Eternity: from An Illustrated Summary of J.C. Ryle's Practical Religion

This is a chapter from J.C. Ryle's classic book Practical Religion.

ETERNITY

"The things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

There are star depths in the heavens that the most powerful telescopes cannot pierce, yet it is well to look into them and learn something if we cannot learn everything. There are heights and depths about the subject of eternity that mortal man can never comprehend, but God has spoken of it and we have no right to turn away from it altogether. In examining points like these we have nothing to do with preconceived notions about God's character and what we think God ought to do with man after death. The thoughts we have a right to hold are the thoughts He has been pleased to reveal to us in His written Word, the holy Bible. If you are tempted to doubt that, consider this: Imagine a judge who calls in witnesses and pretends to examine them while simultaneously issuing a statement that no matter what they say or evidence they give, their cause is so absurd and unjust that no evidence will be sufficient to prove it. Do not be that kind of judge.

1. We live in a world where all things are temporal and passing away. Everything around us is decaying, dying, and coming to an end. In a practical sense, there is nothing undying about us except our souls. That is what this line by a dying poet in the hymn Abide with Me attempts to capture: "Change and decay in all around I see. O Thou who changest not, abide with me."

Beauty is only temporal. Sarah was once the fairest of women and the admiration of the court of Egypt, yet a day came when her husband, Abraham, said, "Let me bury my dead out of my sight" (Genesis 23:4). Strength of body is only temporal. David was once a mighty man of valor, the champion of Israel against Goliath, yet the day came when he had to be nursed like a child in his old age. As humbling and painful as these truths may sound, it is good for us to take them to heart. The houses we live in, the relations we enter into,  the professions we follow, the riches we accumulate, the plans we form are only for a time. "The form of this world is passing away" (1 Corinthians 7:31).

Think of pleasures, amusements, profits, and earthly callings as poor ephemeral things that cannot last. Love them not too well or grasp them too tightly: they are useful as servants but dreadful as idols. You cannot keep them and must lose them. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness," said Jesus, and then everything else needful will be added as well (Matthew 6:33). "Set your mind on things above," not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2). The world and its lusts are passing away, "but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17).

If you take these things to heart, you may take heart because your trials and conflicts are only temporary. They will soon come to an end and even now are working for you "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17).  Bear them patiently and quietly. Look upward, forward, and far beyond them. The cross shall soon be exchanged for a crown and you shall sit down at a feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven (Matthew 8:11).

2. We are all going toward a world where everything is eternal. The Bible teaches that the great unseen state of existence lying behind the grave is forever. Whether it be happy or miserable, in one respect it is utterly unlike this world: it is eternal. There will be no change and decay, no end, no goodbyes, no mornings and evenings, no annihilation. "The things unseen are eternal." We cannot fully grasp this: the contrast between now and then, between this world and the next, is so enormously great that our feeble minds will not take it in. The consequences it entails are so tremendous, they almost take away our breath and we shrink from looking at them. But when the Bible speaks plainly, we have no right to turn away from a subject.

A. Future happiness. The future is eternally bright for those who, by definition, have been rescued by their saving faith in Christ's righteous life, death, and resurrection on their behalf. At God's "right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11). Awaiting them is "an inheritance ... imperishable, undefiled, and unfading," including "an unfading crown of glory" (1 Peter 1:4; 5:4). Their fight is over; their work is done. No more will they hunger and thirst. They are traveling towards an "eternal weight of glory," towards a home that shall never be broken up, a meeting without parting, a family gathering without separation, a day without night. Faith shall be swallowed up by sight and hope by certainty. They "shall always be with the Lord." No wonder Paul adds, "Comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18).

B. Future misery. For those who have no faith in Christ, the future is eternally bleak. That is a solemn truth and flesh and blood naturally shrink from the contemplation of it, but it is plainly and mercifully revealed in Scripture. Whoever spoke such loving and merciful words as our Lord Jesus Christ? No one warned more about hell than Him, describing it as a place "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:47-48). No one has written more eloquently about love than the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 13), yet he warns that the wicked "shall be punished with everlasting destruction" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). The same words that describe the eternality of heaven likewise describe the eternality of hell. 

Sin and death entered the world by the devil's daring falsehood, "You surely shall not die" (Genesis 3:4). Thousands of years later, the great enemy of our souls is still using his old weapon, trying to persuade men and women that they may live and die in sin, yet at some distant period be finally saved. Let us not be taken advantage of by being "ignorant of his devices" (2 Corinthians 2:11). There is nothing Satan desires more than we should believe he does not exist and that there is no such thing as eternal torment.

