What do you say to someone who is dying and does not know the Lord Jesus? A lady asked this as our little Bible study group was just about to break up and go home. The Bibles immediately came out again and here are a few suggestions.
Two of us had the Roman Road scriptures written on the inside cover of our Bibles. Here they are:
Romans 3:23 (all have sinned). Romans 5:8 (Christ died for sinners). Romans 6:23 (wages of sin is death; gift of God is eternal life). Romans 10:9-13 (If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved).
Below the Roman Road in my Bible I’ve written Colossians 2:13 (ALL sins can be forgiven) and verse 14 (Jesus nailed to the cross the Law that condemns us).
Wow. How can anyone not beg the Savior to forgive them and make them one of His people!
Below those I have Hebrews 9:22, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
If you are about to visit someone who lies helpless in a bed of sickness and stands on the brink of eternity, how do you go about saying any of those things? Not that they will even allow visits in the UK! Unbelievable inhumanity.
But if you do get a chance to speak to someone, they need the gospel, and hardly anyone in the UK even knows what that is any more.
1 Corinthians 15 tells us there are three things we have to believe: that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
It’s not hard, because those are documented facts of history. It’s in all four gospels and over 500 eye witnesses could testify to the truth of the resurrection.
Then I have one other favorite scripture, John 6:47, ‘If you believe in Me, you have everlasting life.’ I would like that emblazoned over my house.
When my mother-in-law was in the hospital in the good old days when we could just visit whenever we wanted, I asked if I could read her something, and I read from Matthew 7, the sermon on the mount, the broad way and the narrow way. When I finished the lady in the next bed said, ‘Where is that in the Bible? I want to read it.’
One day when she was out in the garden of the nursing home, I asked if we could pray, and she said yes. We actually did this several times at different places, but this was the last time. I just prayed a simple prayer, that we were sinners, but we were very sorry, and we needed forgiveness, and we put our faith in Jesus as our Savior, that He died for our sins, was buried and rose again. She just bowed her head and agreed.
Several people told me later that she was not a Christian and could not be in heaven, but I hope to see her there.
If you tell someone you would like to read a bit to them, they will probably agree.
