Since becoming a senior citizen, I will at times think of a person whom I once knew through my past employment, and I will look up their name on the internet and often find their obituary. I remember years ago as a young person that adults would laugh about how older people found their chief interest in reading the obituary section of the newspaper each day to see who had died. Death of course is no laughing matter. It is the great nemesis of all mankind. It appears to have such a finality to it, and indeed it is the end of what we would know as our life on earth before we are required to meet our Sovereign Lord.

Why did death have to come to mankind in the first place? We first see it described as a warning to our original parents, Adam and Eve, in Genesis 2:17. They were commanded not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God said that in the day they eat of it, “You surely will die!” We know they disobeyed God by doing precisely what He told them not to do, and as a result they died spiritually that day, and later they would also die physically. As their offspring, we are under the federal headship of Adam, and we are born into sin. We sin because we are sinners by nature.  But even before we have personal sins, we are bound for death as a consequence of being under the universality of sin. We are in a dilemma beyond any overcoming possibility of ourselves to defeat death by our own ingenuity or strength. We have nothing of ourselves to control our ultimate destiny. Therefore, death is by far the greatest challenge and desperate fear of all the living.

It is only the Bible that provides any hope and light upon this situation. Not only did God promise to crush the head of Satan, the tempter and promoter of sin and death (Gen. 3:15), but we read of the heart of God in bringing a reprieve early in His Word, “Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore, behold I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place” (2 Kings 22:19-20). The promise to those of Israel of being gathered to their fathers indicates a reunion of those who, like these, humbly come to God in repentance. We know this same sense for those obediently trusting in God is stated even more clearly; “With Your counsel You will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory” (Ps. 73:24). This is followed by, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:26). We know that David speaks of His eternality because of his relationship to God in Psalm 23, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

When we move to the New Testament, we read repeatedly of what God is doing through Christ to overcome the nemesis of death. We read, “The last enemy that will be abolished is death” (1 Cor. 15:26). Speaking of the exclusive remedy for death Paul says to Timothy, “Now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). Even in Romans where we are told that nothing can separate us from Christ, Paul includes death in Romans 8:38. It is even wonderful that Paul mocks death because of Christ. He says, “O death, where is your victory. O death where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55). This truth is so powerful that Paul says to the church in Philippi, “To die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). None of this is exaggeration, but the truth and greatest message ever coming to us from God in His holy Word. In fact, for the Christian death is described as desirable (Luke 2:28-30), as rest (Rev. 14:13), and as preferred (2 Cor. 5:8).

So, what is death to a Christian. It is first of all a bridge between this current life and the promised superior life to come (John 11:25-26). It is spoken of by a number of beautiful descriptions in Scripture – eternal hope, bliss, joy, freedom from sin, and life with God Himself. It is a place where there will be no more tears or sorrow (Rev. 21:4). In Christ Jesus we therefore do not have to fear death, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones” (Ps. 116:15). It is spoken of as being with Christ who promised He will never leave or forsake us (Heb. 13:5). What really is the issue then? Ultimately it is having a right relationship with God. It is knowing that He has forgiven us through His dear Son and our Savior. If we have Jesus Christ, we have everything. Nothing else matters by comparison, even death itself only results in bringing us into our glorious state in the presence of our Lord. Soli Deo Gloria!