Think: what was the use of God's Son becoming incarnate, living a perfect life, agonizing in Gethsemane, and dying on the cross to make a substitutionary atonement for sin for all who trust in Him if people can be finally saved without believing in Him? Where is the slightest proof that saving faith in Christ's blood can ever begin after death? We are told, "It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Where is the need for the Holy Spirit if sinners are at last to enter heaven without conversion and renewal of heart? Hear what Solomon the wise says to curb youthful lusts: "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment" (Ecclesiastes 11:9). Unrepented sin is an eternal evil and can never cease to be sin. He "to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13) is an eternal God. 

The words of Psalm 145 are strikingly beautiful: "The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You.... 

"The Lord upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works ...  near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy" (Psalm 145:8-20).

3. Our state in the unseen world of eternity depends entirely upon what we are in time. The life we live on earth is short and soon gone: "We finish our years like a sigh.... What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (Psalm 90:9; James 4:14). The life before us when we leave this world is an endless eternity, a sea without a bottom and an ocean without a shore. "Do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8). But as short as our life is here and endless as it will be hereafter, it is of utmost importance that eternity hinges upon time. Our lot after death depends, humanly speaking, on what we are while we are alive. It is written that God "will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath" (Romans 2:6-8).

We ought never to forget that we are all, while we live, in a state of probation. We are constantly sowing seeds that will spring up and bear fruit, every day and hour in our lives. Eternal consequences result from our thoughts, words, and deeds, of which we take far too little account. Jesus said, "For every idle word men speak, they will  give account of it in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12:36). No wonder Paul was inspired to write, "He who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life" (Galatians 6:8). So what we sow in life we shall reap after death and to all eternity.

The Bible teaches clearly that as we die, whether converted to Christ or unconverted, whether believers or unbelievers, whether godly or ungodly, so shall we rise again when the last trumpet sounds. There is no repentance in the grave. There is no purgatory. Now is the time to believe in Christ and lay hold of eternal life. As Jesus said, "The night is coming when no one can work" (John 9:4). "In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie" (Ecclesiastes 11:3). If we leave this world impenitent and unbelieving, we shall rise the same in the resurrection morning and find, as Jesus said of Judas, that it would have been better not to have been born.

Remember this and make good use of time. Regard it as the stuff of which life is made and never waste it or throw it away. The means of grace, including prayer, Bible reading, and faithfully attending public worship, are given to help you toward an eternal world. Not one of them should be thoughtlessly treated or lightly and irreverently handled. Use them all as one who remembers eternity.

Place in the face of temptation the thought of eternity, setting aside thoughts such as, "It is only a little one," "Never mind. What is the harm? Everyone is doing it." The soon-to-be- martyred English Reformer John Hooper was tempted to recant his faith in Christ in exchange for safety with a concerned enemy telling him this: "Life is sweet and death is bitter." But Hooper  remembered eternity when giving his memorable reply: "True, quite true, but eternal life is more sweet and eternal death is more bitter."

4. The Lord Jesus Christ is the great Friend whom we all must look to for help, both in time and eternity. The reason the eternal Son of God came into the world is to give us hope and peace while we live among "the things that are seen," which are transient, and glory and blessedness when we go into "the things that are unseen," which are eternal. He came to bring "life and immortality to light through the Gospel" and to "release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:15). He saw our lost and bankrupt condition, and had compassion on us. 

These mighty privileges our Lord Jesus Christ purchased for us at the cost of His own precious blood. He became our Substitute and bore our sins in His own body on the cross and then rose again for our justification. Christ "suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." He who knew no sin was temporarily made sin for us that we poor sinful creatures might have pardon and righteousness while we live, and glory and blessedness when we die (1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus offers these blessings freely to everyone who will turn from his or her sins, come to Him, and believe. "I am the light of the world," He says. "The one who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37). "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37). Whoever believes in Christ "shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). The only way to pass through "things seen" with comfort and look forward to "things unseen" without fear is to have Christ as our Savior and Friend. If you and I have no comfort amid the temporal and no hope for the eternal, the fault is all our own. It is because, as Jesus said, we will not come to Him that we may have life (John 5:40).

Are you wasting your time or turning it to good account? Are you preparing to meet God? It is not too late if you are reading this. Christ waits to be gracious: He invites you to come to Him. Before the door is shut and the judgment begins, repent, believe, and be saved. Cling to Christ and live a life of faith in Him. Follow Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, seeking to know Him better every day. So doing you will look forward to eternal things with unfailing confidence, and feel and "know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). 

The Great Separation: from An Illustrated Summary of J.C. Ryle's Practical Religion

This is a chapter from J.C. Ryle's classic book Practical Religion.

THE GREAT SEPARATION

"His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matthew 3:12

1. The two great classes into which mankind may be divided. The passage of Scripture above was spoken by John the Baptizer. It is a prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ that has not yet been fulfilled. Viewed with the eye of man, the earth contains many different sorts of inhabitants. Viewed with the eye of God it contains only two. Man's eye looks at the outward appearance; God looks at the heart. Tried by the state of their hearts, the two classes are illustrated here by wheat and chaff.

