THE CERTAINTY OF DEATH

Death is a very unpleasant subject to talk about. However, we’ve all been impacted by it at one time or another. We’ve lost family members, friends, pets, potted plants, and on it goes. As ugly as it is, death is a fact of life. Even if you have excellent health, longevity in your family history, and never suffer any debilitating injuries from anything, you will still eventually die of old age. Rich or poor, young or old, famous or unknown, all die sooner or later. You can see by looking at any cemetery that death does not discriminate. There are tombstones of all sizes and for all ages. Notice what the wise King Solomon had to say about death:

Ecclesiastes 1:4, 2:14-16, 3:1-2a, 18-21, 9:11-12, :  One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever…The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all. So I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, it also happens to me, and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart, “This also is vanity.” For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool!…To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die;…I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.” For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so does the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?…I returned and saw under the sun that—the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. For man also does not know his time: like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.

People throughout history have been painfully aware of the reality of death no matter how much they may have avoided thinking or talking about it, or how much they wished it away. We find a number of statements about death’s reality in the New Testament as well—and we are alerted to the reality of life beyond the grave:

James 4:13-15:  Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

Hebrews 9:27-28:  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. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

Like it or not, we will all die sooner or later. So many people focus on prolonging their lives here in the world, and there is nothing wrong with that as long as that is not all that is in view. For multitudes, though, that is their focus, with little thought if any given as to where they will go once they leave the earth. The fact is, everyone will live forever. The life force in our bodies will end over time, either fizzling out through aging or being taken away through illness or injury. Our spirit, however, will never die. So what is beyond the grave, and how can we prepare for our eternal destination?

People have a God-given ability to understand that there is something beyond the grave. What it mutates into depends on various factors. Many get sidetracked into false religions, even going so far as to think there is reincarnation. There are those who have no particular religion and think that when you die you cease to exist. Still others think you will be rewarded with something good in the afterlife if you are a good person here on earth. The nuances of belief are endless. We as Christians know that after our lives end in this world there is either heaven or hell. Roman Catholicism adds a place called purgatory, an intermediate state where one suffers for a time before being finally purified from sin and fitted for heaven. We know from Hebrews 9:27-28 that this is a false belief. The point is, no matter what one believes, the God-breathed Bible tells us that if Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior we will be with the Lord forever—if we do not forfeit our salvation—and if we die lost we will be eternally separated from God, suffering forever in the lake of fire.

Just as not believing in the law of gravity will not prevent a person from falling when jumping off a house, so not believing in the Bible will not keep them out of hell if they die without Jesus. Like it or not, God is in charge and what He says goes. So, if you are reading this blog and you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, heed these Scriptures:

John 3:16:  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Romans 10:8-10:  But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

You can also go to our home page and click on the circle with three crosses in it for more detailed instructions on how to be saved.

For those of you who are fellowsaints, what do we do? We grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. As long as you remain in covenant with Him you are eternally secure and do not need to fret over whether or not you will lose your salvation; you won’t. If you backslide and stay in sin or if you get off into another religion, however, then you had better come back to the Lord before you go too far and sincerely renounce Him!

Hebrews 6:4-6:  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

1 John 1:9:  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We all have an appointment with death someday. For those of you who are lost, will you accept God’s free gift of salvation today? Prodigal son or daughter, will you come back to Jesus right now? Saints of God, will you stay faithful? Life on earth is temporary. What is eternal is what counts.

Psalm 90:10:  The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

2 Corinthians 4:18:  …while we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are unseen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.