It will come down for all of us, you know, at one time or another. The house lights will dim and then go out. The audience will be all those loved ones that survive us – for a time. For the final curtain will come down for them, too, sooner or later. Shakespeare had it right when he said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. And one man in his time plays many parts…..” I now play my grandest and final role. The stage manager is my Lord, our Lord, the Lord of glory. There will be no further curtain calls. When the curtain falls this time it will not be raised again until I myself am raised by a resurrection from the dead. So many roles I have played, most of them tragedies! But now is my finest hour. And I find I do not need the spotlight any longer. I am content to stand in the wings.
As believers, we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. (See I Corinthians 4:9). Angels are even called “watchers” in the Book of Daniel, the prophet. We are being observed from outer space, you might say. How they must be intrigued, often mystified, at the roles we assume. “How could he?” they might ask one another when we plunge into horrible rebellion and gross sin. And how they must sing for joy and applaud wildly when they observe a great sinner abandon his sin and bow before the Lord in adoration and obedience.
Scripture plainly and clearly declares that we mortals will not enjoy immortality until we are resurrected from the dead. (See I Corinthians 15:53). We do NOT become immortal the moment we die. The moment we die we become DEAD! Surprise, surprise, surprise. The apostle Paul wrote, “If the dead do not rise, ‘Let us eat, and drink, for tomorrow we die.'” (See I Corinthians 15:32). The apostle Paul knew nothing of any intermediate state between death and the resurrection. The resurrection is for the purpose of bringing us back from the dead. He goes on to say, “And as we have borne the image of the earthy (or, earthly body), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (verse 49, I Corinthians coupled with I John 3:2). And WHEN will we bear the image of our Lord and inherit immortality? “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, AT THE LAST TRUMP (the seventh and last trumpet blast spoken of in Revelation 10:7), for the trumpet shall sound, AND THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED incorruptible, (not come down from heaven and be rejoined to bodies long corrupted and disintegrated), and we shall be changed (from physical to spirit beings), for this corruptible (body) must put on incorruption (at the resurrection, NOT at the moment of death), and this mortal (body) must put on immortality (at that moment and not before). So when this corruptible (body) shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal (body) shall have put on immortality, THEN (and not before) shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.'” (verses 52-54, I Corinthians 15).
If we went to heaven the moment we died, then death would be swallowed up in victory the moment we died!! Paul declared plainly that if there is no resurrection of the dead then we are without hope of ever living again. Our continued enjoyment of life depends upon our being resurrected from the dead! (Read the entirety of the 15th chapter of I Corinthians). “The living know that they shall die, BUT THE DEAD KNOW NOT ANYTHING!!!!! (See Ecclesiastes 9:5). Billy Graham knows NOTHING at this moment. He is dead, awaiting a resurrection, his only hope of living again. “His (man’s) breath goes forth (he exhales his last breath), he returns to his earth (remember God told Adam and Eve, ‘Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return’), in that very day (of a man’s taking his last breath), HIS THOUGHTS PERISH” (See Psalm 146:4 with Genesis 3:19). Billy Graham isn’t thinking how wonderful it is to be in heaven right now. He isn’t thinking at all. His brain is filled with formaldehyde!!
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley