Death

by Micky Galloway

One of the blessings of my life as a gospel preacher is to associate with the best people on earth. This morning I received a phone call regarding a dear friend and brother in Christ for more than thirty years. I have stayed in his home a number of times during gospel meetings. I was told that he has cancer in his liver, lungs, stomach and spine. I spoke with his wife and his daughter, whose hearts are burdened with sorrow. He is not expected to live.

The fact is, none of us are expected to live. The wisdom writer said, “For every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die … For the living know they shall die” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2; 9:5). The Hebrew writer said, “It is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27).

When we are young, it is difficult to think about dying. Solomon, as he concludes his discourse on vanity under the sun, warns young men, “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity” (Ecclesiastes 11:9-10). Yes, we need to rejoice in youth, delight in it, and find pleasure in it. Yet, we must remember that if youth is all life is about, eventually it will be taken away. Time takes its toll and every human being will experience the decay of the body and at last the spirit will depart from the body resulting in death (James 2:26). It is indeed an appointment we cannot escape.

Solomon reminds us that the only thing that lasts of all the things under the sun is our relationship with God. He exhorts younger people to keep that perspective. The twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes is really not a chapter to older people, because if you are older it is really too late to “remember thy creator in the days of thy youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). Young people, you must take death into account in your life as you decide what’s more important than anything else.

Death is an enemy! There is nothing inherently good about death. Death is described as a dark place. Job spoke of “the land of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as midnight” (Job 10:20-22). David expressed confidence in God as he wrote, “Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me …” (Psalms 23:4). Moses sets before the children of Israel an awesome choice, “life and good and death and evil” (Deuteronomy 30:15). Death is not linked with good and it is not linked with light. Paul described death as the last enemy that shall be destroyed (I Corinthians 15:26). Though God has used death to accomplish His purpose (Hebrews 2:14-15), we are not called upon to look at the ravages of death and say, “This is good” or “This is the way it ought to be.”

As Christians, however, we can look at death differently than the world, not because there is something wonderful in it, but because it is an enemy which has been disarmed. God doesn’t take death away from us when we become His children. Though the pain and grief that are a part of death remain, for the Christian they are no longer ultimate and therefore they hold no terror for the one who has put his confidence in the great God who sent His Son into the world to redeem us. Yes, we still grieve when death occurs. At the death of Stephen, devout men buried him and made great lamentation over him (Acts 7:2). Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35). Yet, our grief is not as those who are hopeless (I Thessalonians 4:13). We are not terrified and we are not dismayed, it is not the feeling of ultimate disaster as we face that enemy, because death is a subdued enemy. The Hebrew writer said of Jesus, “that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15). Death is compelled to do a service that it did not intend to do. Through death (the death of Jesus) the world has a Savior. Satan who had the power of death does not have the key of death. In Revelation 1:17-18, as John sees a vision of the resurrected Lord; Jesus put His hand on John and says, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”

Christ would be magnified in Paul’s body by life or by death (Philippians 1:19-21). Christ was magnified in Paul’s body by life in that while he lived he preached the Gospel. Paul had done so much in his life by which people could come out of darkness into light. But, even if Paul should die in Roman prison, he would die unashamed of the confession he had made that Jesus Christ is Lord and no one could force that confession out of his heart or out of his mouth. Death held no terror to Paul, because he would use it to magnify the Lord.

The sting of death, however, is sin (I Corinthians 15:56)! Death is a terror to those who are outside of Christ and to the uncommitted, the unfaithful, who look upon death as an end instead of a transition to a beginning. This is a dreaded time when they meet a Savior they do not know and who is NOT their friend; who will judge them according to their evil deeds done in the body.

However, David said, “Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints” (Psalms 116:15). When death comes to confront the righteous, standing beside us is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings; and holding our hand is the friend and redeemer who has “all power” (Matthew 28:18), who has defeated sin and death. At that last and great day He will deliver up His kingdom to the Father and death will be no more (I Corinthians 15:24-25). John wrote, “death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14). Surely then, we will be able to say with Paul, “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting” (I Corinthians 15:55).