BUYING UP THE OPPORTUNITIES

By David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)

“...knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom 13:11-14). These are all different ways, you see, of telling us to rouse ourselves, to realize who we are and what we are and to clutch at every opportunity. Be alive and alert. Regard this world as but an opportunity of pleasing Him. Make to yourselves friends, even with the mammon of unrighteousness; lay hold on eternal life.

If anything further is needed to press upon us the urgency of doing this, think of this: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,” Christians, we must give an account of “the things done in his body, according to that [we have] done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). “Very well,” says the apostle, “knowing the terror of the Lord, I persuade men.” What he means is this: he knows that he will stand before his Lord. It is not that he is in danger of losing his salvation. It is not judgment in the sense that our eternal destiny is going to be determined. He is talking to people who are already Christians and whose eternal destiny is safe. This is a kind of judgment of reward. The One Who came from heaven to earth for us and died on that cruel cross of shame on Calvary’s hill; Who spared not Himself, Who endured the contradiction of sinners. He Who even bore that agony in the garden and on the cross, He will look at us— and what He will look for is this: how we spent our time in this world after we realized what He had done for us. It is the terror of love you see, not the fear of torment. You will look into that beloved face and into those eyes and you will realize, as you have never done before, what He did for you. Then you will realize with shame what you did not do for Him. “Oh,” says Paul, “buy up the opportunity, do not waste a second. Keep that in the forefront of your mind.” …“Ye are all the children of light,” he says, “and the children of the day” (l Thess. 5:5); you must not walk as if you are still in darkness. No, realizing what is coming, you know you have not a second to waste. Buy up every opportunity. Make full use of the time you have got left in this world.

And then, finally, to cap it all, there is a great statement in the book of Revelation in chapter 14 and verse 13: “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth:’ Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” (Rev 14:13). Here it is again. Thank God, the works that follow us are our good works! They are the works that we have done as we have been buying up the opportunity or redeeming the time. It is all being recorded, nothing will be forgotten; you will hear the blessed words: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mat 25:34). This is an amazing thing: “their works do follow them.” Very well, then, here is the exhortation in the light of all that. In order that you may have that reception, that you may hear that encomium, redeem the opportunity! What a wonderful thing it will be to hear those words: “Come, ye blessed of my Father.”