I’ve known it a long time. But now, 70 years old with a wearing-out body, I’ve never been hit in the face with it like this. ” . . .it is appointed for man to die . . . ” (Hebrews 9:27). No avoiding it. God made the appointment for me–and you.
Why? Sin. (Yes, sin’s that bad.) Death entered God’s death-free world through Adam’s sin. ” . . . just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Sin is the culprit. And death is the holy Creator’s necessary curse of our sinning against him. Kind of makes you mad at Adam, doesn’t it! Except, if we’re honest, had we been there, we would have gobbled down that fruit against God’s command, too, wouldn’t we! No? Come on, look at our lives. We’ve all “gobbled down” at lot of what God said “No!” to. We’ve all disbelieved him and disobeyed him and disgraced his holy name.
So one day soon, I’m going to die. I dread it. Not so much death, more the process. My wonderful father-in law had a heart attack at a red light and died a few days later. Never woke up. If God gave me a choice, that’s the box I’d check. I dread death, too, because it means leaving my loved ones. How can I begin to say goodbye to my beautiful wife and best friend of 50+ years? To my three flesh-of-my-own-flesh children? To my eight precious grandchildren? My heart will break. Even so, death will come.
Sound like the Grim Reaper, don’t I! Note, though, there’s a “but” there. “I’m going to die, but . . . ” The “but” is due to the Gospel. ” . . . Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures . . . he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). Connected by nature to Adam, you and I die. Connected by faith to Christ, we will live. “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
Dying is often quiet, funerals often somber. Being made alive with Christ will be anything but. ” . . . we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of any eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory'” (1 Corinthians 15:51-54). What a triumphant praise-celebration that will be! Above and beyond anything we could ask or imagine (Ephesian 3:20)!
The key is Christ. Before his crucifixion, he promised his disciples, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19b). After his burial, the women found his tomb empty. He had risen, just as he said (Matthew 28:6). And, if we trust ourselves to him, our grave will be empty too, just as he said.
One of my precious daughters sent me the song at the link below. Contemporary Christian music usually isn’t my music of choice. But this is celebration. This is worship. This is why a 70-year-old who knows he’s going to die joins the young and celebrates as if he were.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv4LRl2KI2M
Beyond thankful for the empty grave.