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Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth.This year you are going to die.

Jeremiah 28:16

The newly elected and installed president of Princeton College, Jonathan Edwards, took over for his son-in-law Aaron Burr Sr. after Burr’s death. Edwards died a few months later in March 1758 from complications of a small pox inoculation. Shortly after Edwards’ death Samuel Davies, a Presbyterian evangelist from Hanover County, Virginia, became president of Princeton. Davies preached a sermon January 1, 1761 to the students of Princeton from Jeremiah 28:15–17, the account of Hananiah the false prophet whom Jeremiah said would die that very year. Davies was giving a sober warning to the students of Princeton, exhorting them to be prepared to meet their God. Davies himself died unexpectedly a few months after this sermon, preaching as one historian wrote, his own funeral.2

As you begin a new year or celebrate your birthday, perhaps you should ask yourself this question—are you prepared to meet your God? There really is no more important question than this one. When one closes his eyes in death and sees for the first time either the glories of heaven or the horrors of hell, nothing in his life, neither his accomplishments nor disappointments will matter. Are you prepared to meet God?

I urge you to prepare yourself on three levels—economically, relationally, and eternally. By economically I have in mind the exhortation of Proverbs 6:6ff, where we are urged to consider the planning of the ant. We are to put away lethargy and laziness and to pursue diligence. Work, tithe, save, procure adequate insurance for your family, invest, and make sure you have a will. By relationally I mean leave nothing unsaid or undone with anyone. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:23–24 that if we are presenting our offering before the altar and remember that someone has something against us, then we are to leave our offering, go and be reconciled (the Greek word has the idea of renewing again one’s friendship) to our brother, and then come and present our offering. Paul in Ephesians 4:26 gives a series of practical exhortations, among other things saying that we are to let no unwholesome words proceed from our mouths, that we are to be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven us. We are to be angry and not sin, not allowing the sun to go down on our anger. Are there any people in your life from whom you are now estranged? You don’t want these people leaving this world with things unsaid or undone between you. The guilt you experience will be painful. Are their people in your life with whom this year you ought to resurrect a relationship? My friend Henry Krabbendam of Covenant College has said that love always moves toward the person. Are you doing so?

But by far the most important area in which you are to be prepared to meet God is the eternal one. Surely there are some who are reading this book who will not be on the earth this time next year. It may be you, it may be me. Are you prepared to meet God? Asahel Nettleton, the great nineteenth century Presbyterian evangelist, said that we ought to spend a few moments every day contemplating the glories of heaven and the horrors of hell.3 Consider, for a moment, the horrors of hell. Jesus defined and made more vivid the doctrine of hell as a place of conscious, endless torment. (See Mark 9:42ff, Matthew 25:41.) Some theologians are now suggesting annihilation, that the soul in hell eventually is destroyed. In this view the unregenerate suffer there for a time, but then God in His mercy destroys the soul so that suffering is not eternal. Every argument I have read proposing annihilation can be reduced to an emotional one. Scripture is plain in what it says. Hell is forever. It is awful beyond our imagination. Is God unfair in condemning people to hell forever? Not at all. Ezekiel 16 is a graphic picture of Judah being rescued, lying in her blood and afterbirth, being taken in by Yahweh, loved, instructed, and provided for. The prophet says that in response to Yahweh’s grace Judah has played the harlot, spreading her legs to everyone who passes by. Jonathan Edwards suggested that the higher one’s position, the more we are responsible to that person. Thus when we violate that person, the more judgment we deserve. One who poorly treats a sibling who has treated him badly may deserve some punishment; but one who has treated poorly a sibling who has been magnanimous to him deserves a greater punishment. One who treats a father poorly who has neglected him may deserve some judgment, but one who has hated a loving father surely deserves a greater judgment. How much truer is it to say that man, who has rejected, hated, and mocked God who has so abundantly blessed him with every good thing to enjoy deserves condemnation. How much more does man deserve to be cast into hell forever when he rejects the lover of His soul?4 Indeed those who die without Christ go to hell where the fire is never quenched and the worm never dies. Are you not yet a Christian? Come to Christ now, humbly repenting, confessing your sin and need of a Savior. He will receive you, forgive you, and take you to heaven when you die.

And if you are a believer, then contemplate the glories of heaven that await you. As glorious as heaven is, it is not the final state. Theologians refer to heaven as the intermediate state. Revelation 19–21 is a vivid picture of heaven, and surely it is wondrous. But there is something even better: the new heaven and new earth (2 Peter 3:13, Isaiah 65:17ff). Dear Christian, when you die your soul immediately enters the glorious presence of Jesus Christ, where you will see Him in all His resurrected glory (Revelation 1:13ff). It is as though you will enter a vast room inhabited by people of every tongue, tribe, and nation, all the saints of all the ages. The focal point will be the risen, glorified Christ. But a day will come when Christ returns to earth, and all will be raised to meet Him. Believers will be given glorified bodies, (1 Corinthians 15:42–44), and will dwell on the new earth with Christ ruling there forever. Practically, this new heaven and earth means the physical pain and suffering you or your redeemed loved ones experienced on earth will be no more. The body will be made perfect. Never again will there be pain, disease, death, hatred, war, or injustice. The glory of God will dwell there. Christ will rule there. And the earth will be restored to its pre-fall condition.

Now in this life you need to cultivate a taste for heaven and the new earth. Perhaps you, even though a Christian are too enamored with this world. It’s like taking a teen who loves hip hop music to a symphony. He is bored with it because he has not acquired a taste for better music. Heaven may seem boring to you because you don’t think on it enough. You are not preparing yourself enough for it. Think on your loved ones there. See the risen Christ receiving praise from all who reside there. Dwell on the marvelous promise that you will receive a glorified body. Prepare to meet God.

2. Davies, Sermons by the Reverend Samuel Davies, in 3 volumes, volume 2, 195.

3. Tyler, The Life and Labours of Asahel Nettleton, 132.

4. Edwards, The Wrath of Almighty God: Jonathan Edwards on God’s Judgment against Sinners, 87.