The apostle Paul says emphatically, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’” (verse 32b). . . . He is not simply trusting in Christ so that this life might be more full or more prosperous; instead, he is trusting in Christ for this life and forevermore. . . . Christian hope is a hope that not only controls our present living, but also our anticipation of what will come to be beyond this life.[9]
The Fear of Death
I heard a story about a man who goes to the doctor for his annual physical. As he leaves, the doctor promises to call with the results. A couple of days pass before the call comes. The doctor says, “Are you seated? I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”
The man turns pale and tells the doctor to continue.
“Well,” the doctor says, “you’ve got forty-eight hours to live.”
“What?” the man stammers.
“Now for the worst,” the doctor says.
“How could anything be any worse than that?” the man shouts.
“Well, it’s just that I’ve been trying to call you since yesterday.”
Calls like this happen only in bad jokes. But doctors make similar calls bearing fatal news every day. While life has no two-minute warning, time does run out. Don’t we want to have our lives, our homes, and our eternal souls in order when that moment comes?
We say we want to be ready, but the problem is, death is high on our fear list. We’d rather not talk about it. So in this section of the chapter, I want to present biblical reasons that death should not be feared. If you are a Christian who remains apprehensive about death, even a little bit, I want this section to encourage you to replace your fear with biblical hope and assurance. I pray that the biblical truths presented here will move you toward faith in Christ so that His life, not your death, brings you to joyful anticipation of the future.
There are only two ways to face the future: with fear or with faith. Those who live by faith in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20) will find all their fears—especially the fear of death—consumed by the security of His person and the certainty of His promises.
The Prince of Death Has Been Defeated
The author of the book of Hebrews declares that Jesus conquered death by death, freeing us from the fear of death:
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
HEBREWS 2:14-15
From the Garden of Eden until Jesus’ sacrificial death, the devil used death to gain the upper hand and enjoy the last laugh. Satan stirred in people the desire to violate God’s laws and then watched them reap death—the reward of their sin. Paul writes that “the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56). It was quite a system. We failed to be obedient, and we died for it—every time.
In His death and resurrection, the Son of God played the devil’s own trump card. Just as David took the sword of Goliath and cut off his head with it, Jesus took the weapon of Satan and defeated him with it. The Cross must have seemed like the ultimate victory for Satan, but it was precisely the opposite. When Christ by His own death paid the penalty for sin, He took the sting out of the devil’s condemnation.
When Jesus stepped from the open tomb on Resurrection Sunday, Satan’s defeat was certain. His weapon of death had been destroyed. He is still alive and active, but his failure is a foregone conclusion. He must settle for winning the smaller battles, because the war he started has been lost forever.
Satan’s last hope is to convince you to live as if the victory of Christ never happened. He would love for you to be enslaved to the fear of death. The first-century Jewish philosopher Philo wrote that “nothing is so calculated to enslave the mind as fearing death.”[10] The author of Hebrews, undoubtedly a learned Jewish Christian, may have been aware of Philo’s words, for he expresses the same sentiment, saying those who fear death “were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:15). If you do fear death, your fright is based on a lie. It is God’s truth that will set you free (John 8:32).
Steve and Ann Campbell of Hampton, Tennessee, were sitting in their breakfast room one day, reading and relaxing. Their little dog, Gigi, a Maltipoo (Maltese and poodle mix), was asleep on the bench in the bay window. Suddenly a jolt rocked the room and toppled Gigi from the bench. Nothing was hurt but the little dog’s pride. The couple wondered what had caused all the commotion. They couldn’t find any clues until they spotted a large hawk outside lying beneath the bay window. The bird had swooped down, talons out, to get Gigi with no regard for the protective pane of glass. A few minutes later, the hawk shook off its stupor and vanished into the sky, minus its canine snack.
The devil wants to get his talons into us. The power of the Resurrection, however, provides a pane of protection that cannot be broken. Satan may knock himself out trying, but he can’t claim us. Because Christ died, we have lives that are forgiven; because Christ rose, we have lives that are forever.
The Power of Death Has Been Destroyed
The prophet Isaiah, in an outburst of hope, predicts a day when the Lord will destroy death and restore His people:
He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
ISAIAH 25:8
Hosea, a contemporary of Isaiah, also foretells Christ’s victory over death:
I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
O Death, I will be your plagues!
O Grave, I will be your destruction!
