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SAFE IN JESUS' ARMS
GARY INRIG
As a pastor sitting with parents when their children died, I have prayed for words and wished for a satisfying Scripture verse.
Although God has not given us a comprehensive passage dealing with children’s death, He has given us insights. The first is God’s own character—He is consummately loving and gracious. Second, Jesus’ compassion for and value of children shines in passages such as Matthew 18. He treats children as blessings and delights to bless them, despite complaints (Mk. 10:13-16). Third, the Bible affirms that even infants bear sin, and salvation comes only through faith in Christ. Concurrently, God deals graciously toward those unable to comprehend and believe His revealed gospel (see Jn. 9:41; Rom. 1:20; Deut. 1:39; Is. 7:16). Their security, however, is only through Christ’s work applied to them, not their righteousness.
The most direct insight comes from David. Explaining why he stopped weeping and fasting when his infant son died, he cried, “Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam. 12:23). Many have read resignation into those words: “He’s gone, and I can’t bring him back.” David, though, knew where he was going at death—to the Lord’s house, where he would dwell forever (Ps. 23:6), and into His presence with fullness of joy (Ps. 16:10, 11). David is saying, “My son may have gone, but I will be reunited with him”.
God provides both for children’s prenatal life (Ps. 139) and for their life beyond this one. He who said, “Let the little children come to Me” (Mt. 19:14), by his death has opened the door and welcomed them into his Father’s house (Jn. 14:1-6).
Copyright 2014 Life Assurance Ministries, Inc., Camp Verde, Arizona, USA. All rights reserved. Revised August 25, 2014. Contact email: proclamation@gmail.com
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VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2
