Remember you will die

The last great enemy facing us all is death

I was recently sent an article from Crossway, a publisher I particularly like, about one of their recently published books. The book, Remember Death by Matthew McCullough argues that it is important to think about death if we are to find meaning in life. The article itself asked the question, 'When Is the Last Time You Thought of the Fact That You Will Die?'

Speaking for myself, it is a pretty easy question to answer. I think about it on just about a daily basis and can't remember a time when I haven't.

I take the point, though, many people not only do not think about the fact that they will die, they positively refuse to think about it. My own preoccupation with death may seem extreme to some, but, for me, it is impossible to see how we can think and talk about eternal life without also thinking about death.

At this point, anyone reading my post could be forgiven for now expecting some pious statements about how as followers of Christ we can stay calm and carry on regardless when we think about death because there is nothing for us to fear or worry about. But that is not how I approach death, and I don't think it is how the New Testament writers approach it.

Death in the New Testament is the last great enemy still to be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). Death’s destruction will happen, but it hasn't happened yet.

This is something that Christians don't really understand. We assume that because Christ himself has triumphed over death - which he has - then that's that. It's a done deal. But St Paul, in his great piece of writing about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, makes it very clear that death's destruction is still in the future. We can have hope and confidence because of what Christ has achieved in the past, but there is still more to be done in the future. Until then, death is not something to be taken lightly.

Even if that were not the case, however, and death had already been destroyed, there would still be no room for believers to be complacent about it for, as the writer to the Hebrews puts it, ‘after death comes the judgement’ (Hebrews 9:27). And as St Paul reminds us:

'… we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.' (2 Corinthians 5:9–10, ESV)

Death itself is horrible, but then after it we will have to give an account of our lives and the way we have lived, something that is also a horrible prospect, given that most of us have done things of which we are ashamed (Romans 6:21).

Now I know the response to this. Surely, we ask, the Bible speaks of the joy of salvation, of the hope and promise of eternal life, and of the life of the heavenly city where we will dwell forever with God? Yes, it does, but not without spelling out the awfulness of death. And, in any case, the joy salvation, eternal life, and the heavenly city are not what most concerns most Christians. We prefer to think instead not about the joy that will be ours in the future but about the joy that we want to be ours here and now.

This seismic shift in emphasis, I would argue, has occurred because we no longer think death and judgement are anything that we need to worry about. God, we think, is just too nice not to allow us into heaven. Of course, God will welcome us, and not just us, but everyone. Christ, we argue, has conquered death, and as a result God, who is both loving and forgiving, now accepts us all unconditionally, whoever we are, whatever we have done, and, crucially, whatever we believe.

OK, we say, dying may not be very pleasant, but once it is over, there is nothing else for us to worry about. 'All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well' - and well not only for us who believe in Christ but for everyone.

This all-inclusive approach has now become the default position of the majority of churchgoers. So let me state in simple terms what the default position of the New Testament writers is:

• there is more to death than dying

• there will be a judgement after death

• we will all be judged

• eternal life is not for everyone

Now, we are perfectly at liberty to believe that modern day churchgoers have got it right and that the New Testament writers and most of the Church historically have got it wrong, but we need to realize and accept that this is what we are saying. It is no good pretending that the New Testament says something it does not say.

Frankly, I for one simply do not have the nerve to say that our Lord, St Paul, St John, and all the other New Testament writers got it wrong, especially as it is only recently that so many in the Church have decided that they have.

If, however, the New Testament writers are right after all, then we need to give a lot more thought to death and to what comes after it than we do. And if we do give it serious thought, then it will inevitably affect how we live and behave in the present. We will want to prepare for death and what it means. We will want to be ready for the judgement we must face. And we will want to make warning people about what death means far more of a priority than we do at the moment.

This brings me back to my last post in which I wrote about my concern that in the Church we are far too occupied with the affairs of the earthly cities in which we live and give far too little attention to the heavenly city and how we can enter it.

Reading church news, for example, it is clear that church leaders are today very worried about the possible ecological disaster that scientists warn us is facing our world. My plea is that church leaders should also worry about the certain eschatological disaster that our Lord warns us is coming.

The fact is that we will all die, and one day we will all be judged.

Surely that is something we all need to think about and act upon?