Death: A Merciful Escape
The word death is probably the last word we as humans want to hear. It is generally the last thing we want to think about and deal with. Death scares me! Chances are it scares you. Our zest for life and our desire for self preservation can be a hindrance because Jesus wasn’t that big on this earthly life. He talked about denying this life and laying down this life.
Death is a scary, devastating and horrible thing. But God promises to work all things—including death—for good for those who love him and are called by him (Romans 8:28).
So, how does God view the death?
Isaiah 57:1-2
The righteous man perishes,
and no one lays it to heart;
devout men are taken away,
while no one understands.
For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;
he enters into peace;
they rest in their beds
who walk in their uprightness.
There are two ways this is true for Christians. First, John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”. We will only stop having tribulation when God takes us home.
Second, the greatest calamity that will befall humans is the wrath of God. That is what we need to be “taken away” (saved) from. The Bible tells us plainly that Christians will suffer various worldly calamities. Romans 8:35-36 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”. But what makes us “more than conquerors” in all these things is the love of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:37). Since we “have now been justified by Jesus’ blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:9).
So, when those of us who are counted righteous in Christ die, we are delivered from our greatest calamity and all lesser calamities. We enter into peace and rest. And this is a mercy that the world doesn’t understand.
And one more thing. The Lord Jesus finally sees his great desire for us fulfilled: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory” (John 17:24).
Which is why “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15).