A. The wheat. The wheat are all men and women who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been led by the Holy Spirit of God to feel themselves sinners and flee for refuge to the salvation offered in the Gospel for all. They therefore love the Lord Jesus, serving and obeying Him, taking the Bible for their only guide, regarding sin as their deadliest enemy, and looking to heaven as their only home. All such individuals of every church, name, nation, people, language, rank, station, condition, and degree constitute God's wheat.

They are the sons and daughters of God the Father. They are the delight of God the Son. God the Holy Spirit regards them as spiritual temples He Himself has erected.

B. The chaff. The chaff are all men and women who have no saving faith in Christ and no sanctification of the Spirit. Some are irreligious and some are very religious. Some are sneering Sadducees and some self-righteous Pharisees. Some of them make a point of keeping up religious practices and some are careless of everything except their own pleasures. What they have in common is no faith and no sanctification or holiness in God's sight.

They bring no glory to God the Father, for "he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him" (John 5:23). They neglect that mighty salvation countless angels admire. They disobey the Word of God, which was graciously written for their learning. They do not listen to the voice of Him who condescended to leave heaven and purchase salvation through His righteous life, death, and resurrection. They pay no tribute of service and affection to Him who gives them "life, breath, and all things" (Acts 17:25). Therefore God takes no pleasure in them. He pities them, but He reckons them no better than chaff, which is useless vegetation.

This is humbling truth: You may have rare intellectual gifts and high attainments; you may sway many by your influence, but if you have never submitted yourself to the yoke of Christ and honored His Gospel by heartfelt reception of it, you are spiritually lacking in His sight. Natural gifts without grace are of no eternal value. You do not honor God with heart, will, intellect, and body, which are all His. You invert His order and arrangement, living as if time is more important than eternity and body better than soul. You are cold about the subject that fills all heaven with hallelujahs. So long as that remains the case, you belong to the ultimately worthless part of mankind: you are the chaff of the earth.

See now what cause there is for self-inquiry! Are you among the wheat or the chaff? Neutrality is impossible. Either you are in one class or in the other. Which is it of the two? Do not rest until you know how it is between you and God. Better a thousand times to find you are in a dreadful spiritual state and then repent than to live on in uncertainty and be lost eternally.

2. The time when the wheat and the chaff  shall be separated. There is no separation yet. Good and bad are now all mingled together in the world and even in the visible church of Christ. But it shall no always be so. Christ shall come the second time with His winnowing fan in His hand to separate the wheat from the chaff.

A. Before Christ returns, separation is impossible. It is not in man's power to effect it. There is no minister on earth who can read the hearts of everyone in his congregation. The winnowing fan is not put in their hands. Grace is sometimes so weak and feeble that it looks like nature. Nature is sometimes so plausible and well dressed that it looks like grace. Judas looked as good as any of the apostles, yet he was proved to be a traitor only at the end. Peter looked like chaff when he denied the Lord Jesus, yet he repented immediately and rose again. We are all fallible, for we "know in part" (1 Corinthians 13:9) and scarcely understand our own hearts. It is no great wonder we cannot read the hearts of others. 

But it will not always be so. One is coming who never errs in judgment and is perfect in knowledge. Jesus shall purge His floor, sifting the lightweight chaff from the dense wheat. Until then, we are to lean on the side of charity in our judgments. As Jesus taught in His Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, it is better to tolerate some chaff in the church than cast out one grain of wheat. The certainty about every one shall be known soon enough.

B. Before Christ returns, it is useless to expect to see a perfect church. There cannot be such a thing now. I pity those who leave one church and join another because of a few minor faults and unsound members. They are seeking that which cannot be found on this earth. Only when Christ returns will there be a "glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). Then, and not until then, the floor will be purged.

C. Before Christ returns, it is futile to look for the conversion of the world. How can it be since He is to find wheat and chaff side by side in the day of His second coming? I see nothing in the Bible or in the world around me to make me expect it. What we can expect to see is a few raised up as witnesses to Christ in every nation and place. Then I expect the Lord will return with His fan in His hand. When He has purged His floor, and not until then, His Kingdom will be realized in full.

3. The Lord's provision for His people.

A. The Lord takes pleasure in His people. It is comforting to know that "the Lord takes pleasure in His people" (Psalm 149:4) and "cares for [them]" (1 Peter 5:7). But how much He cares for them I fear is little known and dimly seen. Believers have their many trials, the flesh is weak, the world is full of snares, the cross is heavy, the way is narrow, and the companions are few. But still they have strong consolations if their eyes are widely opened. Like Hagar, they have a well of water near them in the wilderness (Genesis 21:19) and like Mary Magdalene, they have Jesus standing by their side, though their eyes are blinded by tears (John 20:14). They need to be reminded they are sons and daughters of God by adoption and enjoy full and perfect forgiveness. They have a place in the Book of Life and a name on the breastplate of the Great High Priest in heaven.