HOSEA 13:14
These two prophecies are the first in the Bible to declare that death itself would die. The New Testament leaves no doubt as to the meaning of these words:
When this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:54-57
In the book of Revelation, the apostle John describes what life will be like in heaven when these prophecies are fulfilled: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
The apostle Paul reminds Timothy that through His resurrection, Christ has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10).
And in one of the most poignant passages in the New Testament on the inviolability of God’s love for His children, Paul includes death in the list of realities that will never separate us from that love:
I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ROMANS 8:38-39
Jesse Irvin Overholtzer, the founder of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), was growing old. He knew he had few remaining years in this life. He and his wife, Ruth, invited a young nurse from India to stay with them while she attended classes at the nearby CEF Institute. When Overholtzer suffered a seizure, she was up with him throughout the night. Yet at dawn she took off for classes as if she’d gotten a full night’s sleep.
“Isn’t it wonderful to be young and fu
ll of life?” Ruth said to her husband.
“Yes,” Overholtzer answered, “but it is more wonderful to be old and ready to go to heaven!”[11]
The Process of Death Has Been Described
An eleven-year-old wrote to Pope John Paul with this question: “What is it like when you die? Nobody will tell me. I just want to know, but I don’t want to do it.”[12] Jesus tells a story in Luke 16:19-31 that offers a penetrating view of what happens after death. In fact, this story tells us more about life after death than we might expect.
His parable concerns two men—one rich and one poor. The pauper’s name is Lazarus (though not the same man Jesus raised from the dead). We don’t know the rich man’s name, but we know his lifestyle. He wears the finest clothing and eats the finest cuisine. He has the best of everything, and he lets everyone know about it—even Lazarus, the beggar at his gates, who hopes to be thrown a few crumbs from the bountiful table. Lazarus is not only hungry but also very ill, covered with sores that the town dogs lick. His is a miserable existence.
Lazarus, however, possesses one thing that no one can take away: his love for God. The rich man possesses one thing he cannot keep: his life. Both men die. On the other side of the gate that separates this life from eternity, the beggar Lazarus is carried by heavenly angels to the bosom of Abraham. Now he is kissed by angels rather than licked by dogs.
So it will be for you and me. We won’t simply be “beamed up” to heaven. We will be carried there by angels. This passage provides one of the euphemisms we employ for death: “The angels took him.” It may sound like a cliché from a Victorian greeting card, but it is biblical truth as applied to believers in Christ. On the day when you wait for the curtains to be drawn on this life, God’s messengers stand ready to bear you away on life’s ultimate journey. The great hymn writer Isaac Watts expressed it in fine poetry:
Lord, when I leave this mortal ground,
And thou shalt bid me rise and come,
Send a beloved angel down,
Safe to conduct my spirit home.[13]
In his children’s book Somewhere Angels, Larry Libby suggests that God sends angels so we won’t have to make that journey alone. Great voyages need great companions, and God says, “When it’s your time to come, I’ll send someone to bring you. You won’t need to fear; you won’t need to find your own way. And the person I will send knows the way very well.”[14] At the moment when you first set eyes on your forever home, an angel will be there to share your joy. As you realize you’ve now been made perfect, with every ailment gone, an angel will be there to laugh with you, to hear your shouts of triumph.
On that journey, Christians will experience none of the travel worries we face now—no getting lost, no missing the bus, no waiting for the next plane. God has an angel assigned to bring you home. In the face of such assurance, how can we fear?
The Picture of Death Has Been Developed
On December 7, 1941, Rev. Peter Marshall was speaking to the cadets at Annapolis. A “day of infamy” was unfolding at Pearl Harbor, which now lay in the flames of an enemy attack. The room was filled with young men who would soon sacrifice their lives for their country. He told them the story of a dying child—a little boy with a disease who asked his mother, “What is it like to die? Does it hurt?” The mother thought for a minute, then said, “Do you remember when you were smaller, and you played very hard and fell asleep on your mommy’s bed? You awoke to find yourself somehow in your own bed. Your daddy had come along, with his big, strong arms and lifted you, undressed you, put you into your pajamas as you slept. Honey, that’s what death is like. It’s waking up in your own room.”[15]
Like this little boy, most of us are curious about the process of death. Perhaps no single verse of Scripture gives us a more comforting picture of it than the widely quoted Psalm 23:4:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
The sheer beauty of the passage never fails to move us, of course. But the power of this truth hits us at a deep level in times of suffering. When we face death—our own or the death of a loved one—this verse should be held close to our hearts. Its poetic phrases teach us several things.
DEATH IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
I walk through the valley. . . .
