Death

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

The issue of what happens when we die and where do we go are age-old questions.  Are we reincarnated?  Just we just cease to exist? Or, will we spend eternity in a particular place?

Peter Marshall, Chaplin to the US Senate 1946 until his death in 1949, described death to a class of midshipmen at the US Naval Academy in December 7^th, 1941, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.  He told a story of a young boy who had an incurable disease and was going to die.  His mother had just finished reading to him of the Knights of the Round Table and how many had died in a battle.  Marshall’s story continued:

“As she closed the book, the boy sat silent for an instant as though deeply stirred with the trumpet call of the old English tale, and then asked the question that had been weighing on his childish heart: “Mother, what is it like to die? Mother, does it hurt?” Quick tears sprang to her eyes and she fled to the kitchen supposedly to tend to something on the stove. She knew it was a question with deep significance. She knew it must be answered satisfactorily. So she leaned for an instant against the kitchen cabinet, her knuckles pressed white against the smooth surface, and breathed a hurried prayer that the Lord would keep her from breaking down before the boy and would tell her how to answer him.

“And the Lord did tell her. Immediately she knew how to explain it to him.

“Kenneth,” she said as she returned to the next room, “you remember when you were a tiny boy how you used to play so hard all day that when night came you would be too tired even to undress, and you would tumble into mother’s bed and fall asleep? That was not your bed…it was not where you belonged. And you stayed there only a little while. In the morning, much to your surprise, you would wake up and find yourself in your own bed in your own room. You were there because someone had loved you and taken care of you. Your father had come—with big strong arms—and carried you away. Kenneth, death is just like that. We just wake up some morning to find ourselves in the other room—our own room where we belong—because the Lord Jesus loved us.”

“The lad’s shining, trusting face looking up into hers told her that the point had gone home and that there would be no more fear … only love and trust in his little heart as he went to meet the Father in Heaven.”

The Christian’s view of death is like that.  We are strangers here, sojourners, residents but not citizens.  We don’t belong here but look forward to going home some day.  But what of those who are not Christians?  What happens to them?

Sadly, Jesus Himself tells us in one sentence, in one verse in Matthew, what will happen to us all:

Matthew 25:46 (ESV)
⁴⁶  And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This should break our hearts as Christians, the fact that denying Christ will bring eternal punishment.  The question often arises at this point how a loving God would punish people with eternal torture.

The answer is pretty simple.  God is holy.  How holy is He?  The Book of Job describes His holiness as greater than the glory of the universe.  In fact, compared to God’s holiness, the universe is dirty:

Job 15:14-15 (ESV)
¹⁴  What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
¹⁵  Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight;

God cannot allow non-holy beings into his company.  There are requirements for righteousness in order for us to enter into God’s presence.

Romans 8:3-4 (ESV)
 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So, Christians, by giving their lives to Christ and relying on His finished work, have fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law and can enter into Christ’s presence.  Those who have not relied on His work cannot.

This isn’t a condemnation of the lost.  The lost are already condemned as being unholy.  It is a plan for their salvation, the rescuing of sinners, the unrighteous, through a system of sacrifice satisfied by God’s Son.  That is the price paid, the gift offered to everyone, but sadly too few take advantage of it.

According to Ephesians 2:8-9, everyone can be saved from the eternal punishment Jesus talked about.  In fact, He came for just that reason.  God is loving and gracious.  In fact, the Bible says, “God is Love.”  He seeks out those who don’t know Him.  I know He did with me.  I ran from Him, but He never gave up on me.  He wanted me and was tenacious in His pursuit.

If you don’t know Christ, the simple solution is to accept His gift, take Him up on His offer, yield to His plan for your life.  I can guarantee it’s better than your plan.  We will all live forever though physical death will come.  It is up to each of us to decide where we will spend the eternity afterward.