I had the sad honor of participating in two funerals since the beginning of the year. One was of a beloved uncle and the other was my father-in-law. Both were very godly men, and so their funerals were full of the remembrance of redeeming legacies and the hope of future reunions. But they still ended in a graveyard, standing beside the coffin hoisted above that gaping hole. For all the celebration of the good life that was lived, and the expectation of the coming resurrection, we were still there because of death. Surrounding us were acres of granite stones etched with the names and life spans of those who had gone before. It’s impossible to be in such a place without thinking of death, and so I did. I’m convinced death has a uniquely Christian message. It is a ubiquitous declaration to the living of our greatest problem and our only hope. Misunderstanding the nature of death mutes its message. Allow me to explain.
It may surprise you, but death is on practically every page of the Bible after chapter 3. Flip open your Bible to any spot and scan the page and you will find some reference to “death,” “dying,” being “killed,” “killing,” being “destroyed,” “cut off,” or euphemisms like “gathered to his people,” or “the way of all the earth.” It’s everywhere, and that’s without including the whole sacrificial system so central to the Bible’s storyline. It is quite extraordinary when you stop to think about it. Why so much death? Well, it could be because the mortality rate of everything living on earth is 100% and a book of any substantial length is bound to have a lot of it in it. But it’s not just a lot, it’s everywhere! You won’t find the same thing if you page through other books. No, death is a central theme of this one. Even the concept of immortality bears an oblique reference to death, in that it’s a contrasting definition, it is life that doesn’t end in death. Again, I ask, why so much death? Why does everything die, specifically, why do we die?
That question may conjure a thousand different answers in your mind, from cancer to heart disease, to accident, and so on, but these are merely methods to the end. They are the ways, not the why. If someone were to expire in their sleep at the ripe old age of 102, we would say they “died of natural causes,” but is death ever really “natural?” Common, yes, regular, sure, expected, definitely. But is it natural? Why does life simply peter out? And why is it that no matter how often we are told that “death is a normal part of living,” we instinctively know that it’s not? Standing before the casket of a loved one, we feel it is a non-sequitur to the gift of life, and Scripture assures us this feeling is correct. But why does something so common feel so out-of-place? Because it is out of place. It wasn’t part of the original design and we aren’t meant to feel “comfortable” with it. Death is a ruthless intruder, but even so, it was introduced by the Lord of life Himself.
The Bible is explicit as to death’s origin. The Apostle Paul, in the fifth chapter of Romans, writes, “…through one man sin entered the world, and death because of sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” (v. 12) This echoes the clear word of warning spoken by God to Adam in the garden should he violate the single prohibition he’d been given, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “…for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:17) And though Adam lived another 930 years, when “one day is as a thousand years” to the One who spoke the curse (2 Peter 3:8), Adam’s death surely fell within the length of one such day. A life so long would seem like an eternity to us, especially the high-water mark of Methuselah’s 969 years. But the fact remains, it’s not. The refrain of every life, no matter how long, is still “…and then he died.” (Gen. 5:27) We see the waning vigor of mankind in that by the time of Abraham we are at roughly the lifespan of a very old person today. Moses, in Psalm 90 writes that “the days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” (v.10) Isn’t it interesting that though he lived some 3000 years ago, and even with all our medical advancements, the average life expectancy in the US is still around 78 years old, exactly what it was then?
Moses, in the same psalm, asks the Lord to “teach us to number our days that we might gain a heart of wisdom.” (v.12) He’s not suggesting we count up the days of our lives that have already passed, but that we recognize we are only allotted a set number of them. “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27). Baked into our DNA is the imminent decay that awaits us all. The sagging skin, the thinning and graying hair, the age spots, and the aching joints. These are the several executioners in our bodies, exacting the promised futility to which all creation has been subjected for Adam’s sin and ours. We may reject the doctrine of original sin, but we can’t evade the sentence upon it; the verdict compels us to the grave. Does it seem unfair that we enter the world harnessed with Adam’s judgment? Understandably, our individualistic, Western mind would think it so. But do you not see that our salvation is just as unfair and for precisely the same reason? We enter into eternal life through the merit of Another as well!
As we pass by graveyards and cemeteries, we ought to be reminded by all the rows of silent witnesses that our greatest woe is not death itself, but the sin that causes it. “The sting of death is sin.” (1 Cor. 15:56) That verse goes on to say that, “the strength of sin is the law.” Not just any law, but the law of the One True God. Of all the world religions, only Christianity sees death as not some natural occurrence but the result of a curse on Adam’s sin. So every death reveals the same two at odds – God and Adam, and all those who have proceeded from him. It is in this way that death testifies to our only hope as well. For this God whose laws we break has entered into the rubble of wrecked creation that He might “taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9), absorbing the sentence our sins had earned. And all those who place their trust in Him have been transferred out of the lineage of Adam and into the new humanity of Christ, who has risen from the grave, the first fruits of the Day when death itself will be swallowed up in victory! (1 Cor. 15:54)