PSALM 23:4
Pastor and author Leith Anderson tells of a woman who buried her husband after he lost a battle with cancer. A short time later, she found that the same disease had come for her. She could only await her reunion with the husband she had loved and lost.
When she knew she had only a few days left, the woman invited Anderson and his wife to her home. They sat with deep emotion, holding her hands as she spoke casually of the reality of death and anticipating her joy in the presence of God. She talked about her children and wanted to know all about the Andersons’ kids. You’d have thought she was preparing for a cruise instead of a departure from this life.
A constant stream of friends came to comfort her, but it was the other way around. They left deeply blessed. And those who couldn’t visit heard encouragement from her on the phone. Through it all, she never thought of herself. Everything she did illustrated her concern and love for others. Her hope for the afterlife enabled her to use death as an opportunity to reach out and bless as many people as possible.[16]
Most of us speak of hope for the afterlife. But the way we approach death shows what we really believe. Those committed to a biblical perspective have no reason to treat death as their greatest enemy. They see it as another journey that calls for preparation. They say their good-byes, they get their affairs in order, and they prepare their spirits for the joy of a new existence.
As we know, many people today believe this life is all there is—that physical death and spiritual death are one and the same and that their entire existence will come to an end. For people who believe this way, it’s perfectly reasonable to fear death. They think it’s the final curtain. Believing this life to be all there is, they clutch it tightly. To these people, life must be a source of deep frustration and even despair because it has so many limitations, so much disappointment. You come into the world, you’re young and strong, then you reach the top of the hill and begin a long, sad descent—and at the bottom lurks nothing but darkness.
Christians, however, live in a brighter now because everything in life has a reason. The ups and downs point to an eternity that will fulfill all our hopes and repay all our frustrations. Poor Lazarus had reason for hope. He knew what other hurting believers know—that this world was never their home anyway. They are citizens of heaven, ambassadors of a bright reality.
We must remember that for believers and nonbelievers alike, death is not the end. We are all eternal creatures. The distinction is whether one’s eternity will be brighter than a billion suns or darker than the imagination can conceive.
In the “Shepherd Psalm,” David sees death not as a destination but as a journey through a dark country—a journey we make with God’s hand in ours. My friend Pastor Rob Morgan describes how this journey reveals the transitory nature of death:
Psalm 23:4 does not speak of a cave or a dead-end trail. It’s a valley, which means it has an opening on both ends. . . . The emphasis is on through, which indicates a temporary state, a transition, a brighter path ahead, a hopeful future. For Christians, problems are always temporary and blessings always eternal (as opposed to non-Christians, whose blessings are temporal and whose problems are eternal). Valleys don’t go on forever, and the road ahead is always bright for the child of God, as bright as His promises. There are no cul-de-sacs on His maps, no blind alleys in His will, no dead ends in His guidance.[17]
Paul speaks of being “absent from the body and . . . present with the Lord,” indicating that the two conditions are one and the same (2 Corinthians 5:8). As James M. Campbell observed, death is an exit gate and he
aven is an entrance. But the two are arranged so closely that one opens as the other shuts. When one person says that a dying person is “lying at the gates of death,” another could say that, no, he is “lying at the gate of heaven.” And both would have it right.[18]
DEATH IS A SHADOW, NOT A REALITY
The valley of the shadow of death . . .
PSALM 23:4
When I was a young boy, my father was the pastor of a church in Toledo, Ohio. During his eleven-year pastorate there, the church relocated to a property that had once been a luxurious mansion. The mansion was restored and an auditorium was built on one end of it, and that became our new church.
Behind this mansion was a huge ten-car garage. The parsonage was on the second floor of the garage in what had formerly been the servants’ quarters. One of my nightly chores was to carry out the trash to containers located outside the cavernous garage. When I waited until after dark to do my chores, I had to carry the trash through the eerie, dimly lit garage. At night it was a foreboding place, filled with shadows that seemed to hide unthinkable horrors. In my terror, I ran through those shadows, possibly setting new speed records for trash-and-carry.
During daylight hours I could clearly see that I was in no danger—no monsters lurked in that garage. But darkness does something to a place, doesn’t it? It distorts. It becomes a canvas for the imagination. The good news is that shadows are only the deflection of light. They can frighten, but they can do no harm.
As Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse was driving home from the funeral of his first wife, he and his children were overcome with grief. As he sought some word of comfort for his kids, a huge moving van passed them, and its shadow swept over the car. Dr. Barnhouse said, “Children, would you rather be run over by a truck or by its shadow?”
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