Death Has Lost Its Sting

It was the summer leading up to my junior year of college.  It had been a normal day – went to the rec center in the morning, laid out in the sun with friends, and was just getting ready to go check my work schedule for the upcoming week at the restaurant where I waitressed.   It was late in the evening when I received a phone call that rocked me to the core.  It was a friend from high school.  Her voice was usually giddy, happy, and full of energy.  But not this time.  Her tone was serious and she got straight to the point.  “Have you heard yet….about Jon?”

I hadn’t heard.  But from her abnormally calm and quiet voice I knew what had happened.  The plague of deaths that had picked off our group of friends seemingly one-by-one during our high school years had hit again.  But this time it was different.  Jon, better known to us as “Jonny T” was my closest friend for a season of my life in high school, as he was to many others.  Our friendship had grown apart since I went to college, mainly because of the sheer logistics of distance.  But Jon was one of my most favorite friends.  Everybody loved being around him with his witty sarcasm and loyal heart. 

That summer evening my friend had called to tell me that Jon had died.  He’d had a diabetic attack during his sleep….and never woke up.  And so began my journey with the reality of death.  I’d experienced death before with other classmates and older family members.  But this time, it was a little too close for comfort.

Most people would never admit their deep down fear of death.  The fear of not knowing when we will die or how.  The fear of the unknown of what you will experience in those moments of death, and what about after?  The vulnerability and loss of control that surrounds death is easier to push away or cover up then to have to deal with the thoughts and search out answers.  Because we’re scared of what the answers might be.  It is my experience that some plan out their grave stone, plot of land where they’ll be buried, and their funeral more than they make plans for the most important part - where they will spend eternity once they’ve left their body behind.

And might I interject, with it being October and all, that in this mix somewhere is where I believe Halloween comes in.  No, I don’t know the history of the holiday – how it all started and why.  But it is my opinion that Halloween is an attempt by our American society/culture to make light of death.  To give a little humor, a little light-heartedness, to a subject that if we were honest with ourselves really, really scares us – to death. 

When I received that phone call that summer I was not yet a Christian. I went to Jon’s funeral devastated and I mourned deeply with his family who had just a few years earlier experienced the suicide of Jon’s older brother.  I left Jon’s funeral angry at the pastor who shared truth, but truth that my hardened heart wasn’t ready to hear yet.  Truth that I passed off as unfair judgment.  Most of all I came away with a devastatingly uneasy feeling that life is short and uncertain.  Yes, I believed there was a God.  Yes, I told myself that Jon was in a happier place.  But saying that didn’t give me any peace.  On the outside I acted like it did.  When I looked into the eyes of Jon’s grieving parents I felt like it was the proper thing to say.   But I was really saying it because it made me feel better, and I wanted them to feel better too.  The truth was, I really didn’t know. 

Today I want to tell you that you can really know.  You can know what will happen to you after you die.  The fear and unknown that surrounds death can be replaced with hope, confidence, and yes – even excitement and a longing for it.  Yes, I really said that.  Let’s start here…

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son (Jesus) also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. Hebrews 2:14-15 (NLT)

and

Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”  For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 15:54-57 (NLT)

Now, perhaps if this is the first time you’ve ever read those verses then you might not fully be able to wrap your mind around what it is saying.  But I bet you caught these phrases that I also bolded in the verses: SET FREE (from) THE FEAR OF DYING and VICTORY OVER DEATH.

Death can lose its sting, IF you are trusting in the Only One who has power over it.  We humans can do a lot of things.  But one thing we can’t do is resurrect ourselves.  Jesus promises us a resurrection.  This is His work, and it will come. 

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” John 11:25-26 (NLT)

You could take out Martha’s name and insert yours.  This is a question you need to ask yourself, if you are ready to look into death.  In this verse Jesus is giving us His word that this life is not the end.  Elsewhere in the Bible He reminds us not to get too attached to this world – to the things of it, the people of it, the good or the bad of it.  Rather, we should rejoice that this world is not our home.  We’re aliens here.  Passing through.  A vapor of a life that when ‘gone’ will step into eternity. 