He took them for His own with a perfect understanding of their liabilities and infirmities. He will never break His covenant and cast them off. When they fall, He will raise them again. When they wander, He will bring them back. Their prayers are pleasing to Him. As a father loves the first stammering efforts of his child to speak, so the Lord loves the petitions of His people. He endorses them with His own mighty intercession and gives them power on high. Their services are pleasant to Him. As a father delights in the first daisy his child picks up and brings him, even so the Lord is pleased with the weak attempts of His people to serve Him. Not a cup of cold water shall lose its reward. Not a word spoken in love shall ever be forgotten. 

B. The Lord cares for His people in life. Their addresses are intimately known by Him. The street called Straight where Saul/Paul temporarily lodged and the seaside place where Peter prayed were familiar to their Lord (Acts 9-10). No one has better assistants than His people. Angels rejoice when they are born again, angels minister to them, and angels encompass them for protection. No one has better food. Their daily bread is provided and they are nourished by the water of life. They have food to eat of which the world knows nothing. No one has better company than they do. The Spirit indwells them and the Father and the Son make Their home with them (John 14:23). Their steps are all ordered from grace to glory. Their difficulties are all measured out by a wise Physician: not a grain of bitterness is ever mixed in their cup that is not good for the health of their souls. Their temptations, like Job's, are all under God's control. Satan cannot touch a hair of their head without their Lord's permission or tempt them beyond what they are able to bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). When they are transplanted from place to place, it is so they may bloom more brightly. All things are continually working together for their good (Romans 8:28).

C. The Lord cares for His people in death. Their times are all in His hand. The hairs of their heads are all numbered and no one can ever fall to the ground without their Father (Matthew 10:29-31). They are kept on earth until they are ripe and ready for glory, and not one moment longer. When they have had sun, rain, wind, and storm enough, when the grain is perfect in the stalk, only then will they be harvested. It is a blessed thing to be Christ's wheat. Death opens the door to believer and instantly lets him or her into paradise.

D. The Lord will protect His people on the awesome and dreadful day of His return. The voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God shall proclaim no terrors to their ears. They shall lift up their heads with joy as they see their full redemption approach. They shall be instantly changed, putting on their beautiful garments in the blink of an eye, caught up together "to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Jesus will do nothing to a sin-laden world until all His people are safe, just like there was an ark for Noah when the Flood began. There will be a barn for all the wheat on Judgment Day. Whether then or now, Christ's people persevere throughout life. "My sheep," says the Good Shepherd, "shall never perish" (John 10:28). They shall all be gathered into the same fold and barn. 

4. The Lord's punishment of those who are not His people. When the Lord Jesus Christ returns to purge His floor of the chaff, all who are found impenitent and unbelieving—who "suppress the truth unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18), clinging to sin and the world instead of Christ and His Word, will come to an awful end. Christ will "burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." There is no pain like burning. Fire is of all elements most opposed to life. Creatures can live in air, earth, and water, but nothing can live in fire. This punishment will be eternal. The fuel of that fire will never waste away or be consumed. These are sad and painful things to speak of, yet they are written for our learning and it is good to consider them. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).

A. Hell is real. Some believe there is no hell at all, thinking such a place is inconsistent with the mercy of God. They say it is too awful an idea to be really true. The devil delights in the views of such people, for they are preaching his favorite doctrine: "You surely shall not die" (Genesis 3:4). Jesus at His return, however, will say to those who wickedly forget God and His people, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.... These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25:41-46). The same blessed Savior who now sits on a throne of grace will one day sit on a throne of judgment. Terrified people will discover there is such a thing as "the wrath of the Lamb" (Revelation 6:16). The same lips that now say, "Come to Me" will then say, "Depart from Me."

B. Hell is eternal. These are all biblical descriptions of hell: eternal fire, eternal punishment, their worm does not die, torment of thirst, weeping and gnashing of teeth, darkness, blackness, and the second death. All are figures of speech, but they describe something real and even worse than what mere words can describe. The present suffering, the bitter recollection of the past, the hopeless prospect of the future will never be thoroughly known except by those who go there. "Trembling has seized the godless: 'Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?'" (Isaiah 33:14). "Those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2). "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.... He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:16-36).

C. Hell should be spoken about. It is striking to observe the many texts about it in Scripture. No one says more about hell than our gracious and merciful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. John, the most loving apostle, wrote often about hell. The most loving thing we can do for others is to speak the truth in love about supremely important matters. What would you say of the man who saw his neighbor's house in danger of being burned down but never said a word of warning? Beware of manufacturing a god of your own who is all mercy, but not just; all love, but not holy; a god who has a heaven for everybody, but a hell for none; a god who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and bad in eternity. Such a god is an idol. The hands of your own sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and beside the God of the Bible there is no God at all.

