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"Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory? O death, where is
your sting? ... Thanks be to God, who gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ
." (1 Cor 15.54b-57)
Death's
Deception
Death
taunts us and controls us by inciting deep fears
within
us.
We
control
each other with threats of exposure,
embarrassment, failure, pain, or judgement.
Indeed, entire nations have been intimidated into
subjection. And death uses this same
weapon.
Some
of us fear death because we fear the unknown that
lies beyond it. Words like heaven and
eternal life settle the nerves a bit, but
part of us still stresses about the
unknown.
Others
of us fear death because we fear the consequences
for those left living. If I die, what will happen
to my spouse and children? We seem to think, at
such times, that our lives singlehandedly bring
life to those around us. God's grace and provision
will only suffice while I'm on
deck.
Yet
others of us fear death because we fear the
process itself - pain, suffering, loss of control,
or loss of dignity. O death, thine enemy at
rest; thy tools of trade and grip on life, make
thee a dreaded guest.
Little
wonder then, that we have such attachment to life
in the present, even as believers and followers of
Christ.
The
consequences are grave and
far-reaching.
First,
we justify violence to protect ourselves and
our "interests." We bear arms, resort to
aggression, and make preemptive strikes because
death casts a shadow larger than its reality. And
she chuckles. She receives the ill-prepared and
controls the
living.
Second,
we fight death when it threatens us in sickness.
We cling to this life as though there is none on
the other side of the veil. We wrestle to prolong
our time and defer the inevitable, for fear of the
transition or fear for those we
love.
Third,
we may compromise values or even abandon faith to
avoid death. History tells the stories of
countless people who buckled in the presence of
this nemesis. We'll do whatever it
takes, stem-cell research from
embryos or the rituals of paganism, to
squeeze out an extra
day.
Death's
crippling weapon is fear. Our solution is love -
God's love. We will always yield to the toxicity
of death, until we take the hand of Christ. His
love alone sucks out the poison of death and gives
us hope. Such hope does not make us passivists,
apathetically carried along by the tide of each
day. On the contrary, it gives us a foundation for
truly living. Instead of fighting death, we're
free to embrace life (see Rom
8.35-39)
As
our confidence deepens in the sovereignty of God,
and as we confront death with assurance in
the resurrection power of the Father, perhaps
we'll see the swords turned back into ploughshares
(Isa 2.4) and find ourselves better prepared to be
overcomers - steadfast in the face of
death (Rev 2.7,11,17,
etc).
Death
is but our doorway to glory. To live is Christ; to
die is gain (Phil 1.21). Ironically, our fear of
death destroys our lives.
Only the genuine banishment of this fear will at
last allow us to live life to full despite its
brevity.
In
HOPE
-
David | 
