How death becomes less formidable as you age.

When I was a child I feared death terribly. I was fearful that life would pass too rapidly or I would have some misadventure and die young. I must confess to still being apprehensive about death in my middle years. However as an older man in my early sixties I have to say I look forward to passing over the river and meeting my Saviour Jesus Christ.

I’m not in any great hurry to shuffle off this mortal coil, you realise, but I don’t fear death the way I once did. I love the Lord and I know I am saved so I just don’t have that fear any more. I wonder if this is the same for everyone or is it only my Christian faith that causes me to feel like this about death?

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

These days deaths seems like a logical end to life as the old body ages and the end of the journey comes into sight. Perhaps the fact that so many friends and family members have passed onto eternity has an impact on my attitude to death. It is kind of like reaching the senior years of high school when so many of those who started the journey in Year 9 had left to find employment and I was one of the few to stay in the senior years. It was lonely actually and It is much the same as many we have known and loved have left this Earth and are no more. We miss them so much.

2 Corinthians 5:8 “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

I think that the idea of our human spirit being with Christ Jesus is an appealing thought as we grow older. Some folks don’t like it that thought particularly as some feel there is no human spirit or that we don’t arrive with God until we are resurrected. The apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:8 “We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” So many Christians base their trust that we go immediately to be with Christ in Spirit awaiting the resurrection to gain our eternal body. I guess we’re going to have to wait and see for a final answer on that one.

Another death related foible is whether there is a real literal hell or is it that we are consumed by eternal fire. Again it seems that scripture is not completely clear on this one. There are scriptures that hint that eternal fire is similar to the eternal fire that fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Jude 1:7 “Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in sexual perversion and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”

Matthew 25:41 states this “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” and it book ends the subject in Matthew 25:46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Seems like there is a Hell fire for eternity for those who reject the Saviour, Jesus of Nazareth.

I’m glad that I’m going to be with the Saviour. I wouldn’t want to be with those on His left hand side. I look forward to the day when this life full of death and suffering is over. Whether I have to wait in the grave for the resurrection or go straight to be with Jesus as a spirit. I’ll be glad when this life is over. There is one final scripture that lends some credibility to the being a spirit in the kingdom awaiting resurrection.

Revelation 6:9 “When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained.”