Any time we stand next to the casket of a loved one we may find ourselves asking why death exists in the first place. Even those of us who know that God is love and reigns supreme see death as a very dark experience. Could He not have devised an easier way for us to depart this life into eternity? Must there be such suffering and fear? I am quite sure that God, in His sovereignty, could have done things differently, but in wisdom He chose not to. Even the joyful celebration of Christ’s resurrection at Easter time does not erase the darkness that was Christ’s necessary crucifixion.
Officiating at the funeral of a good friend reminded me of the suffering surrounding death. But the passage to our eternal state is intentionally difficult and I would like to address some reasons for that darkness and suffering.
We generally avoid the hard stuff in life as much as we can. Questions such as where we will spend eternity, as important as they are, are put off as long as possible, but the death of a loved one forces us, for at least a few days, to deal with reality. The fact that Christ died and we all die tells us that there is something wrong with the human condition. Sin, which is the failure to conform to God and the source of death, is a real problem! The chaos, confusion, violence, and conflict on every hand does not happen in a vacuum. It is the fruit of mankind’s sinfulness. God, on the other hand, is flawlessly perfect, and that presents a real problem for us! We live our lives in conflict with God!
At the same time, eternity is a very long time, and will be the wrong time to discover that we have made a mistake! Therefore, we need to address the hard questions while we can. I suggest you ask yourself two questions, “Am I ready to meet God?” and “will I meet Him on good terms?” Related to these questions, I have three others:
First, if we can get to Heaven by simply doing our best, why did Jesus go through the all the trouble of coming to earth as an infant, living with fallen people, face the rejection by the religious and political leadership, undergo the excruciating agony of the cross and the infinitely greater suffering of separation from His Father? It is important to understand that the greatest price Jesus paid on the cross was the spiritual suffering of being rejected by His Father. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me,” was the heart-rending cry of the Eternal Son being in some unfathomable way torn from fellowship with His Eternal Father. It was His greatest fear as He prayed in the garden the day before His execution, and the reason for His asking if there were not some other way.
Christ was separated from His Father (which is what death is) so that we would not have to be. His death provided so that we would not have to die. The point being that we cannot gain heaven by anything we do. It has been provided for all who repent and trust Him as a gift paid for by Christ on the cross.
Second, if you would not get on board a plane without knowing its destination, why would you risk entering eternity without knowing your destination? Again, eternity is a long time in which to discover you have made a mistake! You may have been told that no one can know for sure they are going to Heaven, but you have been told wrong. The Apostle John, in his first epistle wrote, “these things I have written to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. . . .” (I John 5:13).
Third, what kind of God would leave this most important question unknowable? I don’t believe that a loving parent would tell his children, “If you get lost in the woods I may or may not come to look for you! You will just have to wait to find out.” And I do not believe for a minute that a loving God (and He is loving) would leave the most critical question of our eternal existence with an uncertain or unknowable answer. We can know whether we are going to Heaven if we truly want to know!
Therefore, what I am about to say is the most important message you will ever hear if you have not already heard it.
I will return to the first question: Why do we die? Why is physical death our certain reality? It is because we are already spiritually dead! We all died in Adam, and as I mentioned earlier, death is separation from a Holy God. When Adam rebelled against his Creator, he became alienated from Him and as a result we are all alienated from God as well. Death is not cessation of being (for we know we will exist somewhere forever). Rather, it is our spiritual separation from God that ultimately produces a physical separation from Him in Hell, which we think of as death.
The Apostle Paul, in Romans 3:23 wrote that, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,“ and in Romans 6:23 he added, “the wages of sin is death. . . .” It is, therefore, just as Scripture states elsewhere, “the soul that sins shall die.” Ezekiel 18:20. Our sins have separated us from God because we are sinners by birth and by choice.
Therefore, being sinners, we are in conflict with God because, as I mentioned earlier, He is flawlessly perfect in every way. Sin of any kind is repugnant to Him, and He can only temporarily allow its existence. On-the-other-hand, we are quite comfortable with sin. Oh, sure, we have learned to hate some forms of sin and we tend to reject the sins our culture rejects, but in general we excuse and rationalize sin as “it’s just a little white lie,” or “everyone does it,” or “they did it to me first,” and so on.
