The Seal of God in the Judgment Hour
William Diehl


Through the preaching of the gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and lived an absolutely sinless life and that He died in our place for the sins of the whole world, the Holy Spirit calls all men and women to repent of their sins and believe in Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.

When a repentant sinner by faith accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord, he is justified and reckoned as sinless as the Lord Jesus Christ. This means that he is accounted as if he had never sinned in the past and also as if he were sinless and perfect in the merciful reckoning of God in the present. The righteous life of Jesus is imputed unto the believer to hide all of our imperfections and unchrist-like failings in thought and action and motive. There is not a Christian who does not continually fall short in his daily walk with the Lord and thus the believing community of believers is reckoned as perfectly righteous by faith in the sinless life and atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ who died in our place upon the cross of Calvary. This is the gospel.

To all who believe, God pours out His Holy Spirit who begins to write the holy Law of God upon their hearts so that they may begin to be transformed in heart and mind and soul and begin to love God and their neighbor and bring forth good works. The Spirit continually reveals to the believer the inward unrighteousness of his heart and continually leads the believer to repentance toward God and faith in Christ the sinless One. This imparted gift of inward growth in the divine nature is always ongoing in this life and always in need of the covering of the perfection of Jesus our Savior.

The journey of the Christian in this life is one of faith and repentance and continually trusting only in the grace of God as revealed in the sinless life and atoning death of Christ. The righteousness that is imparted to the believer in this life is only a faint reflection of the image of Jesus and thus the believer is perfectly righteous only by faith in Christ. This is our experience throughout our lives as Christians and even until the coming of the Lord in the clouds of glory.

When the mystery of God is finished the believing Christians who receive the seal of God's approval will be trusting only in the perfection that is in Jesus. Their personal testimony is to the sinfulness of their own lives and that they trust only in the imputed righteousness of Christ. Those who are justified will continue to be justified and those who are being sanctified will continue to be sanctified and those who are wicked will continue to be wicked and those who are unrighteous will continue to be unrighteous. Those who are sealed in the Lamb's book of Life will be shut in the temple and will nevermore go out from under the covering of the blood of the Lamb. They will be walking in the way of all of His commandments, including the fourth commandment, to remember the Sabbath day.

While the wicked world during the time of great tribulation claims to be without sin, God's sealed servants will be continually confessing their sinfulness and will continue to trust only in the blood of the Lamb and His imputed righteousness. This is the offering that the Lord will accept during that time, the offering of a meek and contrite heart which He will not despise. They will be protected during the seven last plagues because of the blood that is sprinkled upon the door posts of their hearts and by virtue of the merits of Jesus their Substitute and Surety. These alone will stand before the unveiled glory of the Son of Man when He comes in the glory of His Father with all the holy angels because "being justified by faith" they have peace with God through Jesus Christ our LORD and rejoice in the glory of God that is to be revealed at His coming.

Amen.

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