One of the most undesirable experiences that a person can encounter is that of loneliness. Some look back to childhood days when they were surrounded by family members; there was laughter, companionship, helpfulness, mutual care and love. However the enemy, death, gate-crashed the family and one after another, loved ones were taken and loneliness followed.
Perhaps others feel the emptiness of loneliness because a spouse died after many years of happy marriage. How often we have heard the following sentiment expressed, "It’s not too bad during the day when I can get out and about, but it is when darkness falls and I am alone in the house. A house that formerly was alive with chatter and friendly banter is now silent."
If loneliness on earth for a period of time is so sad and painful, what an awful thing it must be to experience this for eternity. For every soul that dies without Jesus Christ as Saviour the only outlook is the "blackness of darkness forever" Jude v.13. Some foolhardy and spiritually ignorant people have the mistaken idea that when they arrive in hell they will meet their friends and enjoy an eternal party! Since the judgment of God will be absolutely righteous, no two people will have the same sentence allocated to them and so each will be alone for eternity. What a horrendous thought, lonely and in the dark, under the judgment of God for all eternity.
However, there is One Who can save us from such an eternity of woe. In wondrous love God sent His Son to die for sinners. He bore the judgment so that we, so undeserving, could be rescued from hell. God’s Son, Jesus Christ, experienced loneliness in His life. He was, "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" Isaiah 53.3. We read that He was homeless, John 7.53-8.1 "And every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives". He had no comfortable shelter, "Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head" Matthew 8.20. However, when we want to see the depth of the loneliness He suffered for us, we must come to His death. As He anticipated His sufferings He said, "Reproach hath broken My heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none" Psalm 69.20. But it was when He hung in the agony of dark Calvary’s cross He cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Matthew 27.46. God left Him alone when "His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree" 1Peter 2.24.
H. K. Burlingham wrote these words:
- "Alone upon His cross, God’s judgment Jesus bore,
- He paid in full the cost of glory evermore:
- His precious blood was freely shed,
- And Jesus crushed the serpent’s head!"
"The blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin" 1 John 1.7.
By trusting Him as your Saviour you will never experience eternal loneliness, but will enjoy the bliss of His companionship both now and for evermore.
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video bible teaching visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk.
Written for FTMP by a Guest Blogger (copyright Assembly Testimony)
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