Oh Death, Where is Thy Sting?

The one great equalizer and sobering fact we all must face is the reality of death, both our own and of those we love. Death confronts us in our daily lives in small ways such as seeing a dead tree or a dead animal that didn’t make it to the other side of the road. 

Other times, death stings us with a venom far more potent than any hornet ever can, especially when someone we love “passes on”. We try to soften the blow with euphemistic comfort, but using gente words to describe this brutal reality does little to neutralize the sting.

The one and only self-existing Trinitarian God has revealed in His self-attesting Bible the only true comfort in the face of death. God the Son became man to take the sting out of death by suffering both its physical and spiritual reality. 

His brutal physical death gives us courage that we too can and will experience death for ourselves. His substitutional spiritual death gives us hope that His innocent righteousness can and will be transferred to us as we trust in Him alone for our salvation.

Because He was both physically and spiritually raised from the dead, we need not fear death. If there is one thing the Bible is absolutely clear about is that someday we will all stand before Him and give an account of our lives. For those who have faith in Jesus Christ, we will be openly acknowledged and acquitted and welcomed into eternity not just spiritually but physically as well. 

On that day, not a single person will be able to say to God that He was not fair, and that He did not give us ample opportunity to repent while we still had time. Those sent to an eternity in hell will not be able to say that they do not deserve this eternal death. Those who enter into eternal life, will however, have a profound sense of unworthiness and worship God for His infinite grace and mercy for giving what we most certainly do not deserve.

If you have read this far, my dear reader, it is perhaps because the Holy Spirit of God has prompted you to receive His offer of salvation by faith alone through Christ alone. There is no other answer in any other religion or philosophy that gives us real hope in the face of the reality of death. That hope is found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, make your peace with God by putting your faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen