This very morning, the grave marker was lowered into its place. I didn’t want the day to come, but knew that it must. It feels so final.
Yet strange hope rouses me.
I remember Mama’s trust in Jesus. She knew, perhaps more than anybody else, how much she needed the Lord. She knew she had sinned and strayed. Haven’t we all? She knew she’d relied too heavily on the securities of the world. She knew her own spiritual bankruptcy: that she was entirely unable to earn the favor of God.
But. She knew she was loved and forgiven.
My mother understood what Jesus had done for her on the cross, and all that He had secured for her 2000 years ago.
She knew that following Christ is even better than having your slate wiped clean.
She knew that following Christ is even better than being granted a brand-new start.
She knew that following Christ is even better than receiving supernatural strength.
She knew that following Christ is even better than taking up a fulfilling way of life.
Each of those … a forgiven past … a new mission and the needed power supply to walk it out … and a decisively unexplainable contentment … represent beautiful realities of the Christian life. But, as we consider our own mortality, we need to know the core truth of Christ’s gospel.
So, if you’re a believer, here’s the good news about you …
Your guilt was put on Christ.
Christ’s righteousness is put on you.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). That means that God has declared you perfect in Jesus Christ. Totally perfect. Totally. Perfect.
When God the Father sees my mother, He sees the goodness of His own Son. The same is true for you, and for me.
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting” (1 Corinthians 15:55).
Friends, death is not the final word. For those who are trusting in the perfect righteousness of the Son of God, it never is. The final word is an empty tomb! My mother’s life, and death, and guaranteed resurrection point to her risen Savior and Lord. So my heavy, humdrum heart is stirred anew with riveting gospel hope.
As Mama’s gravestone itself echoes the spellbinding words of Jesus, I can hear with new ears His unshakable promise: “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).
Charles Wesley penned the words in 1739, and my mother included these great and gracious truths in the last Easter presentation which she led with her beloved St. Paul Silver Singers …
“Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!”
ALLELUIA!
ALLELUIA!
ALLELUIA!
ALLELUIA!
I can almost hear Mama shouting.
Pastor Charles
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