Death and Mercy

A member of the church I serve is involved in a dog therapy ministry that is a local chapter of the Tampa based “Canines for Christ” whose mission is “to help the sick and lonely hear the gospel and find a reason to smile as God works through "man's best friend". I was surprised a number of years ago when she became the owner of not one but two German Shepherd dogs. This lady is not a large person though she is, as retired teacher, a formidable personality. Still, I consider German Shepherds a bit on the large side for dogs and to have two of them seemed like a challenge. The challenge was accentuated by the fact that one of the dogs was a rescue animal with a few behavior issues. My friend told me her desire was to have the dogs trained and certified as therapy dogs in order to give her opportunities to meet people, minster to them, and to share the gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ. With that purpose in mind she named the one dog "Justice" and the other she named "Mercy." One can immediately see the opening for a conversation with names that describe those two attributes of God; one detailing what we deserve and the other what we need. It was an interesting prospect. Justice did well but unfortunately Mercy's behavior problems kept her from being fully certified to function as therapy dog alongside of Justice. My friend wasn't deterred and many conversations were started with the ministry of Justice. Recently Mercy became ill and died prematurely for the life expectancy of German Shepherds. We grieved the loss of Mercy as she was a peculiarly likeable personality. It seemed an odd end to an interesting ministry idea but then I began to see a bit of God's providence in it.

One of the recurring questions a minister friend of mine routinely asked candidates for the gospel ministry was from the Larger Catechism of the Westminster Standards, question # 85, "Death being the wages of sin, why are not the righteous delivered from death, seeing all their sins are forgiven in Christ?"  Oftentimes he would put it more bluntly, “Why do Christians die? Is it due to some punishment by God?” Now this is a question that has stumped many a man. Many would answer that because sin and its effects still remain in the physical body the Christian must die. But then, it is a punishment? If so, that begs the question asked by the catechism query, “If death being the wages of sin, why are not the righteous delivered from death, seeing all their sins are forgiven in Christ?”

The answer to the Larger Catechism question # 85 is, “The righteous shall be delivered from death itself at the last day, and even in death are delivered from the sting and curse of it; so that, although they die, yet it is out of God’s love (Isaiah 57:1,2; 2 Kings 22:20), to free them perfectly from sin and misery (Rev. 14:13; Eph. 5:27), and to make them capable of further communion with Christ in glory, which they then enter upon (Luke 23:43; Phil. 1:23).”

Did you catch that? Looking at scripture we are not only to be comforted in the death of believers that they enter into their eternal rest in Christ and cease from suffering here but that God expresses his love to believers by using death to free them from sin and misery in this life. Death for the believer isn’t punishment but an expression of God’s love for the sinner. It is all of grace and mercy! Christians die because God in love frees them from the ongoing battle of sin and misery in this life. Death is transformed from punishment to a means of grace and love (I Cor. 15:55). Physical death makes believers capable of further and deeper communion with the Lord Jesus in glory. This idea nearly makes your head spin.

Back to our dog friend Mercy. Perhaps her untimely death in our view is another lesson from God’s providence about God’s ways. God took her in love. It is merciful love for God take the believer home. Justice awaits the final day when it shall be fulfilled but now, in the “day” of the gospel, it is mercy that God shows to those who love him because they are loved by Him through the Lord Jesus. I find this mysteriously poetic on God’s part. Mercy is displayed by a dog with issues like us. She just didn’t quite measure up although Justice does. Mercy’s life is brought to end to show us God’s love for sinners. Its all pure mercy and grace! O Christian, take heart. Revel in God’s love for you in all things!

Facing Death

A death of a family member recently occurred in our church's fellowship. This prompted me to write about something we all experience. Most people if indeed not all believe something happens at death even if they say that nothing happens, that the person ceases to exist. That statement is a statement about something, and that "something" is a statement about existence. All this opinion making is a faith or belief statement. No one has ever come back to tell us what to expect except one, the Lord of life, the one who has conquered death. He didn't give us a lot of specifics about the experience but more importantly he gave us promises because, well, we know death is pretty final. But the Christian has hope in Jesus Christ. The non-Christian has just pure speculation and fear.

The Bible, as the very word of God and of Christ Jesus as the Holy Spirit directed the human authors to write it, gives a broad understanding about death in many places. This is where confessions and creeds help us because they summarize the Bible's teachings found in many places about particular subjects. Creeds and confessions aren't the word of God but they are helps. In that vein I want to look at the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 32 as a helpful guide to what the Bible teaches and what the Christian believes. Here is help for you when you face this inevitable experience in your life. 

The chapter begins, "The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption:..." The Christian believes what the Bible teaches in Genesis 3:19 that God promised Adam and his posterity that he/they would die and their bodies return to the dust of ground from which they were taken because of Adam's sin. "The wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23). This is the first point about death. Death isn't natural in the sense that is a necessary part of God's creation. It is the common experience and is the natural affect of sin but death didn't have to be a part of our experience. In fact, before there was sin there was no death. The presence of death reveals the presence of sin (Romans 5:12).

Secondly, death is not just physical. There is a spiritual death. In fact we are born physically alive but spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-3). It is by the gospel promise, faith in Jesus Christ alone, that God makes us spiritually alive (Ephesians 2:4,5)

Physical death results in the separation of the two component parts of a human being. At conception a union of a soul or spirit and a body is formed and person has being. Death is the violent separation of these two parts as a judgment for sin against a holy God. Because the sin of Adam is imputed to all human beings descending from Adam by ordinary means (Romans 5:12-14) that sin has corrupting effects on the physical bodies of all human beings and makes them subject to suffering, disease, and death. This is the third point we need to understand about death.

Even Christian believers die. Flesh and blood, these corrupted bodies, cannot inherit the kingdom of God (John 3:5,6: I Corinthians 15:42). Yet for the Christian believer, his death is not a judgment but an entrance into the holy presence of the risen Jesus Christ. Because of Christ's victory over death, God uses death as an act of his love to finally free believers perfectly from sin and misery experienced in this life in the union of their corrupted bodies (Isaiah 57:1,2; Revelation 14:13). This is the fourth point about death we need to understand. God uses an "evil," death, by his love for the good of his people. Christian believers being united to Christ are freed from sin and misery at death.

Here we see God's grace in the face of the terminal condition we all face. We all know and experience the corruption at work in us due to sin. The amazing grace is that God turns the death sentence of sin into a blessing in Christ by his love for us in Jesus Christ. We can chose to ignore death but it will come. We can pretend to have no fear of death but death will take your life, your loved ones, and all that you hold dear. It is relentless. The Christian has hope despite all this because Jesus has conquered death for him.