Biblical View of Death
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
November 18, 2012 - Pastor Dale Lloyd
When I announced that I would be sharing the
Biblical View of Death I
was not aware of how involved that view really is. To deal properly with this
would require a series of messages.
The intended purpose in my sharing is the Biblical view of deathparticularly in
relation to the believer in Christ. The good people from Reid’s are here to deal
with the practical details of death as they pertain to the physical, material
order of this time/space realm; a very necessary reality and
responsibility.
So, where to begin? Billy
Graham wrote in his final book – Nearing Home – which I believe was
written after his ninetieth birthday, and this is not an exact quote but the
essence of his statement: ‘The church
teaches us how to live in youth but fails to teach us how to grow old.’ For
our purposes this morning let me change that to this: ‘The
church has taught us how to live but has failed to teach us how to die.’ So
let’s see what can be done to correct that
failure.
Listen to the following short story: Rendezvous in Samarra. I am presenting
this from a sermon by Peter Marshal – one of my very favourite preachers from
near history.
An old legend tells of a merchant in Bagdad
who one day sent his servant to the market. Before very long the servant came
back, white and trembling, and in great agitation said to his mater: “Down in
the market place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd, and when I turned
around I saw that it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a
threatening gesture. Master, please lend me your horse, for I must hasten away
to avoid her. I will ride to Samarra and there I will hide, and death will not
find me.”
The merchant lent him his horse and the
servant galloped away in great haste. Later the merchant went down to the market
place and saw Death standing in the crowd. He went over to her and asked, “Why
did you frighten my servant this morning? Why did you make a threatening
gesture?”
“O, that was not a threatening gesture,”
Death said. “It was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in
Bagdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”
This story speaks to the universality of
death; we all have an appointment in “Samarra.” If
you are looking for something with an almost perfect track record death would
have to be right up near the top of the list. As far as I know, only Enoch
and Elijah managed to get out of
here without passing through death. And even Lazarus
– whom Jesus raised from the dead – would die yet again. This was also true
of the widow’s son whom Christ raised from the dead and the twelve year old
daughter of Jairus.
How do we explain the universality of death?
Remember, we are looking at the Biblical view, and that Biblical view is fully
expressed in a single verse of scripture which I will present from several
translations: Rom. 5:12 Therefore, as sin came into the world through one
man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [no one being
able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned.
(AMP.)
Adam sinned, and that sin brought death into the world. Now
everyone has sinned, and so everyone must die. (Contemporary
Version)
Here is how it works: it was through one individual that sin
entered the world, and through sin, death; and in this way death passed through
to the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone sinned. (Complete Jewish
Bible)
You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re
in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. (The
Message)
Any Biblical understanding of death begins
with a Biblical understanding of sin. With that statement it is clear why the North American church has such a
struggle with the whole idea of death, and why we remain so unprepared to deal
with it. We do not want to acknowledge the reality of sin. We even avoid using
the word. And here is the tragedy in that – until I accept the Biblical view of
sin I can never come to the Biblical view of death.
I read to you this morning from the Genesis
account what we call the fall of
man. Paul tells us that this is where sin was introduced into the human
experience. And based on that first act of sin it is clear that sin was and
continues to be a deliberate act of
disobedience to the known will, command or directive of God.
But sin is far more than behaviour; far more
than an act of disobedience. If it was only an issue of behaviour perhaps we
could change it. This is where the news gets really bad. Sin is a matter of nature.
How many of you had to be taught how to sin?
Did we take a course on how to
commit sin in three easy steps? Did we have to take “sin classes” before knowing
how to behave sinfully?
The truth is our first father committed an act of sin and every one of his sons
and daughters – with the exception of Jesus Christ – was and continues to be
born with a sin nature. It was this
aspect of sin – that is the sin nature – David had in mind when he prayed that
profound prayer of repentance in Psalm
51. His behaviour was certainly
sinful: he committed adultery with a married woman and arranged to have her
husband killed, making it appear to be a casualty of war.
Listen to his prayer:
Ps.51:1- 4 Be gracious to me, O
God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your
compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, I have sinnedand done
what is evil in
Your sight, so thatYou are justified when You speak and blameless when You
judge.
The focus here is upon the actof sin, the behaviour of sin, what he had done; and what he had done was
exactly what his first father had done – wilfully disobeyed the known command of the
Sovereign God.
