Join Us

Death is an unwelcome visitor to any home; he calls uninvited, without prior notice of time or place.    “Life will fall before a touch, a breath.  Justinian, an emperor of Rome, died by going into a room which had been newly painted.  A consul struck his foot against his own threshold, and his foot mortified, so that he died thereby” -  C H Spurgeon.

Death is the “King of Terrors” which everyone must meet some day.  “A man has no power to adjourn the day of his death, nor can he by prayers or bribes obtain a reprieve; no bail will be taken, no essoine (excuse), protection, or imparlance (conference), allowed” – Matthew Henry. 

Blessed hope

We thank God that, as Christians, our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Wicked sinners put Him to death, but God raised Him up again on the third day: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. … For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet.  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death (I Cor. 15: 20-22, 25-26).  We rejoice that in Christ, we have victory over death; the grave has lost its terror, and death, its sting. 
 
In our article last week, we asked the question, “Are we fearful of death?”  Unlike those who do not know the Lord, the believer entrusts his all, whether in life or thereafter, into the hands of the Living and True God.  In death, the Christian is conveyed from his temporal earthly abode into the glorious presence of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Although our faith in the Lord secures for us the blessed hope of an eternity in Heaven, death is still not an easy prospect for anyone to face. 

Death holds no fear for those who name the Name of the Lord.  David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, calmly declared:  “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”  In one of his Messianic psalms, David sang of Christ: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.” 

Daniel clearly understood this blessed hope, for he said, that “… many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12: 2).

Echoing this same sentiment of trust in the Lord, the much-afflicted patriarch Job said:  “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me”  (Job 19: 25-27).  Job was deeply convicted that when death consumed his physical body, he would be ushered into the presence of “my Redeemer.”

At death, “the souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies” – Westminster Confession of Faith.  Jesus promised the repentant thief on the cross: “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise” (Lk. 23: 43). 

Surviving loved ones bury their dead in sorrow, but the saved soul is conveyed into his eternal heavenly home where there will be no more tears, neither “death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21: 4).  Our grieving over a departed loved one ought not to be like the unbelievers who have no hope beyond the grave.

Glorified body

God will endow us with a glorified body, befitting our new abode in our Father’s home.  No one knows what this new body will be like.  What we do know is that we will be given an incorruptible and immortal body freed from the bondage of corruption, of age, of weariness, of hunger and thirst: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,   In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15: 51-53).

Perfect knowledge

“In Heaven, a marvellous transformation in our intellect and understanding will take place:  ‘For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known’ (1 Cor. 13: 12).  The perplexities and mysteries of earth will give way to knowledge.  No more will we be in the dark” – “RPG notes on Heaven”

With eager expectation, we look forward to dwelling with the Lord forevermore.  We echo the words of the hymnwriter, Charles Wesley: “Changed from glory into glory, Till in Heaven we take our place; Till we cast our crowns before Thee, Lost in wonder, love and praise.”    
 (… to be continued)                                                                 

- Pastor