While the old saying that “there are two things you can’t escape: death and taxes” is oft quoted, the fact of the matter is that hardly anyone, Christians included, exhibit anything but denial when it comes to death. And the concept of eagerly anticipating death (what I might call being “excited to death” — forgive the grammar), is foreign to almost everyone. The thought of death is characterized by denial or dread. Neither is realistic, biblical, or even helpful.
For most people death is seldom considered until (1) someone close to you dies, (2) you come close to death, or (3) you just get older. For me personally, I didn’t think much about the reality of death until my parents died — my father in 1998 and my mother in 2000. Though I wasn’t particularly close to my parents, their deaths made the reality of death come to the forefront in my own life. During a personal retreat time, I was overwhelmed with some insights on death that have given me a positive expectancy about death that I want to pass along. But first, let’s look at some basics regarding death.
WHAT IS DEATH?
The standard theological definition of physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. Death entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned against God by disobeying. Prior to that, there was no physical death. With the now “fallen” world, man’s physical body is aging and dying. The “real you” is not that physical body — what author C. S. Lovett described as an “earth suit.” The “real you” is your non-physical self — your soul. That means your intellect, emotion and will. These are eternal.
DEATH IS INEVITABLE
Christians and non-Christians alike tend to deny the inevitability of death. Non-believers generally deny simply by ignoring death’s inevitability and pretending they’re going to live forever. But Christians are much more sophisticated — they’ve found a way to theologically deny death — or rather I should say eschatologically (doctrine of the last things) deny death. Enter the rapture!
“I’m not going to die,” many Christians will say, “because Christ is going to return before I die.” Well, that’s a lovely thought, but it’s maintained only by those that know little of the 2000 year history of Christians believing they were the “final generation” before the Second Coming.
To mention just a few examples:
(1) The sacking of Rome by the Vandals in 410 A.D.
(2) The Inquisition 1209 — 1244
(3) Black Death 1347 — 1350
(4) Martin Luther in 1532: “The last day is at hand. My calendar has run out. I know nothing more in my Scriptures.”
(5) Lisbon earthquake in 1755
(6) French Revolution
(7) World War I: The Weekly Evangel, April 10, 1917:
“We are not yet in the Armageddon struggle proper, but at it’s commencement, and it may be, if students of prophecy read the signs aright, that Christ will come before the present war closes, and before Armageddon . . . the war preliminary to Armageddon, it seems, has commenced.”
If history is any indication, your odds are better in Las Vegas than in placing your hope in Christ returning so you don’t have to die. If you believe that, you will live as an escapist making minimal contribution to God’s Kingdom and die disillusioned. But if you expect to die and are pleasantly surprised by Christ’s coming first, you’ve lost nothing.
Remember, the Bible says, It is appointed to a man once to die (Hebrews 9:27). If none of us are getting out of here alive, we had better improve our perspective on death.
DREADING DEATH?
If we’ve gotten over our denial of death, what about the dread of death? Of course, my view as a Christian is that if you don’t have a personal relationship with Christ, if you don’t have the assurance of eternal life — then it is totally appropriate to dread death. Responding to God’s gift of salvation by trusting in Christ, eliminates that problem, though.
My thrust in this article, however, is toward Christians who dread death, toward those that have assurance of their eternal destiny and yet still can’t shake the dread of death. This is the problem I personally have greatly struggled with until I saw how I could not only be free from dreading death, but could eagerly anticipate it.
THE FINISH LINE
Let’s say you’re running a marathon. It’s hard. You sweat a lot. You’re tired. You hurt beyond belief. But there’s only one reason you’re putting up with all this pain — to finish the race. The objective of running the race is to finish it, to be done with it, to cross the finish line. That is the climax, the ultimate moment of satisfaction for the runner.
Now how motivated would you be to run in a marathon that never ended. Imagine having to just keep running in a perpetual race with all the sweat and aches and pains and thirst. Who, in their right mind, would ever want to participate in a never-ending marathon? The whole point is to get it over, to finish the race.
So, why would we dread death? Death is the finish line of the race. Death is actually the goal of the race of life. How could death be a dreadful experience, since it is the relief from the toil and pain of the race? Actually, there is potential dread in finishing the race if we don’t run the race the right way.
HOW WELL AM I RUNNING?
The greater question is, “How am I running the race?” It’s possible to cross the finish line in triumph or in shame, depending on how one runs the race. Some people don’t run at all — they walk the race. Others go the wrong direction. Only those that clearly see the goal of the finish line and exert all of their abilities toward that end, can eagerly anticipate finishing the race.
So is life. Are you running the race or walking it? Are you going the right direction? Are you following God’s direction for your life and using the gifts He has provided to fulfill His purpose for your life. Are you living ultimately for Him, or for you? The answers to these questions determine how well you’re running the race, and whether the finish line of death represents ultimate joy or considerable sorrow.
PAUL’S EXHORTATION
As this whole concept unfolded in my mind, I immediately recognized it as thoroughly biblical. Paul says in I Corinthians 9:24:
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
Paul then goes from the allegory of life as a race to life as a fight:
And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. (I Cor. 9:25-27)
Paul says the motivation for running the race is to receive the victor’s wreath — an imperishable, eternal one, though. The goal of life is to receive eternal reward — something wonderful beyond imagination.
It is possible, however, to “run in vain” he tells us in Galatians 2:2. We can have the wrong goals. To live our life under legalism or other false teaching, as described in Colossians 2:18, stands as one example of “running in vain.” If Christ and His grace are not central in our lives, we are running in vain.
In II Timothy 4:6-8 we see Paul’s perspective as he approaches death:
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
Paul is about to die, fully confident that he has “fought the good fight,” “finished the course,” and “kept the faith.” He eagerly anticipates eternal reward. He’s excited to die! In Philippians 1:21-24 he writes:
For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.
Paul’s clear preference is to die and be with Christ, though he modifies that desire based on the need to be of further service to his friends and help mature them in their faith. He repeats the idea in II Corinthians 5:6-10 in saying that to be “absent from the body” is to be “present with the Lord” and that his preference was to be present with the Lord. The underlying motivation always comes back to eternal reward as stated in verse 10:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Note that this is a reward judgment for believers, not a judgment on non-believers covered elsewhere in the Bible.
No matter how we try to deny it, the reality is that we live in a world filled with pain and suffering. Flooding ourselves with activity, accumulating material pleasures, or any other method of denial ultimately fail. Our true fulfillment, what we most deeply desire, is not available in this world — only in the next. The ultimate key for a victorious view of death is remembering that we’re here for a purpose — on a mission — and we’re only visiting.