Perhaps one of the statements used in connection with the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II seems difficult to comprehend. Not because of the language but rather what it expresses. It simply says, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord”. It comes from the last book of the Bible – Revelation (chapter 14 verse 13). But you might wonder how death can be blessed when it removes from us (and removes us from) all that we have enjoyed and lived for in this world. We cannot describe a death as blessed just because of the length or quality of life lived, nor because of the type of death, peaceful or otherwise. It is not the nature and extent of the mourning or the way in which our death is marked that makes it blessed. This simple yet majestic declaration that God has made says that those who “die in the Lord” have a blessed death.
To understand this further we can look at something said by the apostle Paul, one of the main followers of Christ who spread Christianity following the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He said something equally simple, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). In today’s thinking and living this makes no sense. When you die you lose everything you have lived for: possessions, loved ones, reputation. It is only utter and complete loss, not gain. But Paul was not living for these things. He had found in the Lord Jesus Christ a meaning to living far beyond all these temporary things. Trusting, loving, living for, serving Christ was supreme. When he would die he would only gain all that he had lived for and valued and much more. This is what it is to die in the Lord: to have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation from our sins, depending on His life and His death on the cross alone and not on anything we can do. Those of whom this is true are united spiritually and permanently to the Lord Jesus Christ, so that they can be said to be “in the Lord”. Paul had lived for Christ supremely, a life devoted to Him and His glory. This is why the expectation of being with Christ for ever was the highest and most enduring blessedness possible.
You may have noticed that this Bible verse does not say that all who die are blessed, but only that those who die in the Lord are blessed. Not to experience the highest and most enduring blessedness possible is a terrible loss indeed, but more than this we have to acknowledge that justice must be served. When we consider God’s holy law and all that it requires from us, we know that we have broken it many times. We have sinned. God must maintain true and holy justice and sin must be punished. We know this in our conscience. We cannot pretend that somehow we can cancel out our sin by our good deeds – that is not how true justice works. This is why God in Christ came to take our human nature and to suffer the just penalty for sin in that nature, so that all who put their trust in Him alone may be delivered from what their sins deserve. When they come to die, they are “in the Lord” and so they are blessed then and for ever. Have you put your trust in Christ alone as Saviour from sin? It is the most urgent priority of your life.
Matthew A Vogan