November 17, 2021

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth. Ecclesiastes 7:1

The true follower of Christ follows Him faithfully until the end. We are taught that the dead know nothing (Ecclesiastes 9:5) and do not praise the LORD (Psalm 115:17). Therefore the passage of time between the day of death and the return of the Savior seems only a moment, . . . the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52) for the dead in Christ. The legacy he (or she) leaves behind is better than precious ointment. Beloved, your faithfulness to Jesus is the very best gift you can leave to your loved ones on this earth.

John Calvin died a few weeks before his 55th birthday. His health had been fragile even from youth due to his hard work, long hours, and frequent neglect of his own needs. He had scarcely entered his 20s when he recognized the urgent need to exit the Roman Catholic church. He had been awakened to numerous, but not all, of the errors taught in the established church of the Dark Ages. He, like other heroes of the Reformation, gratefully recognized and received the light of truth that came to him. He tirelessly helped countless others escape the ruin that he had so thankfully escaped. In full view to the world was his quiet promotion of simplicity and purity in the life of God’s people; and all this in marked contrast to the dazzling show of wealth and pomp, pride and corruption fostered by the “mother church” in Rome. The study of God’s Word brought, with brilliant clarity, the identity of the unfaithful woman of Revelation, the very church of which he had been a part in his ignorance.

…for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Revelation 18:7b (see also the entire chapter of Isaiah 47)

But she will see sorrow! She has forsaken God who said ”For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is His name…” and has taken up with His avowed enemy. As Luther says, “For lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him.” And her widowhood is just as sure!

“Thou hast placed thy Word before me like a torch.” John Calvin