Luke 12:23,24

Luke 12:23

Man's Future Destiny.

I. Since the Resurrection, since Jesus came out of the sepulchre with the same or like body with which He entered into it, with the same faculties and senses, the future has ceased to be a practical question to discuss; both because of what we know and of what we do not know. We know enough to know that the changes which death makes will not be so very considerable. As the man is at night, so shall he be in the morning, although when the sun set he was living in a mortal body, and when it rose he had left the mortal body, and was living in an immortal body. But the going out of a house gives no right of inference that the man who goes out is affected in the least by the act; and the body can seem to no one who discerns between flesh and spirit anything more than a house in which a man lives.

II. The annihilation of life is (1) against the analogies of the universe. There is no evidence, even, that the lowest grade of matter is perishable. But if the base and low cannot be destroyed, on what have you to build an inference that the high and noble shall perish? If matter holds itself secure against duration, what friction of continued existence shall touch the lofty permanence of the soul? (2) Against the affections of the universe. The universe is affectionate. All orders of existence are blood-relations one to another. The grief at death, based on the apprehension of a subtle relationship existent between all orders of life, is felt everywhere, and by all, and for all bright things. (3) Graveyards are not for spirits. God does not smother life in sepulchres. All creatures shall live because He loves them, loves them as a parent loves his own. All creatures shall live, because His heart requires their life. The parent's joy is found in the possession of children, and who is to suggest that He, the Infinite Father, shall destroy His own felicity?

III. Upon the subject of the future life Jesus did not teach fully. Of the few things which He revealed plainly, these may be enumerated: (1) That men continue to live on; (2) that the moral natures they have in the mortal body they retain in the immortal boy; (3) that God alone has their destiny in charge. In His hands we may therefore reverently, prayerfully, hopefully, leave the destinies of our race.

W. H. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit,p. 463.

References: Luke 12:24. Sermons for Boys and Girls,p. 197. Luke 12:25; Luke 12:26. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 95.Luke 12:29. Expositor,1st series, vol. i., p. 249. Luke 12:31. J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 29.