5. The Lord's merciful provision for people now. Realize you are reading this by God's design. The truth about hell is for you to know and take to heart. Never mind now what it means for others. You will be either gathered with the wheat when Jesus returns or burned with the chaff. If you are willing to be of the wheat, the Lord Jesus Christ is willing to receive you. Do you suppose He is not willing to see His barn filled? Do you think He does not desire to bring many sons and daughters to glory? If so, you know little of the depth of His mercy and compassion. He wept over unrepentant Jerusalem. He mourns over the impenitent and careless in the present day. He sends you an invitation right now to hear and live, to forsake the way of the foolish and go in the path of understanding. "I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord God. "Therefore turn and live!" (Ezekiel 18:32).

If you are determined to have the world and the things of the world, all its pleasures and rewards, all its follies and sins; if you must have your own way and cannot give up anything for Christ and the sake of your soul, there is but one end before you. Sooner or later you will come to the unquenchable fire. But if you want to be rescued from that fate, the Lord Jesus stands ready to save you. "Come to Me," He says, "and I will give you rest. Come, guilty and sinful soul, and I will give you free pardon. Come, lost and ruined soul, and I will give you eternal life" (Matthew 11:28). Arise and call upon the Lord. Let the angels of God rejoice over one more saved soul.

Settle it down in your mind that if you have committed your soul to Christ, He will never let you perish. The everlasting arms are around you. Lean back in them and know your safety. The same hand that was nailed to the cross is holding you. The same wisdom that framed the heavens and the earth is maintaining your cause. Take comfort and know your privileges. Cast every care on Jesus. Tell Him about every need. He loves serving as your High Priest. He loves to be trusted and seeing His people ceasing from the vain effort of carrying their fears, anxieties, and doubts for themselves. Be among Christ's wheat now and then, on the great day of separation, you will be gathered into Christ's barn.

The Great Gathering: from An Illustrated Summary of J.C. Ryle's Practical Religion

This is a chapter from J.C. Ryle's classic book Practical Religion.

THE GREAT GATHERING

"Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him." 2 Thessalonians 2:1

"Our gathering together": those three words touch a note that finds a response in every part of the world. People are by nature social beings; we do not like being along. Go where you will on earth, people generally like meeting together and seeing one another's faces. It is the exception rather than the rule to find those who do not. Even in the best of gatherings, however, there is no unmixed pleasure about any of them. The Bible speaks of an assembly to come with complete joy and no sorrow attached.

1. What and when is the gathering together of true Christians to come? This gathering shall take place at the end of the world, when Christ returns to earth the second time. As surely as He came the first time, so shall He come the second. In the clouds of heaven He went away, and in clouds He shall return. He went away visibly and bodily the first time, and that is how He will return. The first thing Christ will do then is gather together His people: "He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:31). 

The manner of this gathering together is plainly revealed in Scripture. The dead saints shall all be raised and the living saints shall all be changed. It is written, "The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Every member of Christ will there be found, not one missing, each glorified soul joined to his or her glorified body.

A. This gathering together will be great. All true children of God who have ever lived, from Abel the first saint down to  the last born again just before Jesus returns, all from every age, nation, church, people, and language shall be assembled together. Now when scattered, true Christians seem like a little flock, but when gathered like this will be "a great multitude which no one could number" (Revelation 7:9).

B. This gathering together will be wonderful. The saints from distant lands who never saw each other and could not understand each other's speech if they met shall all be brought together in one harmonious company. Believers who died 5,000 years ago and whose bones are mere dust shall find their bodies raised and renewed as quickly as those who are alive when the trumpet sounds. Many miracles of grace will be revealed. We shall see some in heaven whom we never expected would have been saved at all. The confusion of tongues shall at last be reversed and done away with. The assembled multitude will cry out with one voice and heart, "Oh, what God has done!" (Numbers 23:23).

C. This gathering will be humbling. It will make an end of bigotry and narrowmindedness forever. The Christians of one denomination shall joyfully find themselves side by side with those of another, worshiping and praying together. No more sectarianism, party spirit, jealousy, and pride. At last we shall be completely "clothed with humility" (1 Peter 5:5). 

Gatherings of other kinds incessantly occupy our minds, but the hour comes when social, political, scientific, and economic meetings will be completely forgotten. One thought alone will swallow up men and women's minds then: Shall I be gathered with Christ's people into a place of safety and honor, or left behind to eternal woe?

2. Why is this gathering together so desirable? Paul's concluding words about our being gathered together to be always with the Lord are these: "Therefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18). 

