When Death is Like Noon
Remsen Bible Fellowship, 10/25/2020
Introduction:
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day. Proverbs 4:18
In verses 14-19 of Proverbs 4, the Sage is giving his son warnings about the path of the wicked. The wicked, cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. Where does this path lead? The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. The path of the wicked isn’t only wicked, it isn’t only sinful-it’s blindness, darkness, it is stumbling around in a world full of unknowing. But piercing this warning is verse 18, which gives us a contrasting path.
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
Wickedness. Righteousness. Darkness. Light. These are familiar images, word pictures, metaphors in the Biblical text.
I wonder what you are afraid of. Are you afraid of the dark? It sounds childish, so you might be afraid to admit to it. Most of humanity is afraid of the dark. If you don’t believe me, here are a few questions: how often do you drive down the road at night with your headlights turned off? How many of us would feel comfortable walking down a dark alley in a strange city? Who among us would volunteer to have our heart surgeon try working in total darkness?
Of course, it’s not the dark itself that we are afraid of. We are afraid of what that darkness might be concealing, what it might be hiding. Our fear stems from the absence of light. Light reveals, it illumines, light guides. The presence of light provides safety.
This is simply a statement of what most of us find to be common sense: light brings safety. So if you drive tonight, you’ll turn the headlights on; most people walking through the house at night will rely on a night light or they’ll hit a light switch; and by all means-if you’re a surgeon, please use a light.
But if all of this seems commonsensical, I wonder if you realize that for each and every one of us, our natural state is one of walking, living even, in the dark. Because we’re wicked. In John 3:19, Jesus says, And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. We all are born in this darkness, and we all resist the light. Which explains another universal fear: death.
Death is the most universal of human experiences. Even Jesus, the Son of God himself, experienced death in his human nature. King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 2:16, For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! We’re going to die, and be forgotten. And this terrifies us. Death is the deepest darkness of all, and most of us spend our time avoiding any thought of it.
We look for diets, haircuts, and clothes that make us look, or at least feel, younger. We’re the society of nursing homes, senior meals, and retirement communities, so that folks my age rarely have to interact with someone visibly nearing eternity. I know people who avoid funerals for that same reason, an avoidance of the reality of mortality. And in ways, this can seem like it makes sense. Who wants to be morbid? Who wants to think about the daylight of life moving past evening and into darkness?
But what if I told you you didn’t have to think about age as fading or death as darkness? What if death could be like noon, something that takes place at the fullest, brightest moment of life, and leads us further into brighter light, fuller joy, righteousness, and life, for all of eternity? That is the reality which Proverbs 4:18 points toward. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
As we think about this verse, I want to ask three questions:
Who are the righteous?
How can my path be bright?
When is the full day?
Point 1: Who are the righteous?
Who do we typically think of when we think of the wicked and the righteous?
Who is righteous biblically? Psalm 53:3, They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. Romans 3:19-20, Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being[a] will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
In light of these texts, who are the wicked?
How can we be made righteous? Romans 3:21-26, 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Belief, by which we receive an alien righteousness. God justifies and is the justifier of the one who has faith.
Through faith in Christ, we are justified, that is, we receive an imputed righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
But, that isn’t all there is to the story. If we receive a righteousness that is not our own, we will increasingly live in a way that actually is righteous.
1 John 2:2-6, 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
Point 2: How can my path be bright?
Remember, that our passage says that, the path of the righteous is like the like of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter as the day draws near.
So, if we have trusted in Christ, if we are clothed in his righteousness, what does that do to our life? The writer would seem to indicate that our path ought to grow brighter and brighter.
1 John 1:5-7, 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we are walking in obedience to God, exposing ourselves to what he says, by reading his word, by coming to church hearing that word preached, and praying, as we did to open, that God the Holy Spirit would illumine our hearts to what we need to hear, we are going to have light shining into our lives.
This can be a very uncomfortable experience (see John 3:19-20). It exposes us, it shows us where we fail and fall short.
But it also is comforting. Because if we start with I am a sinner, unable to save myself, wholly dependent upon Jesus’ righteousness to save me, then we can look at our sin and understand that it is there, that it is ugly, and that it needs to go. But we don’t have to freak out about if I don’t do this, if I don’t get this right, God won’t love me. Rather, we already know that he loves us, and that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
We can pursue growing in righteousness, becoming more holy in our life, because we know that God already considers us holy because of Jesus. This means we have freedom as his children to live in the light, without fear. It is from this position of security that we may pursue living in rhythm with the way God has ordered the world, which incidentally, is the point of the book of Proverbs.
What happens when we do this? We receive a peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7), a joy inexpressible and filled with glory (1 Peter 1:8), and these are things which are not dependent upon our temporal circumstances. That joy can fill your soul, even if you lose a job. That peace can still your mind, even when you lose a loved one. These not passing fancies of a nice day at church. They are the regular benefits of walking close to Christ, seeking first his kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
I wonder, has this been your experience as a believer in Jesus Christ? If not, why?
Are you trusting him for your everything, or are you looking in other places for satisfaction?
Are you pursuing him daily by turning to Scripture, repenting of sin, and seeing to keep in step with the Spirit by pursuing unity with other believers?
It’s easy-but wrong-to feel God has let us down and left us when we have in fact turned away from him.
Point 3: When is the full day?
So, our final question: when is the full day in Proverbs 4:18? In order to answer that question, I want to simply read a number of passages, then summarize what I think they’re saying to us.
Romans 8:28-30, 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
2 Corinthians 3:18, 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Philippians 1:6, And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
1 John 3:2-3, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Here’s what I believe we see in these passages: that if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, it is because God called you before the foundation of the world. But he didn’t just call you to be saved from hell, rather, he called you to be conformed to the image of his Son, and one day to be glorified. As we behold God in the Scriptures, and his Spirit works within us to bring about this conformity to Jesus, we are being transformed, even in this life. But this work will sometimes be slow, and will not be complete until the day or Christ Jesus, when we shall see him as he is. In that day we will not only be counted righteous because of Christ, but we will have actually been made righteous by Christ.
So the truth we see pointed to in Proverbs 4:18 is that this increases throughout the life of someone walking with God. It stands in stark contrast with the path of the wicked, which grows increasingly dark.
Which direction is your path headed? For those in Christ, your path should grow increasingly bright, you should be increasingly holy, experiencing more joy. Not perfect, but increasing.
Which brings us back to death. The reason the righteous person, the person who has been forgiven by God because of Christ’s work in them, never has to fear death is this: for them, death is like noon. It is not a passing out of existence, it is not the end. Rather, it is the moment when the peace, the joy, and the conformity to Christ which have been increasingly present in their life move from being faint hints, mere shadows, the early rays of day, and become broad daylight. They increase, when we pass into his presence, into the full day. Death need not be darkness. For us, death is like noon.
Conclusion
Living in this light, the light of a forgiveness which enables obedience, allows us to wholeheartedly pursue a holy life, right here and now. But it also, and more importantly, allows us to see that here and now is not all there is. We have hope forever in Christ, and that is worth rejoicing over.