”Whether the Lord will that I be translated or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not, if it so be that I am saved in the kingdom of God.”
So many times, God is questioned and ridiculed because He doesn’t do this or that. All the while such complaints are ignorant of the great good that God has done. What has God done? He has overcome our challenges and provides an escape for all of us from the powers of death and hell! If God did nothing more, the debt that we owe to Him for these things alone would be much more than we could ever repay!
Does mankind still suffer? Yes, a great deal. But God has provided a way to escape this suffering. If God did nothing, there would be absolutely no way for any of us to escape the sufferings of this life, both in the torments we can face while living and in our ultimate demise in death. If not for our God, we would be confined to a state of misery and torment forever. If God did nothing, there would be no life after death. When a man died, that would be the end and his spirit would be subject to misery forever.
But this does not need to be so. God has provided a way to escape! He has overcome the powers of death and hell and endless torment! We can be partakers of His salvation which saves us from these terrible powers. Then do we not have reason to rejoice? Do we not have reason to praise our God? Should we not be grateful and exceedingly glad and praise Him, who has fought the fight and won the battle for our escape from endless doom?
If God did nothing more than what he has already done, we would be forever indebted to Him for overcoming and providing our escape from misery and endless woe. Yet God does do more. He does bless us. Even now He gives us reasons to rejoice and be exceedingly glad! We do not need to remain in a state of sorrow forever!
Recognizing what God has done in providing an escape, should we not rejoice in that? And what does He ask of us? He asks the we heed His voice and keep His commandments.
Mankind became partakers of misery and woe, by heeding the enemy of God and following the counsel of the evil one. This state is ruled by the enemy of our souls. We are subject to the powers of death and hell because of the Fall, which mankind brought upon themselves because of disobedience.
When God has done so much to save us from these powers that we cannot escape ourselves, should we quibble that He has not done more? Should we doubt Him because our lives do not immediately conform with our expectations? Should we doubt his mercy and loving kindness and forgiveness to us?
If you suppose that God has not done enough in proving an escape from death and hell, perhaps you should wake up to the very powers that are about to consume you! Awake now! to sense of your awful state! The gates of hell are open wide, ready to receive you. Is the way to escape narrow? Yes it is. But it does exist! And for that, there is great reason to rejoice and walk in that path to escape the very powers of death and hell.
If you found yourself stranded on ledge with an enormous cliff both above and beneath you with no possible way to escape, then found someone lowering a rope to help you get out, would you complain that they had not done more? Would you murmur that your escape was not more comfortable? Would you speak evil against the one who has come to save you? Only a fool would not rejoice and be exceedingly glad that someone took notice of your predicament and devised a way to save you!
Oh rejoice and praise God for what He has done! If we could only receive what God has truly done and is offering us, then all of these other things, really would not matter.