 |
| Ann Arbor |
Often when praying I think about life and death. This past week I wrote in my journal that I want to finish well and make a difference with my life. For me this is about leaving a legacy of God and Jesus, not about leaving some personal legacy where people remember me.
This past Saturday, at the conference in Urbana, Illinois that I spoke at, one of the participants told me that God spoke to him and said: "______, death is not a big deal for me." That really struck me. Death is not a big deal for God. Correct. Why not?
Because God is everlasting; that is, God never began to exist and God will never cease to exist. God is a necessarily existent being who cannot not-exist. So, God cannot die.
Because God, in Christ, has conquered death on earth. So all who are found in Christ shall live forever in the coming kingdom and age to come.
Death is no big deal for God, since: 1) God cannot die; and 2) death on earth has been defeated.
This has big-time implications for we "mortals." We who are in Christ have died with him and shall be raised in him. That being true, what's the fear of death about?
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
- 1 Corinthians 15:54-58
