4 April 2023 - Death

I have suddenly lost my sister-in-law. In times like these, there are always more questions than answers. Why did this happen? How is this possible? Why do people die?

People die because of disobedience to God. Disobedience by Adam and Eve resulted in death for all mankind.

Genesis 2:17 (ESV) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

As humans we focus on the physical death of a person, as referred to in Genesis 3:19 (NLV) You will eat bread by the sweat of your face because of hard work, until you return to the ground, because you were taken from the ground. You are dust, and you will return to dust.”

Isaiah 57:1 (NLT) Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come.

Ecclesiastes 12:5 (NKJV) Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets.

The Bible also refers to a spiritual death, this death without God.

Romans 6:23 (ESV) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 5:12 (ESV) Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Death with Christ, according to the Bible, is having eternal life.

Psalm 116:15 (NKJV) Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His saints.

The righteous do not need to fear death because they have absolute assurance and confidence that they will live as long as possible to fulfil God’s purpose. No one can take you from His love and care if you walk with God.

John 10:28-29 (TLB) “I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else, so no one can kidnap them from me.”

God also promises that death is not the end - it’s only the beginning. And people who have accepted Jesus as their Saviour can look forward to a fantastic afterlife.

John 11:25-26 (NIV) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Romans 14:8 (NIV) If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

I conclude with John 3:16-18 (AMP) For God so loved and dearly prized the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world , but that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes and has decided to trust in Him is not judged ; but the one who does not believe is judged already , because he has not believed and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God .