A Question not asked

Like Mark Twain, I read the obituaries this morning and was happy to discover that I wasn’t there. Even though I turn first to the comics, reading the obits is a bad habit. It puts my focus on the inevitable, poking and prodding at that fear that every person has, and even though Christ died to release me from the bondage of that fear, it still niggles at me.

Winter is coming (winter is about dying), I’ve serious dental surgery coming up in November, plus a flight to Asia (there are far too many airplane crashes in the news), and every day new aches and pains remind me that I’m not the young chick I used to be.

Nevertheless, I’ve not brought this nagging to the Lord. I know the answers, at least I tell myself that I do. But there is knowing and there is knowing. Today He gives me a verse to ponder concerning my unasked question. Believe it or not, it took me nearly thirty minutes of looking at it (and related commentaries, etc.) before I realized that He is getting deeply personal with this one. Wake up girl. You have a fear and I am addressing it. Listen to me!

The verse in Revelation 1:18 is Jesus speaking. He says, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades (literally, the unseen realm) and of Death.”

My own study Bible (MacArthur, NKJV) offers this, “Death and Hades are essentially synonyms, but death is the condition, and Hades, equivalent to the OT Sheol, is the place of the dead. Christ decides who lives, who dies, and when.”

Of course He does. My life is in His hands. I know that, but do I really know that?

Another commentary says that the phrase “alive for evermore” in Greek means “living unto the ages of ages” and is not merely “I live,” but “I have life, and am the source of it to My people.” I know that too. Jesus is my life. Without Him, I am a blundering bowl of jelly. I cannot function, never mind live and breathe, without Him.

This commentary also says, “To Him belongs absolute being, as contrasted with the relative being of the creature. Others may share it, but He only has immortality. He is, in essence, not by mere participation, immortal.” It adds that because Jesus passed through death as one of us and now lives in the “infinite plenitude of life” He can reassure His people — through Him death is the gate of resurrection to eternal life.

Christ conquered death. This is the central element in Christianity, the thing that makes it utterly different from all other religions. Romans 6:9 says, “Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”

One commentator said, “A Christ that is not alive, is a Christ that cannot save.” Others worship dead leaders. The one I worship is alive. I know that. I really know that. How? I just do. He speaks to me, makes Himself known to me. Because He is alive, He has authority to unlock the grave and let its inhabitants out. His power unlocks and opens the gates to eternity so I can spend forever with Him. This promise is for all His resurrected saints.

At the same time, Scripture is clear that the living Christ will also judge and sentence His enemies to eternal damnation. Therefore, as Jesus Christ Himself warns, the greatest thing to fear is not death, but rather “He who can destroy both body and soul in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

My question is really not about death, but about the process of dying. His answer is not about either death or dying, but about Himself. He says that fear of death is the wrong fear. Instead of anxiety over what He has already conquered, I should be in utter awe of Him, the One who has taken care of my life all along and is quite capable of continuing to do so. Because of Him, I will live forever. Instead of thinking the worst about, or even the process of, getting from here to there, I need to think about the best about dying and put my focus on the One who makes life after death my greatest hope.