But at verse
5 the focus shifts from behaviour to something deeper. Ps.51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin my mother
conceived me. This is not –as some have tried to make it – a statement about his
mother: It’s a statement about himself. That statement was that from birth
forward he had a sin problem not just as behaviour but as a nature he was born
with.
Depending upon your translation you will find
references in the New Testament to
‘the
old man, the carnal mind, the mind of flesh, the sin nature, the old self
and
the flesh. Paul wrote the following: ‘...sin which dwells in me’; ‘...nothing
good dwells in me, this is, in my flesh’; ‘...evil is present in me’; ‘...a law
in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind’; ‘...sin which
is in my members’.
(Romans 7). These expressions are
not primarily referring to sinful behaviour. In each of these phrases you find
the word “in”
and sin is described –not as something in the air, something external, or
something environmental –but as something in us as a matter of nature –
something we are born with and that lives within our members.
Here is the terrible truth about sin: You don’t have to do anything to be
constituted a sinner; all that’s required is to be
born.
When Paul wrote of the body he connected it
with two or three vital words: mortal,
corruptible, death and
sin. In standing before you this morning I
can tell you that the body you see is mortal, corruptible and
subject to death. And all of that is true of my body because of this – SIN. I do not mean sin as behaviour but
as a nature, a principle or a law that works in my members. All of this needs to
be given a much fuller treatment but we do not have time.
The only possibility of dealing with death is
to first deal with its cause – sin. And this is where we find the good news in
the presence of the bad news. Try to imagine this: You
were born without a sin nature and lived a perfectly sinless life. (I know
it requires much imagination.) But if that were true of us we would never die.
But here is the good news. There was One born
sinless – without a sin nature, and who lived a perfectly sinless life. In fact
the Advent season is upon us and once more we will celebrate the coming into
this world of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the question arises, why did He die? And
again the Biblical view answers that question. 2Cor.5: 21 He
made Him who knew no sin to be
sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in
Him.
Christ, this sinless one – sinless from the
deepest point of nature to every detail of behaviour – did not die for or
because of personal sin, but die He did. He died because of sin and for sin; but
it was our sin, the sin of the world.
Note the following words from the letter to
the Hebrew believers – JB Philip’s: Since, then, “the children” have a common
physical nature as human beings, HE also became a human being, so that by going
through death as a man HE might destroy him who had the power of death, that is,
the devil; and might also set free those who lived their whole lives a prey to
the fear of death.
This is the answer to Job’s question– and
keep in mind that Job is the oldest book of the Bible; so reaching back to
ancient history we find that the core concern within the human heart was the
same as it is today: “If a man die, shall he live again?”
Add
to this the question of the Psalmist: What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his soul
from the power of Sheol? (Ps.89:48)
Here is how Christ answered those
questions. Jn.8:51 I tell you the solemn truth, if anyone obeys my teaching, he will
never see death.
I say this with absolute confidence. If you practice what I’m
telling you, you’ll never have to look death in the face.” (The
Message)
Let me conclude with this: The only part of
me that is going to die is my mortal body and it is going to die because of the
sin principle resident within its members. But – and this is vital and
fundamental – I am NOT my body, nor am I that sin nature that resides in my
members. I –the true self, the soul, the true essence of personality or
personhood – am redeemed through the finished work of the sinless Son of God.
Right now I (my true self) is in Christ and Christ is in me. How can one in
Christ ever see or experience death?
When my mortal body finally succumbs to death
I – my true self – shall not see death but shall meet the holy angels of the
most high God. This in part explains the scripture that say – Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. The only part of me
that will see the grave is my mortal body; my soul will be “mixing it up” with
the angels of God and all the other saints of God who preceded me in graduation.
What about this mortal body? This much I know
for sure – the grave is not the final reality. The answer to my question is
found in this: What happened to the physical body of the man Christ Jesus three
days after he was placed in a tomb? Even on the day of His crucifixion the tombs
in and around Jerusalem were suddenly opened and many of the saints – long dead
– were seen walking in the streets of the city.
That pretty much indicates the future state
of these mortal bodies. I believe in the literal, actual, physical resurrection
of the body. But here’s the twist: they are placed in the grave a mortal body;
they are raised in resurrection an immortal body. They are placed in the grave a
corruptible body – they are resurrected an incorruptible body. They are placed
in the grave a temporal body – they are resurrected an eternal body. They are
placed in the grave a natural body – they are resurrected a glorified body just
exactly like the body of the resurrected
Christ.
And what I demand at that point is a refund
from Reid’s.
When I announced that I would be sharing the
Biblical View of Death I
was not aware of how involved that view really is. To deal properly with this
would require a series of messages.
The intended purpose in my sharing is the Biblical view of deathparticularly in
relation to the believer in Christ. The good people from Reid’s are here to deal
with the practical details of death as they pertain to the physical, material
order of this time/space realm; a very necessary reality and
responsibility.
So, where to begin? Billy
Graham wrote in his final book – Nearing Home – which I believe was
written after his ninetieth birthday, and this is not an exact quote but the
essence of his statement: ‘The church
teaches us how to live in youth but fails to teach us how to grow old.’ For
our purposes this morning let me change that to this: ‘The
church has taught us how to live but has failed to teach us how to die.’ So
let’s see what can be done to correct that
failure.
Listen to the following short story: Rendezvous in Samarra. I am presenting
this from a sermon by Peter Marshal – one of my very favourite preachers from
near history.
An old legend tells of a merchant in Bagdad
who one day sent his servant to the market. Before very long the servant came
back, white and trembling, and in great agitation said to his mater: “Down in
the market place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd, and when I turned
around I saw that it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a
threatening gesture. Master, please lend me your horse, for I must hasten away
to avoid her. I will ride to Samarra and there I will hide, and death will not
find me.”
The merchant lent him his horse and the
servant galloped away in great haste. Later the merchant went down to the market
place and saw Death standing in the crowd. He went over to her and asked, “Why
did you frighten my servant this morning? Why did you make a threatening
gesture?”
“O, that was not a threatening gesture,”
Death said. “It was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in
Bagdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”
This story speaks to the universality of
death; we all have an appointment in “Samarra.” If
you are looking for something with an almost perfect track record death would
have to be right up near the top of the list. As far as I know, only Enoch
and Elijah managed to get out of
here without passing through death. And even Lazarus
– whom Jesus raised from the dead – would die yet again. This was also true
of the widow’s son whom Christ raised from the dead and the twelve year old
daughter of Jairus.
How do we explain the universality of death?
Remember, we are looking at the Biblical view, and that Biblical view is fully
expressed in a single verse of scripture which I will present from several
translations: Rom. 5:12 Therefore, as sin came into the world through one
man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [no one being
able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned.
(AMP.)
Adam sinned, and that sin brought death into the world. Now
everyone has sinned, and so everyone must die. (Contemporary
Version)
Here is how it works: it was through one individual that sin
entered the world, and through sin, death; and in this way death passed through
to the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone sinned. (Complete Jewish
Bible)
You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re
in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. (The
Message)
Any Biblical understanding of death begins
with a Biblical understanding of sin. With that statement it is clear why the North American church has such a
struggle with the whole idea of death, and why we remain so unprepared to deal
with it. We do not want to acknowledge the reality of sin. We even avoid using
the word. And here is the tragedy in that – until I accept the Biblical view of
sin I can never come to the Biblical view of death.
I read to you this morning from the Genesis
account what we call the fall of
man. Paul tells us that this is where sin was introduced into the human
experience. And based on that first act of sin it is clear that sin was and
continues to be a deliberate act of
disobedience to the known will, command or directive of God.
But sin is far more than behaviour; far more
than an act of disobedience. If it was only an issue of behaviour perhaps we
could change it. This is where the news gets really bad. Sin is a matter of nature.
How many of you had to be taught how to sin?
Did we take a course on how to
commit sin in three easy steps? Did we have to take “sin classes” before knowing
how to behave sinfully?
The truth is our first father committed an act of sin and every one of his sons
and daughters – with the exception of Jesus Christ – was and continues to be
born with a sin nature. It was this
aspect of sin – that is the sin nature – David had in mind when he prayed that
profound prayer of repentance in Psalm
51. His behaviour was certainly
sinful: he committed adultery with a married woman and arranged to have her
husband killed, making it appear to be a casualty of war.
Listen to his prayer:
Ps.51:1- 4 Be gracious to me, O
God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your
compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, I have sinnedand done
what is evil in
Your sight, so thatYou are justified when You speak and blameless when You
judge.
The focus here is upon the actof sin, the behaviour of sin, what he had done; and what he had done was
exactly what his first father had done – wilfully disobeyed the known command of the
Sovereign God.
