The Time Of Your Life
Bible Facts Newspaper Article (Ian C. Kurylyk)
"For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14b,c). The Bible asks the deepest and most significant questions of humanity, and then goes on to answer them. "What is your life?" This question refers to a man's brief journey on planet earth between the cradle and the grave.
The observations in this passage about life are very sobering. Life is unsure. The first part of the verse James 4:14 says, "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow." Life is insubstantial, like a vapour. Solomon looked at this life under the sun and wrote, "vanity of vanities; all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2b). Life is insignificant - in regard to its length. Compared to eternity which lasts forever, this life which vanishes away is truly like a vapour.
But while life is insignificant in length, it is not in importance. The Bible goes on to teach us that the short span of life on earth is significant indeed. Eternity depends upon it. We will make decisions in time that determine matters of eternity for us. The wise man sees time as an opportunity to prepare for his eternal well being. God left His Word to challenge us about this opportunity. The Bible speaks authoritatively about things we can know about no other way.
God teaches us that the end of life here is the end of this opportunity. "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). The brief span of time given in this life is the opportunity we have to prepare for when we must face God and enter eternity. This is the single most important use of time, to search out God's program for our eternity, to ponder heaven and hell, and to see to it that we enter the Door of eternal life.
Our present life is truly a gift from God. We cannot say we deserve it in view of the sins we have committed. To be alive is a gift of God's goodness. We partake of God's goodness every day. The provisions He makes to sustain human life are not obtained because man is good but because God is good. "Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17). God is good to the just and the unjust. Only God's goodness and longsuffering has kept us alive so we still live in within the pale of opportunity. If God's judgment for sin were to fall upon men the moment they sinned, all human life would have ended long ago.
Many people mistake the extra time He allows through His forbearance for an opportunity to sin further. "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance" (Romans 2:4). God's intention is that people respond to His goodness by having a change of mind about sin (repenting) and turning to Him. This brings us to an even greater experience of God's goodness, eternal life in Jesus Christ. God sent His own Son to this earth to die in the place of sinners. His death means God has already paid the price for your sin. You must simply turn from sin and receive the resurrected Saviour by faith. Eternal life is the gift of God's goodness through Jesus Christ. The present life is the gift of opportunity to make it your own. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Corinthians 6:2b)
