Encore Post “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” quipped Benjamin Franklin. He was right about death at least. In 1997, a satirical online newspaper ran this headline: “World Death Rate Holding Steady At 100 Percent.” They were right. All but two people in the history of the world have died — including God in the person of Jesus Christ! Yet all people fear death because it means that, in the end, they will lose control of everything. We do everything we can to extend life and in our age we have done quite well at it. Yet still all people will die and some quite young.
Physically speaking, death is a process that happens as our vital organs cease to function. Practically speaking, medical science pronounces death when the heart stops without possibility of reviving it or when brain waves cease.
Yet, death is much more than the end of our physical life. It is the judgment of God on sin. Since sin cuts us off from the source of our life, God himself, we will die. When God forbid Adam from eating the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he warned: “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:17). When Adam fell, he pronounced his sentence — and ours. “you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)
There is also another aspect of death that is not about the end of physical life. The essence of our life, our spirit — our soul is violently separated from our bodies. For Christians, who are redeemed by the atoning death of Jesus, the soul separated from its body by death is cleansed of its sin, relieved of pain and grief, lives in paradise with Christ and the souls of all who are redeemed. There they wait for the second coming of Christ. On that day, the Lord will call their bodies from the grave, reunite their souls and bodies, transforming them to be fit for eternal life.
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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Again comforting…