The subject of death is a solemn one, involving as it does the separation of soul and body, the body going down to the dust and the soul returning to God who gave it. Death also is solemn in that it will seal the eternal fate of all who die. As the tree falls so shall it lie: as death finds the soul, so it shall be to all eternity. Who then can grasp the solemnity bound up with a soul passing into the eternal world for ever, either into a place of eternal happiness or eternal misery!
How then did death enter this world, a world created by God and pronounced by Him to be very good? There was no sin in the world before man fell from his first estate, and as there was no sin, so there was no death. We know that sin entered through the temptation of the Evil One beguiling Eve and causing our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was the floodgate that allowed all other evils to enter. Sin first entered the universe of God in Satan’s rebellion against God, and it was Satan as the tempter that caused our first parents to sin. What a marring of the creation of God occurred through the entry of sin and by it of death. The world is now a huge graveyard, the earth receiving the dust of the millions that once inhabited it. Man’s sojourn in this world is graphically summed up in the words of the Psalmist.
“For over it the wind doth pass,
and it away is gone;
And of the place where once it was
it shall no more be known.”
Ps. 103: 16
The next question that must arise for the soul is whether there is any deliverance from death. The answer to this must be that there is none, at least so far as actually passing through death is concerned. All must die. All must go down to the grave which is our long home. None are exempt from this. “It is appointed unto men once to die.” This is apparent from our daily experience as well as from the Word of God. We see those whom we knew in this world being taken away, one by one. That our time also must come is inevitable however slow we are to lay it to heart. We also must go the way of all flesh. The grave awaits us whenever the messenger of death does its work. It may be sooner or later, we cannot tell. It is no respecter of persons and is no respecter of age. The infant in the cradle, the little child, the boy or girl, the young man or young woman, old or young, none are immune. So in this sense it is very clear that all must pass through death.
What is it that makes death the King of terrors? It is sin. This is the sting that is in death and it is this that makes it so awesome and fearful for the impenitent soul. “The strength of sin is the law.” Man is answerable to God for all the deeds done in the body, for all his transgressions of the divine Commandments. After death there is the judgment. Man as a transgressor of the law of God is exposed to God’s wrath and curse which must overtake him in the eternal world unless his sins are blotted out. How awful are the prospects for us as sinners unless we are delivered from the wrath to come.
How then can we be delivered from death? One thing is sure — we cannot deliver ourselves, neither need we look to man for help. Here man is helpless, not only for himself but also so far as helping others is concerned. The only answer to our need is the provision that God has made in His Beloved Son for the deliverance of sinners from their sins and from the hell which these sins deserve. The death of Christ is the answer to man’s need. If we are ever to be delivered from death, it must be through the Cross of Calvary and Christ dying in our nature for the ungodly. He gave His life a ransom for many to redeem a people unto Himself out of all nations, and kindreds and tongues. He died in order that poor needy sinners might be delivered from death, even death eternal, and that in passing through natural death, death may not meet them with its sting still there, but with its sting removed and so no longer the awful enemy it would otherwise be.
But how are we to obtain an interest in the death of Christ? By looking to Him. We are to look away from ourselves and be closed in to Him as the alone Saviour and Deliverer of His people and of all who call on Him in truth. What a blessed experience it is for a poor sinner when by the effectual working of God’s Spirit in him, he looks to Christ by faith and obtains life and salvation and deliverence from death for his never-dying soul! What reason that soul will have for praising God throughout the endless ages of eternity for the wonders of His grace and of His dying love! May we each one be numbered among those who can say in truth
“Thou, with Thy counsel, while I live,
wilt me conduct and guide;
And to Thy glory afterward
receive me to abide.”
Ps. 73: 23