Basic HTML Version
650
death? Why does He not simply transfer them to heaven at once? It cannot be said that the
destruction of the body is absolutely essential to a perfect sanctification, since that is
contradicted by the examples of Enoch and Elijah. Neither does it satisfy to say that death sets
the believer free from the ills and sufferings of the present life, and from the trammels of the
dust, by liberating the spirit from the present coarse and sensual body. God might effect this
deliverance also by a sudden transformation, such as living saints will experience at the time of
the parousia. It is quite evident that the death of believers must be regarded as the culmination
of the chastisements which God has ordained for the sanctification of His people. While death
in itself remains a real natural evil for the children of God, something unnatural, which is
dreaded by them as such, it is made subservient in the economy of grace to their spiritual
advancement and to the best interests of the Kingdom of God. The very thought of death,
bereavements through death, the feeling that sicknesses and sufferings are harbingers of
death, and the consciousness of the approach of death, — all have a very beneficial effect on
the people of God. They serve to humble the proud, to mortify carnality, to check worldliness
and to foster spiritual-mindedness. In the mystical union with their Lord believers are made to
share the experiences of Christ. Just as He entered upon His glory by the pathway of sufferings
and death, they too can enter upon their eternal reward only through sanctification. Death is
often the supreme test of the strength of the faith that is in them, and frequently calls forth
striking manifestations of the consciousness of victory in the very hour of seeming defeat, I Pet.
4:12,13. It completes the sanctification of the souls of believers, so that they become at once
“the spirits of just men made perfect,” Heb. 12:23; Rev. 21:27. Death is not the end for
believers, but the beginning of a perfect life. They enter death with the assurance that its sting
has been removed, I Cor. 15:55, and that it is for them the gateway of heaven. They fall asleep
in Jesus, II Thess. 1:7, and know that even their bodies will at last be snatched out of the power
of death, to be forever with the Lord, Rom. 8:11; I Thess. 4:16,17. Jesus said, “He that believeth
on me, though he die, yet shall he live.” And Paul had the blessed consciousness that for him to
live was Christ, and to die was gain. Hence he could also speak in jubilant notes at the end of his
career: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His
appearing,” II Tim. 4:7,8.
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY:
What is the fundamental idea of the Biblical conception of
death? Is death merely the natural result of sin, or is it a positive punishment for sin? If it is the
latter, how can this be proved from Scripture? In what sense was man, as he was created by
God, mortal; and in what sense, immortal? How can you disprove the position of the Pelagians?
In what sense has death really ceased to be death for believers? What purpose does death
serve in their lives? When is the power of death completely terminated for them?