A. It will be a state totally unlike the present condition. To be scattered and not gathered seems the rule of man's existence now. Of all the millions who are annually born into this world, how few continue together until they die? Children who draw their first breath under the same roof are likely to draw their last breath far apart. The same applies to the people of God, who are spread abroad like salt, one in one place and one in another, and seldom able to continue long side by side. It is good for the world that their light and salt penetrate many dark and decaying corners, but it is no small trial to believers. Many days they long for more communion with those who love the Lord. They may look forward with hope and comfort: the hour is coming when they shall have no lack of godly companions.

B. It will be a united assembly of one mind. There are no such assemblies now. Mixture, hypocrisy, and false profession creep in everywhere. To borrow from the parables of Jesus, wherever there is wheat there are sure to be tares. Wherever there are good fish there are sure to be bad. Wherever there are wise virgins there are sure to be foolish. There is no such thing as a perfect church now. All that shall come to an end one day. Our Lord shall at length present "a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). We will all see eye to eye with miserable controversies and squabbling buried forever. Everyone's graces will be fully developed and besetting sins dropped off like leaves in autumn. No wonder Paul encourages us to look forward!

C. It will be a meeting at which none shall be absent. The weakest lamb will not be left behind in the wilderness. We shall once more see our beloved friends and relatives who died in Christ and left us in sorrow now better, brighter, more beautiful and more pleasant than ever we found them on earth. We shall enjoy the mighty company of all the saints of God who have fought the good fight before us, from the beginning of the world to the end. If to read their words and works has been pleasant, think how much more delightful it will be to talk with them and ask them questions! To sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and hear how they kept the faith without any Bible; to converse with Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, and Daniel and hear how they could believe in a Christ yet to come; to converse with Peter, Paul, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary and listen to their wondrous tales of what their Master did for them.

D. It will be a meeting without a parting. There are no such meetings now. We seem to live in an endless hurry and can hardly sit down and take a breath before we are off again. Goodbye treads on the heels of hello. The cares of this world, the necessary duties of life, the needs of our families, the work of our various employments all appear to eat up our days and make it impossible to have long, quiet times of communion with God's people. It shall not always be so. We will meet in a world where the former things have passed away into an endless state of being calm, restful, and unhurried without change or tears.

3. How can one be a part of this great gathering? Here is a plain means of testing your own soul's condition if you want to know your own chances of being gathered into God's home. Ask yourself what kind of gatherings you like best here on earth. Do you love the assembling together of God's people? Your tastes on earth are a sure evidence of the state of your heart. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. He who hopes to be gathered with saints in heaven while he loves only the gathering of sinners on earth is deceiving himself. Grasp hold by faith on "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him." Believe it, think often about it, and rest on it. It is all true. 

Heirs of God: from An Illustrated Summary of J.C. Ryle's Practical Religion

This is a chapter from J.C. Ryle's classic book Practical Religion.

HEIRS OF GOD

"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." Romans 8:14-17

The people of whom Paul speaks in those verses are the richest people on earth. The inheritance of these people is the only inheritance really worth having. All others are unsatisfying and disappointing by comparison. They bring with them many cares. They cannot cure an aching heart, lighten a heavy conscience, or keep away family troubles. They cannot prevent sickness, separations, and death. But there is no disappointment among the heirs of God. Their inheritance is the only one that can be kept forever because it is eternal. It is also the only inheritance that is within everyone's reach. Most people cannot obtain riches and greatness, though they work hard for them all their lives. But glory, honor, and eternal life are offered to every person freely who is willing to accept them on God's terms.

If you wish to have a portion of this inheritance, you must become one of God's children on earth if you desire to have glory in heaven. None but true Christians are the children of God. None but the children of God are heirs of God.

1. The relation of all true Christians to God: They are "sons of God." To be servants, disciples, soldiers, and friends of God are all excellent titles, but to be sons and daughters of God is a step higher still. As Jesus said, "A slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever" (John 8:35).  To be the child of wealthy and powerful parents is commonly reckoned a great temporal advantage and privilege. But to be a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords—to be a son or daughter of the High and Holy One who inhabits eternity—that is something far greater. Yet this is the exalted position of every true Christian.

How can sinful men and women like ourselves become sons and daughters of God? When do we enter into this glorious relationship? We were not born so when we came into this fallen world. No one has a natural right to look to God as his or her Father. The Book of Ephesians tells us plainly, "You were by nature children of wrath," just as all others are born (Ephesians 2:3). First John 3:10 states, "The children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God." Sin is hereditary and runs in the family of Adam. Grace is anything but hereditary, and holy men do not automatically have holy sons. How then and when does this mighty change come about?

