Death has been on my mind quite a bit this week.

Chances are it’s been on yours too.

It seems to be something that requires a great deal of communication, yet when we open our mouths we can’t find any words that accomplish the task. Wrapping our heads around the death of anyone, especially a loved one, can seem impossible.

How can someone be alive in the morning and gone in the afternoon?

How do we even begin to describe their departure? Or explain to ourselves that they will no longer be here?

Years can go by but from what I’ve gathered, time doesn’t heal all wounds. It’s as if death means your world changes and you just have to throw up your hands and make do.

We can’t control it despite our best attempts. Evidence of that is found in tragedy after tragedy in the daily newspapers. Any loss of life sends shockwaves through our hearts and reminds us of a terrible reality in our world. It feels like death controls us, and all we can do is ask questions like:

“Where did they go?”

“Why did this happen?”

“When I die, where will I go?”

“When I die, will I see them again?”

It’s the very presence of these questions in which the answer is found.

From the secular worldview that we are only physical beings resulting from a long chain of natural selection, death should not make us agonize as it often does. It’s simply the conclusion of one’s physical existence, a necessary tool to further improve our species. No further questions.

If this is the case, why do we grieve? Why does it hurt so much when someone dies? Why does that shock and pain of death lead us to ask so many questions?

This indicates the presence of more than just physical. There must be some unseen component to who we are that accounts for our emotions, our hopes, our dreams, our personality, our conscience.

And in this realm of the unseen, there is a truth sewn deep within our soul that causes us to know death is not the final word. It’s here that I respectfully ask you to consider the claims of the Bible, rooted in historicity throughout the ages.

Death was never meant to be part of our experience. God is holy, meaning completely perfect and set apart in sinlessness. Mankind was in a relationship with God until the rebellion of our first ancestors. Due to the unchanging perfect nature of God, He can not allow anything less than holy in His presence, hence the break in our relationship with God. At this point, mankind died spiritually and physical death entered the world.

Being perfectly just, God demands payment for sin. In His grace and generous love, he paid the price of our sins that we might be restored to God through the death and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ. So, as we all will die a physical death, Jesus also died a physical death. The difference is, He rose from the dead showing that death was conquered, and forgiveness was supplied to those who believe upon Him. We can live free from death once again through belief in Jesus.

It is in the death and resurrection of Jesus that we are offered hope beyond the grave. Nothing else would prove effective against the inevitability of death and separation from God due to sin. Though one who believes in Jesus will still die physically, they will be present with the Lord in that death, which is restoration to the life intended for us at creation. He is who we are created by and for.

On the other hand, those who choose to reject this gift of life will remain dead. They’ll remain in separation from God for eternity and suffer the wrath that Jesus already paid for them, tragically giving up the greatest gift ever given.

Death is so painful and confusing because it wasn’t supposed to be a fact of our reality. With Jesus, we are given the assurance of a resurrection to life, not everlasting judgement. We are given a living hope. One that even though our bodies will still die, our soul will be reconciled to its creator.

I write this not to answer the questions of the hurting, but to present what scripture says on the topic and affirm the goodness of asking these questions. It is my hope and prayer that the Spirit of God awakens those reading to the truth of Jesus and it is in Him that they find their comfort. For He is the one powerful enough to turn what was intended for evil into good. May He be ever lifted up and glorified. In Jesus name, amen.

Scripture References:

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 – Death defeated by Jesus

Romans 3:23 – Everyone is a sinner

Romans 6:23 – Sin results in death

Romans 5:8 – Christ died for us

John 11:25 – Jesus rose again and those who die physically will live again through faith in Him

Romans 10:13 – Call upon Jesus by faith and you’ll be saved

Romans 5:1 – We have peace with God once again and are counted righteous through Christ’s blood