Eld Chew Chong Kiat

“So now the future holds no fear, God guards the work begun; And mortals are immortal here until their work is done.” (Revival Hymns & Choruses #327, All things work out for good, stanza 3, John W. Peterson)

How true! Surely God shall keep His redeemed alive until the work He plans for them to accomplish are done. But if one is disobedient and wilful, neglects the work that God wants him to occupy in, and lives in sin, God will chastise and even shorten his time here by calling him home early so that His glory will not be further tarnished. An example is found in the wilful Corinthian believers who partook of the Lord’s table unworthily. “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” (1Corinthians 11:30) Elijah, likewise, could have had more years to glorify God, but because his mind was set that he could no longer take the heat of the battle, God relieved him and took him home and passed the mantle to Elisha.

We have a good number of immortals in the Bible, whom God preserved for His own glory till their work was done.

1.  Apostle Paul. His enemies left him for dead after stoning him in Lystra; “as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.” (Acts 14:20) He recounted the sufferings and near death experiences in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and said he was “in deaths oft” (v23), received 39 stripes on five occasions (v24), was “thrice beaten with rods, thrice shipwrecked, a night and a day in the deep (v25), in dangers in his travel because of robbers and false brethren (v26). By all counts, given all that he went through, he should have long been dead many times over, so how did he survive all these? We can only conclude that God’s work through him was not done. God planned for him to testify in Rome. It was not time to take him home to rest. The Lord Jesus came to him in the prison cell “and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome” (Acts 23:11) He was an immortal here until his work was done.

2.  Apostle Peter. Herod having killed James, took Peter to further please the Jews. And on the night before the day that Peter was to be executed, God miraculously delivered him from maximum security, bound in chains to two soldiers with a soldier at a door. His chains fell off and he walked pass two wards and an iron gate which opened to him and so he walked out of prison unhindered and undetected. (Acts 12:6-10) God preserved Peter so that he could help strengthen the hands of Paul in his ministry among the Gentiles. Peter was the first to understand God’s plan of salvation to the Gentiles (Acts 11), and given his standing among the Jews, God would have him to testify later and stand with Paul during a great dispute concerning the need for Gentiles to be circumcised before they could be saved. (Acts 15) He too was an immortal here until his work was done.

3.  Daniel. Daniel was cast into a den of ferocious and hungry lions during the reign of Darius, “And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.” (Daniel 6:17) Daniel’s fate was sealed. But God was in sovereign control and His purpose could not be changed. He shut the mouths of the lions. Daniel lived to serve even under Cyrus the Persian. God preserved him, for he had yet many prophecies to record for our instruction. He was immortal till his work was done.

4.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. They stood valiant against Nebuchadnezzar’s command to bow to the golden image and were thrown into the fiery furnace that was heated up seven times. The fire was so strong that even the soldiers who cast them into the furnace died. But these three men fell in bound, and except for the rope that bound them, they came forth unscathed, not even their clothes and hair were singed. What a miracle! They lived so that God’s name would be magnified in the midst of Babylon. (Daniel 3:28-30) God honoured and promoted them.

5.  Christ Jesus our Lord.  How oft the enemies of our Saviour sought to get rid of Him but they could not. Just to name a few: Once, His preaching in the synagogue so angered the Jews that they “rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.” (Luke 4:29-30). On another occasion, in Jerusalem when He affirmed that He was before Abraham, “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” (John 8:59)

Even to the day when He was betrayed by Judas and was arrested, He demonstrated His power to deliver Himself. “As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.” (John 18:6). Jesus died only because He laid down His life as He declared in John 10 “…15b I lay down my life for the sheep….17b …because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” Jesus’s death was not accidental. It was for the purpose that the dead in sin might live. He was immortal and He continued to be, humanly speaking, till He finished the work that the Father had given to Him, and then He shed his mortal flesh that He might put on immortality, as the firstfruits of all that slept, that we too may inherit a glorious immortality!  

Christ and the great cloud of witnesses are examples par excellence for us. We need not fear any ills or harm if we are in Christ. We are immortal here till our work is done. Have you been engaged in Christ’s business to be His witness and servant? If the Lord would have you to bear witness and shine for Him, nothing can put out that light. No one can destroy the vessel wherein dwell the immortal God. When our work is done and our race is run, what a joy it will be for Him to take us home and receive us into the Kingdom that He has prepared for us where no enemies can reach.

Take heart and be brave and quit you like men and do the will of God till He calls you home!

Jude 24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.