People talk about the cost of living crisis, but when it comes to death is it the cost of dying crisis or is it dying with confidence? God, in the Bible, speaks very clearly about death, what it is and attitudes to it.
1) What is Death?
“Then they journeyed from Bethel {a town in Israel}. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel laboured in childbirth, and she had hard labour. … And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin” (Genesis c35v16-18 {in the Old Testament}).
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James c2v26 {in the New Testament}).
The spirit is the mainly God conscious part of you and the soul is the mainly the self conscious part of you. God says that at death both of these are separated from the body. The body is buried but where will your soul and spirit go?
2) The Reality of Death
A number of you reading to the message could well believe in evolution. However, if you take life back to the beginning you have to say that someone outside time and space must have started the whole process of the universe and life. Also, nothing produces nothing. The Bible states that God created the universe and our world (Genesis c1-2). God created the start of the human race with Adam and Eve. The human race soon decided that it would disobey its Creator (Genesis c3) and consequently they did what was wrong and brought the whole issue of wrong thinking, wrong speaking and wrong doing into the world, which is sin, with its many consequences.
One of those consequences was death which is confirmed in Romans c5v12 {in the New Testament}, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” But sin has its consequences as Romans c6v23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So sin pays it wages which is death both spiritual and physical. While sin and death are real, we do not have to suffer their consequences forever. Your sins can be forgiven and you can receive eternal life and live forever in heaven.
3) The Inevitability of Death
“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:27-28a).
“As it is appointed unto men to die once”. That all will die is the result of general observation as well as what God says.
Death is mysterious. When the manner, the time, the place, and the circumstances of death are considered, the human mind has to acknowledge its ignorance. With some, death is expected, with others it is sudden; with some it is natural, with others accidental; some die peacefully, others in agony; some are old, others young; some survive the surgery, some do not; some are killed in an explosion, but others near them are not. Also the way that we live can affect the time when we die. Death is an appointment that cannot be avoided despite all the medicinal and scientific discoveries.
4) Opportunity of the Lord Jesus’ Death
But why are people fearful about death? “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1Corinthians c15v56). Death would not have a sting for anyone but for the fact of sin. People’s consciousness of unforgiven sin makes them afraid to die. The law shows God standards and condemns the sinner. It speaks of judgment on all who have failed to obey God’s laws.
But what happens after we die? If we die unforgiven by God, Who is just, we are therefore in our sins and will go the place of punishment for unforgiven sinners in hell.
However we also read, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter c3v18).
The Lord Jesus once suffered for sins that were not His own. “In Him there is no sin” (1John 3:5), and he “Him Who knew no sin” (2Corinthians c5v21). It does not mean that Christ did not know about sin, for He, being God, knew about it in all its dreadfulness. Nevertheless He had no experience of sin, for being God, He “Who committed no sin” (1Peter c2v22). He, the just One, received God’s judgment and died for us, the unjust, that He might bring us to God. He rose again the third day, showing His power over death, and so He can save us from our sin’s judgment and take us to heaven.
“those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life” (1Timothy c1v16). Therefore, if any individual, accepts their sin before God, and trusts/believes in the Lord Jesus, to save them from their sins they can receive God’s forgiveness and eternal life and so live forever in heaven. So, trusting Christ as your Saviour completely changes your attitude to death from fear, morbidity and gloom to one of confidence and joy. You do not need to live in the fear of death.
Where will you spend eternity, i.e. the everlasting existence after death? In heaven or in hell?