Amos 3:3 asks the question, “Can two walk together unless they be agreed?” This is, of course, the question: How can God and men have a harmonious relationship when we disagree about the fundamental issues of sin and righteousness? The answer is that we cannot. It is this moral chasm that separates us so that we cannot see God, talk to Him face to face, or hear His voice. The best we have, and it is vitally important, is the Scriptures. But anyone who says they have seen God with their own eyes is lying. “No man can see God and live.” Exodus 33:20, for “Our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:29)
The solution to this disastrous reality is that we must die as sinners and be “born again” as righteous! Is this possible? Scriptures state that it is precisely what God prescribes for our salvation! Jesus, meeting with the religious ruler, Nicodemus, in John chapter three, informed him that the only way he or anyone can enter the Kingdom is by being born again! This truth is stunning in its implications.
So, how am I to be born again? I cannot get into the details of this profound theological truth for they are beyond our ability to comprehend, and understanding the details is not necessary for us to receive its benefits. Let us simply take God at His word! He states that those who acknowledge their sinful state, turn from the sin, trust that the blood of Christ shed on the cross pays for those sins are forgiven and born again! Paul, in Galatians chapter two notes that those who come by faith are considered “crucified with Christ,” meaning that Christ’s perfect, sacrificial death becomes theirs, and the record declares that they have “died with Him.” And it goes on to say that Christ now lives in them, bringing life, new life, His life!
Therefore, if we have been born-again, we are now alive in and with Christ and we, having died with Christ, will never die again. I remind you that death is separation, and if we have been reconciled to God by our death with Christ, we are no longer at any risk of being separated from Him. Romans chapter eight states in unequivocal terms that nothing can separate those who have been born again from God. We are His and will one day be in a personal face-to-face relationship with Him forever.
Physical death, which seems so real, is not really death. Jesus called it “sleep” when referring to His good friend Lazarus, who had physically died, but would never actually be separated from God. Jesus told Lazarus’s sisters, “he who lives and believes in Me shall never die!”
That stone marker in the cemetery at the end of our physical existence seems rather intimidating, but it means very little if we have been born again. It merely underscores our transition from this world to our eternal home in the presence of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We move from the “front porch” (our earthly home) into our real home, Heaven. Paul informs us in the glorious text of I Corinthians 15:50-54 that our mortal bodies are not fit for Heaven and must be transformed into immortal bodies. That which decays must be replaced with that which cannot decay. At the point we are removed from here to God’s presence the sting of death will be forever gone. We will be perfected in Christ’s righteousness!
Interestingly, King David’s sublime Shepherd’s Psalm speaks to this very point. It says, “yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.” (Psalm 23). Now, I cannot walk through a brick wall, but I can walk through its shadow! I tremble to walk through real death, for it would be my eternal destruction, but I need not walk there because Christ did in my place! He walked through death so that I could escape it. He took on my sin and died in my place; and He put His righteousness on my account that I might live in God’s presence (II Cor. 5:21).
Finally, we return to the point of our beginning: Why do we die and what is to follow? We die because of our sin; but to us who have been born again, we die physically to be transported into the presence of the God who created us, loves us, and paid in full the cost of our sin so that we could be forgiven and made His children!
In simple terms, if we die with Him and are buried with Him (a biblical term) we will also rise with Him; and the Easter (Resurrection Day) celebration centers on that fact. In Romans 6:5 Paul states, “If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. . . .”
Are you ready to meet God? Will you meet Him on good terms? The message of the Gospel, God’s “Good News” for sinful mankind, is that you can be ready, and you can settle things so as to meet Him on good terms! Christ’s resurrection two thousand years ago declares that God has accepted Christ’s sacrifice for your and my sin. If you have not yet accepted His offer of forgiveness and salvation, then today is a good day to do so!
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9).