That’s part 1 of what I’ve learned about death.  Jesus says, yes - INDEED there is another life after this one.  Now, part 2….

The Bible also warns that this stepping into eternity is not an event we want to face without Jesus speaking on our behalf.  Because…

…each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment… Hebrews 9:27 (NLT)

Clearly, the Bible says once we die, we are going to be judged.  But who is doing the judging? 

For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.  It is written: “As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.”  So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.  Romans 14:10-12 (NIV)

Well, that pretty much answers it.  We are going to be judged by God.  And when you are standing in front of an Almighty, Righteous, and Holy God, I can guarantee that you are not going to be applauding yourself.  In fact, every time someone in the Bible was brought into the presence of God, they were shaking in their sandals, and what flooded their minds was not the good they had done in their life, but the wrong and the bad.  That’s what happens when you are in the presence of Holiness….you realize that you are so….not….holy.  When I look back on it now, I know this is what I had feared all along regarding death.  Not necessarily the actual dying.  But the looming of God’s judgment that would come shortly after.

Now, here’s the good news.  Jesus is going to be there at our judgment. 

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV)

And this is the point in which He will speak on our behalf.  But it’s not all streets of gold and pearly gates yet.  Because, this is where Jesus will say that He either knew you, or He didn’t (read Matthew 7:21-23).  And that’s the deciding factor of where you will spend eternity.

Knowing Jesus, and being known by Him implies a relationship.  This will be a judgment of faith – of our acceptance of Jesus as Savior.  This life, RIGHT NOW, is our opportunity to do just that.  We won’t get another chance once we are standing face to face with Him in our death.  We won’t be able to change our minds (repent) then.  This is it.  Now, in this life, is our chance…

The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.  And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.  As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” Romans 10:8-11 (NLT)

Might I add that the evidence of this faith is obedience.  So this isn’t just some prayer that you pray to sound religious - to check off your ‘God list’ and then go live how you want.  This is a decision of the heart that will overflow in the way you think and the way you live.  You can say you are a Christian until you are blue in the face.  But Jesus will know whether this faith took root in your heart or not.  In addition, once this does take root in your heart, God sends the Holy Spirit to live inside of your physical body.  This is another ‘evidence’ of faith.  Trust me, I know what it is like to live without the Holy Spirit.  You will know once the Holy Spirit is living inside of you.

The Bible says that we are able to know whether or not we have a relationship with Jesus before we die.  Therefore, as you sit and read this right now you will know.  You will either have peace as you think about death and the judgment that will come after, or you won’t.  Peace comes when you have trusted not in what you have (or haven’t done) in your life, but in what Jesus has done on your behalf.  He lived the perfect, blameless, sinless life that we ourselves could not and can not.  Then He died, taking your sins and my sins upon Himself.  By His death we get to trade in our sins for His righteousness.  We get Jesus' clean record in exchange for our dirty one.  This is what will allow us to stand blameless before the Father God.  Which brings us to confidence.  Confidence comes when you know that when God judges you, He won’t see your sin.  He’ll only see Jesus’ blood covering you in full payment and imparting to you the clean record, the holiness that you need to even step one foot in heaven.  Because nothing sinful can enter.  Excitement comes because YOU ARE GOING TO HEAVEN!  Longing for heaven comes, I believe in many ways.  When you experience pain and sadness in this life.  When you cry out for things in this world to be made right, fair and void of suffering.  When you hope that there is something more than just this life, something better – much better….and you find out that there is.  You can’t wait to get there.  That’s longing.  When the fear of death is replaced with all these things - peace, confidence, excitement, and longing - that’s when you know you’ve been pulled from the grave.  Freed from slavery over the fear of death.   It can be yours, through Jesus.  He died to take all your sins upon Himself so that you could have eternal LIFE.  In this, the offer stands for Him to speak for you to God the Father when your day of judgment comes.  Jesus has got you covered, if you accept His offer now, in this life.

Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. Hebrews 7:25 (NLT)

God's Enemies

When I think of God’s enemies, I often get these sorts of ‘loud’ pictures in my mind:

The Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus.

The Pharisees and other religious leaders of the day who rejected Jesus as the one and only Son of God.

People who drive around with Darwin emblems on their cars.

Atheists.

But did you know that the Bible says it is impossible to be neutral about Christ (Matthew 12:30)? Those who are not actively following Jesus have chosen to reject him. In fact check out the Bible’s definition of God’s enemies:

Romans 5:6-11
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

So, we see here that those who have not been reconciled with God through faith in Jesus are also considered God’s enemies. I have been a believer in Jesus now for about 7 years. When these verses hit me the other day, I realized that to this day, I have literally lived more years of my life as an enemy of God than as a follower of Him.

When I was younger I went to a church where it was continually highlighted that God is love and that God loves us. Personally, I think this is a great thing to understand after you realize you have a sin condition that separates you from a Holy God. I don’t ever remember hearing anything about the judgment and eternal punishment I was storing up for myself as I lived how I wanted (Romans 2:5). Would I have told you I believed in God? Of course. Did I understand that my sin broke this relationship with this God that I said I believed in (Romans 3:23)? No. I always just thought that God loved me, and so, I didn’t really see a problem.

But there was a problem. I didn’t know Jesus. I didn’t know that as I continued to live my life my way, walking in sin, covering it up, feeling sorry for a time – but never coming into repentance - that I was really living as God’s enemy. I didn’t know Jesus. Sure I knew right from wrong. Sure I felt bad when I did wrong things, but only because of the possibility of getting in trouble, or of messing up my life, or of the general consequences that come from making bad choices. I didn’t know Jesus. I didn’t know that this God I said I believed in could only be accessed in One Way. I didn’t know that as I lived my life my way, that I really was continually sinning against a Holy God without care. I didn’t understand the seriousness of this. I thought ‘bad people’ went to hell. Surely not good people who just messed up every once in awhile would ever need to worry about that. But I didn’t know Jesus. I thought fulfillment and purpose came from living a good life – relationships, friends, a good job, a good income, kids, a family. I didn’t know there was more. I didn’t know Jesus. I didn’t know that I walked in condemnation (John 3:18) each day of my life as I gave no thought to the idea of needing a Savior. BUT, thankfully Jesus didn’t let this cycle continue. Jesus says in John 15:22, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.” And God intersected my life on a day in college, at church, over 7 years ago - and I was confronted with TRUTH. For the first time I understood what it meant that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). And I put my faith in Jesus. Was it uncomfortable realizing that I was a sinner? Yes. Did it hurt when I finally understood that all those years I really didn’t know God after all? Yes. Did I get offended a time or two leading up to this day in church as people shared these truths with me and helped me to understand that my beliefs didn’t match up to what the Bible said? Yes.

But this was what I needed. For me, personally, I didn’t need to be told God is love anymore. At this point in my life, I needed to be brought to my knees in recognition of my sin condition. It was only then that I realized ‘believing’ in God was not enough. I needed to know that my sin caused me to fall short of a relationship with God. And then, I needed to know that my Savior died on a cross to set it straight for me, to fully give me that relationship with God that I thought I already had. And now it’s different. Now I have ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE that I really know God because I feel Him living inside of me. I never felt this before. Putting my faith in Jesus has led to a personal relationship with Him. I had no idea this was possible. Before I understood the gospel, I thought God sort of hovered above us, and that the closest I could get to him would be on the day that I would die. I didn’t know there was so much more. So much more for this life. But now I do. And now I will aim to pursue Him with all my heart. I have some lost time to make up for.

What I Used to Think

If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you’ve heard bits and pieces of my testimony of how God has changed my life. Our church calls this a ‘God story’ and explains it as events leading up to and after the point of intersect…when God intersects your life ….you were going one direction and then suddenly God opens your eyes to truth and your life starts on a new path. It is this intersect point in a person’s life in which many put their faith in Christ for the first time. It is often referred to as when they were ‘saved’, or the moment they first believed. The events and feelings after this point are often called being ‘born again’. Maybe you’ve heard those terms tossed around. Well, let me tell you what I used to think.

