Death Isn't What You Think It Is

We fear physical death because we think that it is the end of life. Afterall, no one we know is ever seen again in our earthly midst once their spirits leave their bodies.  Whenever they breathe their last breath, then that is the last time that we see them.  After that, the only thing we see of them is an inanimate face connected to a stiffened corpse which has been all  doctored up by a mortician who feebly tried to make it appear as if our loved one is peacefully resting. We intuitively know that what we are looking at in a funeral home is not really our loved one. We also know that our own bodies will one day face the same fate, even though we often live as if that isn’t the truth.

But physical death isn’t the end of our lives at all. It’s the beginning of our eternal lives. True death isn’t the inevitable permanent collapse of our physical bodies to trauma, disease, or age. True death is a separation from the goodness of God.  True death is being alive to the pursuits of Satan and dead to the glories and pleasures of a relationship with God (Ephesians 2:1-3). The truest death is the permanent collapse of your physical body before you’ve become alive to the glories and pleasures of a relationship with God. When that happens, the rest of a forever life is one which is permanently deadened to the goodness of God in the same way that a deceased loved one is dead to this earthly world. That person is still alive, but without all of the benefits God has given to life, but living in the midst of all of the pain of being separated from any kind of goodness. 

Thankfully, we don’t have to succumb to either kind of death. The life and death of Jesus on Earth 2000 years ago gives us a way to have a relationship with God.  When we believe in him as the Son of God, and that his death served as punishment for our sins, we become alive to God. We see his love, and begin to live accordingly.  As we live accordingly, we begin to experience the glories and pleasures of God, and to reject the sinful things that are offered by a world that hates God.  When that happens, death loses its sting because nothing can separate us from the love of God – not even physical death (Romans 8:31-39). 

But this isn’t some spiritual, vague, nebulous reality.  It's a tangible reality.  Jesus proved it.  When Jesus arose from the grave on the third day, he showed us what is available to all of us who love him – that even though our corrupt earthly bodies die, God will raise us from the dead, and give us new bodies (John 14:1-3). In that new reality, we won’t be mists of spirit, but permanent living beings with bodies like our risen Lord, and we will enjoy his glory, his wisdom, and his pleasures forever without all of the corruption that our earthly bodies and minds now plague us (1 Corinthians 14:42-49).  

The resurrection of Jesus is a display of the victory over death that those of us who love Jesus possess.  No follower of Christ should ever fear death. It is defeated and has no sting (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). Our submission to him gives us power and victory over both the sin that makes for a kind of hell on earth, as well as the physical death that separates men from eternal relationship with him!