But at verse
5 the focus shifts from behaviour to something deeper. Ps.51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin my mother
conceived me. This is not –as some have tried to make it – a statement about his
mother: It’s a statement about himself. That statement was that from birth
forward he had a sin problem not just as behaviour but as a nature he was born
with.
Depending upon your translation you will find
references in the New Testament to
‘the
old man, the carnal mind, the mind of flesh, the sin nature, the old self
and
the flesh. Paul wrote the following: ‘...sin which dwells in me’; ‘...nothing
good dwells in me, this is, in my flesh’; ‘...evil is present in me’; ‘...a law
in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind’; ‘...sin which
is in my members’.
(Romans 7). These expressions are
not primarily referring to sinful behaviour. In each of these phrases you find
the word “in”
and sin is described –not as something in the air, something external, or
something environmental –but as something in us as a matter of nature –
something we are born with and that lives within our members.
Here is the terrible truth about sin: You don’t have to do anything to be
constituted a sinner; all that’s required is to be
born.
When Paul wrote of the body he connected it
with two or three vital words: mortal,
corruptible, death and
sin. In standing before you this morning I
can tell you that the body you see is mortal, corruptible and
subject to death. And all of that is true of my body because of this – SIN. I do not mean sin as behaviour but
as a nature, a principle or a law that works in my members. All of this needs to
be given a much fuller treatment but we do not have time.
The only possibility of dealing with death is
to first deal with its cause – sin. And this is where we find the good news in
the presence of the bad news. Try to imagine this: You
were born without a sin nature and lived a perfectly sinless life. (I know
it requires much imagination.) But if that were true of us we would never die.
But here is the good news. There was One born
sinless – without a sin nature, and who lived a perfectly sinless life. In fact
the Advent season is upon us and once more we will celebrate the coming into
this world of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the question arises, why did He die? And
again the Biblical view answers that question. 2Cor.5: 21 He
made Him who knew no sin to be
sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in
Him.
Christ, this sinless one – sinless from the
deepest point of nature to every detail of behaviour – did not die for or
because of personal sin, but die He did. He died because of sin and for sin; but
it was our sin, the sin of the world.
Note the following words from the letter to
the Hebrew believers – JB Philip’s: Since, then, “the children” have a common
physical nature as human beings, HE also became a human being, so that by going
through death as a man HE might destroy him who had the power of death, that is,
the devil; and might also set free those who lived their whole lives a prey to
the fear of death.
This is the answer to Job’s question– and
keep in mind that Job is the oldest book of the Bible; so reaching back to
ancient history we find that the core concern within the human heart was the
same as it is today: “If a man die, shall he live again?”
Add
to this the question of the Psalmist: What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his soul
from the power of Sheol? (Ps.89:48)
Here is how Christ answered those
questions. Jn.8:51 I tell you the solemn truth, if anyone obeys my teaching, he will
never see death.
I say this with absolute confidence. If you practice what I’m
telling you, you’ll never have to look death in the face.” (The
Message)
Let me conclude with this: The only part of
me that is going to die is my mortal body and it is going to die because of the
sin principle resident within its members. But – and this is vital and
fundamental – I am NOT my body, nor am I that sin nature that resides in my
members. I –the true self, the soul, the true essence of personality or
personhood – am redeemed through the finished work of the sinless Son of God.
Right now I (my true self) is in Christ and Christ is in me. How can one in
Christ ever see or experience death?
When my mortal body finally succumbs to death
I – my true self – shall not see death but shall meet the holy angels of the
most high God. This in part explains the scripture that say – Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. The only part of me
that will see the grave is my mortal body; my soul will be “mixing it up” with
the angels of God and all the other saints of God who preceded me in graduation.
What about this mortal body? This much I know
for sure – the grave is not the final reality. The answer to my question is
found in this: What happened to the physical body of the man Christ Jesus three
days after he was placed in a tomb? Even on the day of His crucifixion the tombs
in and around Jerusalem were suddenly opened and many of the saints – long dead
– were seen walking in the streets of the city.
That pretty much indicates the future state
of these mortal bodies. I believe in the literal, actual, physical resurrection
of the body. But here’s the twist: they are placed in the grave a mortal body;
they are raised in resurrection an immortal body. They are placed in the grave a
corruptible body – they are resurrected an incorruptible body. They are placed
in the grave a temporal body – they are resurrected an eternal body. They are
placed in the grave a natural body – they are resurrected a glorified body just
exactly like the body of the resurrected
Christ.
And what I demand at that point is a refund
from Reid’s.