1 Cor 15:21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
How cool would it be to put death to death? To put a complete end to it? To no longer think of it?
Death. The greatest enemy to man. The single endpoint to every life – be it plant, animal, man, or you, or me…Death makes us lie awake at night…Death makes us contemplate the scope of the universe…Death makes us consider God…Death makes us consider what may save us from it.
Death. It is every bit of that. And the only way to escape any of this thinking about death, (and we all KNOW this,) is to simply think of other things – for as long as we can…But then death always returns to confront us. Death. That’s what death is…
By contrast we have life. Life as we know it. Life as we cherish it. Life appears to be everything death is not. It is animation, movement, independence, love…
How we desire long life. It is in every fiber of our being. We look at those whose life is perceived to have been cut short as being the most unfortunate among us. We pity them. We wish that never to happen to us. We wish to die peacefully in bed at 100 years old. But somehow death always seems to contravene that wish except for those precious few we regard as having very charmed lives.
In reality, living is dying. The philosophical among us say, “Dying is a part of living.” The aging process makes us aware this is going on bit-by-bit all the time. Wrinkled skin. Hip replacements. Disease. Baldness. They all come to call on us as reminders…We are literally dying from the time we are born.
Why is it then along with death we also consider eternity? How would a finite human being come to such a notion? Is it merely escapism from the thought of death that prompts us to imagine eternity – or is eternity a reality wired into our hearts as evidence we are created by an Eternal Being? What if it had been demonstrated and witnessed by many men that one man had died in your place – and then been raised from the dead to demonstrate you would never have to die? A fascinating thought, isn’t it? What if by merely believing this neither you nor your loved ones would ever die? Jesus came as the Author of eternal life. Never forget it.
- Pastor Bill
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