Christ died a substitutionary death, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree when He was put to death. If Christ had to be what I am, then there was evidently a period of time that He ceased to be God, who is holy and unchangeable. As Paul says, “God forbid!” His deity is what gives His sacrifice value to redeem a multitude and makes it acceptable to God. If being a sinner saves someone before God, then half of Adam’s race could have been saved without Christ because the other half could have died for them! Christ’s uniqueness is what saves His people. He was a sinless MAN! We are redeemed “by the precious blood of Christ.” Only sinless blood could save us. Biblical substitution is Christ dying “the JUST for the unjust.” Thank God He was not what I am nor did He become all that I am. Christ died for sinners because He was not one and did not become one! Dying this way, He brought us to God! --Pastor Gary Shepard

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