Facing "The Last Enemy"

She was standing, waiting for the elevator in the Bible College I attend and where she is a professor. Her husband had passed away a couple weeks before, and once I caught up with her, proceeded to offer my condolences. During our brief chat, I commented on her cheerful disposition despite her recent loss. Her eyes brightened, her smile got broader, and bouncing on her toes she said excitedly, with all the conviction she could muster, "I know where he is, I know where he is, he's with Jesus." What a wonderful perspective!

Death. It is not a topic that makes for comfortable conversation, yet its reality has touched the lives of so many of us. From the moment we were conceived, our 'appointment' with death was made, and unless we're privileged to be alive when Jesus returns, it is an 'appointment' - date and time unknown to us - that we must keep. The writer of Hebrews left no doubt about that when he wrote, "It is appointed unto man once to die" (9:27), and Solomon stated the uncomfortable truth, "For the living know that they will die" (Ecclesiastes 9:5a). However, whether when facing the death of loved ones, or awareness of our own mortality, death, for the believer, doesn't have to be a frightening thought. In the natural, it is but a period on our earthly existence, but from God's perspective, it is a comma, a transition, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, declared this moment of transition "precious", when he wrote, "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:5). Imagine that. When the final breath leaves the body of the child of God, the LORD deems that a precious moment.

While there is sorrow in death, there is no need for fear. Someone once wrote, "Death is but changing our robes to wait in wedding garments at the Eternal's gate." Before his execution, Paul, in his second and final letter to Timothy, wrote, "I am now ready to be offered" (4:6a). The Psalmist declared, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness" (17:15). Because of the hope in Christ Jesus, we do not have to face or mourn death like those without hope. Like the college professor, secured in the knowledge of the promises of God, we too can say of our loved ones, and they can say of us, "I know where s/he is, I know where s/he is."

The grave is not a final resting place. It is just a holding ground for our mortal bodies. Being fully persuaded that death will eventually be swallowed up in victory, and that it is just a transition from this life to the next, in its presence the believer should shout the words of 1 Corinthians 15:55, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?", because standing on the other side is The One who triumphed over death, and through Him, all who believe in Him will experience the same (John 3:16). Let us comfort ourselves , and others, with that thought.