Confidence in Death
We are all well-acquainted with death. It is all around us and is the result of many different causes. Death is not picky. It takes young and old, the seemingly healthy and the sick, males and females, innocent and guilty.
COVID-19 caused 1.1 million deaths. There have been 725,000 deaths from opioids since 1999. Hurricane Maria 2017 caused 2975 deaths and $94.5 billion dollars in damages. The Oklahoma City bombing killed 168.
September 11, 2001 was certainly a day we will never forget. It’s the innocent lives that were lost that makes it so hard to handle. When death happens in the military, it is a terrible thing. However, it is a possible hazard of the job. The people in the World Trade Center were not in the military. They were civilians from all over the world. The attack was really an attack on the entire free world, not just the U.S. This is what makes these attacks so hard to understand.
Many people have queried why God would allow such death and destruction. They have a hard time harmonizing a loving God with such violent actions. Many have even set aside their faith because they do not understand.
Thankfully, many others have gone in the opposite direction. Many more have participated in religious ceremonies and prayers because of these events than I can remember happening in public forms ever before.
But, the question still lingers. How can these things be? Death did not begin at the World Trade Center attacks. It has been happening since almost the inception of the world. It is the result of freedom of choice. Death is a part of life because of the free choice of Adam and Eve to sin and bring it into the world.
Death, however, does not have to be an end. It can be a beginning of a wonderful existence in the presence of God Himself. A preoccupation with death and blaming God will cause one to forget that God has promised, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (I Corinthians 15:26).
The question we need to answer is, “How can I be confident when facing death?” The answer comes to us from Jesus facing His own death. Even He was sorrowful (Mark 14:34). But, He was resigned to it (Mark 10:33). He did not fear the death of the physical body (Matthew 20:18). He was not invested in this world anyway (John 18:32-36).
His greatest confidence came from the knowledge that His Father would raise Him up (John 5:24). Therefore, He has told us that we will never die (John 8:51). In the words of Paul taken from the prophet Hosea, “O death, where is your sting? O hades, where is your victory?” (I Corinthians 15:55).
— Mike Johnson
