Death is life “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” — 1 Corinthians 15:26 — Because Christ has died, we will not be dead eternally. Christ has fulfilled God’s justice. Our death is no longer a punishment but only the death of sin and an entry to eternal life. And still, despite the fact that we are surrounded by all the things that should comfort us, we still restlessly roll around in our beds and we wonder about the day of tomorrow and the day thereafter as well as the day when there will be no more tomorrow or the day after. Now Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:19: “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” We try so hard to get away from the thoughts on our mortality. But we can’t, it keeps on overtaking us and we can’t and won’t understand this reality. Death is illogical, undesirable – irrespective of whether we are five, forty or eighty. The Bible calls it an enemy, a last enemy. Even if we have beaten all our enemies, it feels as if this enemy of enemies quickly overtakes us, overwhelms and conquers us. Our experiences of meaninglessness can be wiped under the carpet with all kinds of tricks and health sciences can keep away the diseases from our bodies, but death? Death is dead. Or is it? Absolutely YES! The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. Christ did utterly defeat and conquer this “enemy”! Our death is therefore not a jump in the dark but a jump into life, toward God who carried Christ’s jump of life. When we die, it isn’t merely the snuffing out of a candle flame because our story has ended but rather a case of the candle flame that has become superfluous: the sun has risen on a new day, God’s day. Our death no longer is payment of sin. It is the death of sin and the thoroughfare to eternal life. There we will reign as kings because Christ has recaptured the right to the throne. If we see a grave we should rather consider it as arable land where we wait for God’s summer and until we will be resurrected to life (Johan Cilliers). Christ bore the curse and the shame and the judgement and the humiliation of the grave for us. Through his burial he opened the way for us to full bodily glory. We are carefully preserved in the grave for the glory that will come. The seed is sown in the earth; God the great Farmer will ensure that the seeds sprout and bloom eternally in the land of glory with him. Christ has fulfilled God’s grace. Jesus died as any person does but still his death was different. He didn’t die like a tragic hero. No, he died like the Messiah as Mediator. At the moment of his death, the temple curtain tore from the top to the bottom. The heavens opened! It doesn’t end there: “The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared too many people” (Matt. 27:52-53). A precursor of and a prediction of the end! Has someone else died like this? When Jesus died, heaven and earth united, the spectator was pulled closer, death and evil were conquered, and redemption of the total reality was established. All this because Someone died. Truly, these words of our testimony are a mouthful. It is full of comfort for the world and for us. The early Christian church didn’t want to leave an ounce of doubt on the actual, physical death of Jesus. It is also mentioned that he was buried. And his burial has two meanings. Firstly, his burial should be an indication that He really died. His death wasn’t an apparent death. Everyone had to be convinced that he was really dead and that they buried him. Secondly, his burial was necessary to ensure that he could be our Sponsor and Mediator fully and in all respects. He was our replacement so fully that God brought everything that should have been over us, also over him. Our brief lives start at the cradle and ends in the grave. The same applied to Jesus. There is no part of God’s punishment, however small in our eyes that Jesus did not bear. He was therefore also buried. His burial changes everything including our own burials. Our graves lose their horror. Jesus did say: “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25, 26). Six feet is very deep but definitely not deep enough to prevent God’s saving grace from reaching it … He made a path through death for us. He leads his people with dry feet through the waves of the kingdom of death, out the other embankment to the Promised Land – the heavenly Canaan. In the shadow of death, Paul could say: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Christ not only fills my life, he IS my life. And now I can rest assured that even in my worst battles I can find full comfort in the knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ has saved me from hell’s suffering and pain. This redemption was achieved by his unspeakable fear, grief and terror that he suffered throughout his life but particularly on the cross. When I read these words I become embarrassed to hear of Christ’s unspeakable fear, grief and terror. According to Calvin Christ’s anguish is placed on the forefront here. Hell isn’t considered as such but rather the grappling with the unspeakable sorrow that Christ was suffering from and which reached its climax on the cross. On the cross his suffering is pointed at and carried towards and intensified in the fear and torment of hell. On the cross the suffering escalates to an intensity in which it seems that the whole of hell has exploded over Christ. This was when he carried the whole burden of God’s anger. This was the moment of God forsakenness. And at this moment his cry of terror could be heard: “My God, my God, why did you forsake me?” In faith we testify that Christ has wrestled the terror of hell for us. And from this faith we derive comfort – strength, rich and complete comfort. Because for the faithful it means that no battle will be as heavy and no pain as severe and no sorrow so overwhelming that it would rob us of the wonderful knowledge that we have been redeemed from it. Our most difficult battles are not the worst we can endure. The worst has been endured by Christ for us. Suffering never becomes hellish for a child of God. On the contrary. Especially when it is so severe that it seems it is beyond our strength, heaven is close by. Then the Lord carries us; then he takes what feels to us as an unbearable load, onto his shoulders. He was forsaken by God so that we would never be forsaken. Prayer: Father, what lies before us, – how we would live and when we would die – we don’t know. But one thing we do know: All things and all times lie in your hands and there it is safe and ordered. Thank you that this order derives from your infallible wisdom and your eternal love, o God, who is love! Help us then, Lord our God, to see and trust your hand leading us in our uncertainty. We pray this in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (Charles Simeon – From: Gebedeboek vir die lewe – Lux Verbi.BM – translated) Regards in Christ. Hentie Krüger
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:15:16 +0000
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