We become sons and daughters of God when the Holy Spirit of God leads us to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, and not before. Galatians 3:26 says, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." What does the Gospel of John say? To as many as receive Christ, God gives the power and privilege to become children of God, specifically meaning "those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). Faith unites repentant sinners to the Son of God and makes them part of His forever family. The Bible also teaches that the children of God are chosen from eternity and predestined to adoption, but it is not until individuals are called in due time and believe that you and I can recognize they are sons and daughters of God. It is at that point when there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10). 

Beware of the delusive notion that all men and women are alike children of God, whether they have faith in Christ or not. The sonship we have by creation belongs to stones, trees, animals, and even to the devil (Job 1:6), but it gives no one a title to heaven. God is full of love and compassion for all His creation, but He is also perfectly just and holy. That is why there is only one Mediator between God and man: the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). 

The Gospel sets an open door before every man and woman. Its promises are wide and full. Its invitations are earnest and tender. Its requirements are simple and clear: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:9-10). Proud and worldly people are fooling themselves if they think they can  refuse God's terms yet dare to consider God their Father in any familial sense. 

Ask yourself consciously in God's sight whether you have repented of your sins and believed in Christ. If you have not, see and feel your sins and flee to Christ for salvation. Confess them before Him and He will faithfully and justly forgive your your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). You will be pardoned by God the Father and "accepted in the Beloved," who is Christ (Ephesians 1:6). Be forever thankful, saying, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God" (1 John 3:1). How wonderful that holy God should set His affections on sinful men and women and admit them into His family! The people who can rightfully call God their Father and Christ their elder Brother need never be ashamed.

2. The special evidences of sonship: True Christians are "led by the Spirit." They have "the Spirit of adoption." They have the "witness of the Spirit." They "suffer with Christ." Those are the marks, signs, and tokens by which the true sons and daughters of God may be known.

A. True Christians are "led by the Spirit." Romans 8:14 declares, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." They are all under the leading and teaching of the Almighty. No longer do they follow their own ways and desires. The divine Person of the Holy Spirit guides their hearts, lives, and affections towards increasing holiness.

They are led away from sin, away from self-righteousness and worldliness. Those whom God adopts He teaches and trains. He makes them weary of their own ways and long for inward peace.

They are led to Christ, who leads them to the Bible, prayer, and holiness. That is the beaten path along which the Spirit makes them travel. Those whom God adopts He always sanctifies. He makes sin very bitter to them and holiness very sweet. The sons of God are a people led by the Spirit of God. Their experience will tally wonderfully when they compare notes in heaven. This is one mark of sonship.

B. True Christians have "the Spirit of adoption." They have the feelings of adopted children towards their Father in heaven. We are told, "You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father!'" (Romans 8:15). The sons of God are delivered from the slavish fear of God that sin produces in the unredeemed heart. They are redeemed from the same feeling of guilt that made Adam "hide himself in the trees of the Garden" and Cain "go out from the presence of the Lord" (Genesis 3:8; 4:16). They are no longer afraid of God's holiness, justice, and majesty. They no longer feel  the great barrier between themselves and God. Some of them have this feeling more vividly than others, but very few could be found who would not say that since they knew Christ, they have had very different feelings towards God than before. They feel as if something like the old Roman form of adoption had taken place between themselves and their Father in heaven, who said, "Will you be My son?" and heard in reply, "I will."

C. True Christians have "the witness of the Spirit." Romans 8:16 states, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." This lets them know deep down inside that there is a relationship between them and God. They know that for them old things are passed away and all things become new: guilt is gone, peace is restored, heaven's door is open, and hell's door is shut. It is a felt, positive, and reasonable hope. They have what Paul calls the seal, earnest, or down payment of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13). This witness of the Spirit embedded in the conscience is another mark of sonship.

D. True Christians "suffer with Christ." A final comment from Romans 8 on sonship is this: If we are children of God, that means we are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together" (Romans 8:17). All children of God have a cross to carry. They have trials, troubles, and afflictions to go through for the Gospel's sake from the world, the flesh, and the devil. They have trials of feeling from relatives and friends: hard words, treatment, and judgment. They have trials in the matter of character: slander, misrepresentation, mockery, and insinuation of false motives. They often have to choose whether they will please others and lose glory or gain glory and offend others. They have trials from their own hearts, their own home-devil, who is their worst foe.

Suffering is part of belonging to the Lord's family. "Whom the Lord loves, He chastens.... If you are without chastening, then you are illegitimate and not sons" (Hebrews 12:6-8). "We must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12). Suffering is a part of the process by which the children of God are sanctified. The Captain of their salvation was "made perfect through suffering," and so are they (Hebrews 2:10; 12:10). 