My beliefs used to line up well with what our American culture tells us. I believed in God, and I thought that when I died I would go to heaven as long as I was good. I pictured judgement day as me coming face to face with God and handing him my resume of my life. I thought that as long as there were more good things on it than bad things, then I was in. These beliefs seemed to be confirmed on TV shows, movies, and even at funerals. Almost everyone goes to heaven I thought. As long as they are good.

About the same time that my friend Steph and I started meeting (I shared about her in an earlier post click here) I remember being in church one day. I will never, ever, ever forget this day in church. I sat there listening to the sermon, and at the very beginning our pastor asked the congregation ‘What is the one way to heaven?’ After he asked I began thinking and answering the question in my head. My answer of course was: as long as you are good…you know, don’t murder anyone, try not to cuss, try to do random acts of kindness, be a good person. The sermon went on, and I hung on to the end for the answer to his question. Toward the end of the sermon the question was asked again, and then our pastor gave us the answer: Jesus. What on earth does that mean I thought? Our pastor went on talking about having a relationship with Jesus, and what that looks like….and that through Jesus, we had a gift. A gift of eternal life. Although I maybe had been told this many times previously, apparently I hadn’t been listening or maybe I never cared, because it sure didn’t sink in until that day. This was the day that the song ‘Amazing Grace’ is referring to in the lyric ‘I once was blind, but now I see’. This day in church was my intersection point – the point that God intersected my life. This was the day that I began to understand who Jesus was, what he had done for me, and that I brought absolutely nothing to the table in order to bring about my salvation. It was only through Jesus that I would be in heaven one day.

After that day I constantly searched my newly opened Bible to ensure that this matched up. Was Jesus really the only way? I needed to confirm this. How could I be sure? What about my cherished resume belief? That had to come from somewhere – was any of that true? At this point I had begun reading in the New Testament and I came across verses like this:

If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (Romans 10:9-11)

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! (Romans 5:8-9)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

This is often termed as the ‘good news’. But, here is the hard part - for many of us in our minds it starts off as bad news in that we have to recognize our sin. We have to know what Jesus died for to understand the beautiful importance of his death which cancels our debts and brings us into a relationship with God. It’s hard to come to terms with our sin. Trust me, I fought it. But if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). There must be a point in which we recognize that our sin separates us from God. If we can’t ever get past this part of the news, then we will always feel offended, stand-off-ish, and defensive any time the gospel is brought up. Once I was able to let down my pride and realize my sin, I understood the amazing grace of God. And, my resume belief was gladly released. I am so thankful that my admission into heaven doesn’t depend on my own works. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-10)

If you believe in God have you taken the time to ensure that your beliefs match up with the word of God – the Bible? Mine didn’t. Have you read the Bible? If not, just start. Start in Matthew of the New Testament and read until the end to Revelations. Then, once you have a grip on the New Testament, go back to the very beginning (Genesis) and start reading the Old Testament. Some verses are confusing though, so it will help to have a study aid, or a life application bible in which you can get additional insight and explanations for the verses. Or meet with a friend that can help you through the verses. Hate to read? Catch some sermons online. Start listening to some awesome ones here: http://www.harvest.org/radio/a-new-beginning-radio/home.html Either click on A Time for Harvest for 2 minute sermons, or go into the archives for longer ones. Here are some of my other favorite evangelistic preachers that have online sermons: Chuck Swindoll, Max Lucado, John Piper.

Well, to some this might sound like a bunch of hodge podge and you may have wished that you didn’t take the time to read this. But, I know I am not wasting my breath. I know that there are people out there who believe what I used to believe, and think what I used to think. But, the Bible does not back up the resume theory (or whatever you want to call it) for entrance to heaven. It is in Jesus alone that we find the promise of eternal life. And, in Jesus alone we find the promise of new life here on earth.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:15-16)