The Spiritual Man

726 The Spiritual Man

No Fear in Death

In speaking of overcoming death we do not mean to imply that
our body shall never die. Though we believe “we shall not all sleep”
(1 Cor. 15.51), yet to say that we will not die is superstitious. Since
the Bible suggests the common span of life as seventy years of age,
we can expect to live that long if we have faith. But we cannot hope
to live forever because the Lord Jesus is our life. We know God
frequently has His exceptions. Some die before the age of seventy.
Our faith can only ask God that we do not leave before our task is
finished. Whether our life be long or short, we cannot perish like
sinners before half our appointed days are over. Our years should be
sufficient enough to accomplish our life work. Then when the end
does come we can depart peacefully with the grace of God upon us,
as naturally as the falling of a fully ripened melon. The book of job
describes such a departure in this manner: “You shall come to your
grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing
floor in its season” (5.26).

Overcoming death does not necessarily mean no grave, for God
may wish some to overcome it through resurrection just as our Lord
Jesus did. In passing through death believers, like their Lord, need
have no fear of it. If we seek to overcome the jaws of death because
we are afraid or unwilling to die, we already are defeated. It may be
that the Lord will save us from death altogether by rapturing us alive
to heaven; we nonetheless should not ask for His speedy return out of
a fear of mortality. Such apprehensiveness shows we are defeated
already by death. Let us come to see that even should we go to the
grave we are merely walking from one room to another room. There
is no justification for unbearable inward pain, fear and trembling.

We originally were “those who through fear of death were subject
to lifelong bondage” (Heb. 2.15). The Lord Jesus, however, has set
us free and therefore we fear it no more. Its pain, darkness and
loneliness cannot frighten us. An Apostle who had experienced