Beware of a sonship without evidences. When a person has no leading of the Spirit, no spirit of adoption to tell of, no internal witness of the Spirit, and no cross in his or her experience, is that person really a son or daughter of God? Dare not to say so. On the other hand, embrace what evidence there is. Who made you love Christ and hate sin? Who made you long and labor to be holy? Where did those feelings come from? Not from the natural man or woman's heart. Cheer up and take courage. Press forward. Ask, seek, knock. That is how you will see that you number among the sons and daughters of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The privileges of sonship: True Christians are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." The text from Romans 8 that heads this chapter summarizes, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." Being heirs means that something is prepared for all true Christians that has yet to be revealed. They are "heirs of God." To be heirs of the rich on earth is something. How much more then is it to be children and heirs of the King of kings! They are "joint heirs with Christ." They shall share in His majesty and take part in His glory. They will be glorified together with Him. 

God takes care to provide for all His children. None  are disinherited. None will be cut off. Each shall stand in his place and have a portion in the day when the Lord brings many sons to glory. Who can tell the full nature of what Colossians 1:12 describes as "the inheritance of the saints in light"? Language falls short. It is a true saying of the apostle John: "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). Some of the truths we know from 1 Peter and the Book of Revelation are that there will be no corruption, no fading, no withering, no devil, no curse of sin, no sorrow, no tears, no sickness, and no death. What bliss! These are positive realities for the heirs of God to derive strength from now:

A. Is knowledge pleasant to you now? Is the little you know of God, Christ, and the Bible precious to your soul, and do you long for more? We shall have it perfectly in glory. As Paul writes, "Now I know in part, but then shall I know just as I also am known" (1 Corinthians 13:12). Blessed be God, there will be no more disagreements among believers! All will at length see eye to eye. The former ignorance will have passed away. We shall marvel to find how childish and blind we have been.

B. Is holiness pleasant to you now? Do you long for entire conformity to Christ, to "be imitators of God, as beloved children" (Ephesians 5:1)? Is sin the burden and bitterness of your life? Take heart: "Christ gave Himself for the church," not only that He might sanctify it on earth, but also "that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). Oh, the blessedness of an eternal goodbye to sin! No more tainting of our motives, thoughts, words, and actions.

C. Is rest pleasant to you now? Do you often feel "exhausted yet pursuing" (Judges 8:4)? Do you long for a world in which we need not always be watching and warring? We shall have it perfectly in glory, being assured that there remains a rest for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9). The daily, hourly conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil will come to an end. There shall be great calm and peace.

D. Is service pleasant to you now? Do you find it sweet to work for Christ, yet groan being burdened by a feeble body? The spirit is often willing, but the flesh is weak. Take comfort: you will be able to serve perfectly in glory and without weariness. Revelation 7:15 speaks of blissful service to God day and night before His throne.

E. Is satisfaction pleasant to you now? Do you find the world empty? Do you long for the filling up of every void place and gap in your heart and mind? You shall have it in heaven. No longer will you say with Solomon, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit!" (Ecclesiastes 1). Instead of saying, "I have seen a limit to all perfection" (Psalm 119:96), you will say to God with David, "I will see Your face in righteousness;  I will be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness" (Psalm 17:15).

F. Is communion with the saints pleasant to you now? Are you never so happy as when you are with what Psalm 16:3 well describes as the excellent of the earth? Are you ever so much at home as in their company? We will enjoy this happy communion forever in glory. Jesus tells us, "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness.... And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 13:41; 24:31). Praise God, we shall see all the saints whom we have read about in the Bible and in whose steps we have tried to walk! We shall enjoy the company of apostles, prophets, patriarchs, martyrs, reformers, missionaries, ministers, and so many others of whom the world was not worthy. We shall see the faces of those we have known and loved in Christ on earth over whose departure we shed bitter tears. We shall see them more bright and glorious than they ever were before. Best of all, we shall see them without hurry and anxiety, not feeling that we only meet to part again. In the coming glory there is no death, parting, or farewell.

G. Is communion with Christ pleasant to you now? Do you find His name precious to you? Do you feel your heart burn within you at the thought of His sacrificial love for His people? You shall have perfect communion with Him in heaven. When He returns for us, "we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). We shall be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:43). These eyes of ours will see His beloved face, the hands and feet pierced with nails, and regal head that was crowned with thorns. Where He is, there the sons and daughters of God will be. When He comes, they will come with Him. When He sits down in His glory, they shall sit down by His side.

If you are one of those who are sons and heirs, you may well rejoice. You may well wait, like the boy Patience in The Pilgrim's Progress: your best things are yet to come. You may well bear crosses without complaining: your light affliction is but for a moment (2 Corinthians 4:17). The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is yet to be revealed (Romans 8:18). When Christ, who is our life, appears,  we also shall appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:4). Honor Him now by implicit obedience to all His commands and hearty love for all His children. Labor to travel through this world like a child of God and heir to glory. Let others be able to trace a family likeness between you and the One who adopted you.