Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world,
and death through sin, and so death spread to all men,
because all sinned—
Romans 5:12
No matter how great the sinner or how great the saint… no matter how mighty the king or how weak the child… death is no respecter of person. It doesn’t care who you think you are or how smart you think you are in your attempt to defeat and defy it… it does not fear you at all.
A week ago I learned of the death of a loved one… I did not find out about his passing until 15 minutes before the graveside service.
(I suppose that’s one of the downfalls of not reading or watching the news… I would not even be aware of what happened in Oklahoma if not for my husband telling me about it.)
Having just been made aware of the passing of this man I was so very fond of, a man who had been a father and grandfather to my cousin and friend for thirty of her thirty-five years…
(I don’t know what it is like in other areas of the world, but here in Alabama, at least in my part of Alabama, your first best friends are your cousins. I have always considered even my 4th and 5th cousins as close as my double 1st, because I really actually did grow up with them all. They are a lasting part of the memories of my childhood and even now in my adulthood and we are purposeful to make sure our kids know who each other are.)
I only had time to shoot her a text. I just wanted her to know that I knew and I was so very sorry and I was praying for them.
The next day I went to her mother’s house, taking a chance that they might be there. I am thankful that they were indeed there. We sat on the front porch and talked and cried and I listened as she told me what happened.
He awoke that morning as usual. Got up to eat his breakfast as usual,and was picking on and cutting up with his grandchild that had spent the night with them. He left the room to shower and get ready to head out on an outing with my cousins husband, his son-in-law, by every right. He entered back into the room not feeling well and chose to take an aspirin and sit down… he got up and left the room… and came back to take another aspirin and sit for a moment… then said he felt fine. He went on to shower and get dressed and came into the living room in his jeans and t-shirt with his shoes in hand feeling fine.
Then by the time he got his shoes on, he was concerned again and asked my aunt, his wife, to take him on to the hospital… they left the house and got into the car… and she said that before she could get backed out of the driveway… he leaned his head back on the seat and was gone. He never said a word. He was there. Then he was gone.
He was a healthy man Friday night… and Saturday he was gone.
Death is no respecter to person.
It doesn’t ask our permission. It doesn’t care if we had plans that day. It reigns where and when it will. It is not concerned with how healthy we are or how much we are loved and needed by others. It doesn’t care who will miss us. It doesn’t care if we are so young that our life is still developing in the womb or if we have lived so long that our flesh is shriveling and wrinkling and sagging with age.
Death is the curse. It is the curse that fell not only upon man, but upon the whole earth.
Cursed is the ground because of you;
Genesis 3:17
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For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
Romans 8:19-22
This earth that was created by our God to sustain and provide for us life now turns herself on us to destroy and deprive us of life. Yet she groans. She groans because she knows it was not what she was created to do. She knows she was created for glory. So she suffers. We see her sufferings in the earthquakes and hurricanes and the likes of the recent Oklahoma tornadoes. Death dances her victory dance over the broken pieces of our hearts.
It’s not global warming… it’s not climate change… it’s sin and the wages of sin is death. Death proves it over and over. We might attempt to deny the reality of sin, but we cannot deny the reality of death.
It’s the groans of a creation of God that has been subjected to slavery because of sin and now is under the control of the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), the one in whose power the whole world lies (1 John 5:19), and death reigns in her and yet she knows she was created to produce living things… not death. She groans. She suffers. She anxiously longs for redemption.
The question as we look at the reign of death around us… is do we groan, do we suffer, do we anxiously long for redemption with her.
I know that I do.
I don’t like death.
Death hurts because it separates.
However, there is one death that shocked the very depths of death… death appeared and took its prize and drug Him into the grave in triumph. Death self-proclaimed itself as king… and why should it not… it was indeed undefeated. No one who had ever died had ever escaped its grasp. It reigned victorious over every man.
Until One Man appeared.
He snatched many from death’s grip as He walked on this earth… yet death did not fear much, because death knew they would return to its grave… and death waited for that One who appeared to be playing games with the grave.
Yet this One did not come to play games.
This One was the Only One who was really ever in it to win it.
Death opened her throat and swallowed Him whole. Death willingly paid sin for its prize and filled its belly with another soul… yet something was not quite right this time. The belly of death began to rumble with displeasure. It rolled and contorted and groaned for the first time ever with the awareness that it had just consumed something that was not to be consumed. The belly of death shook and revolted and finally vomited out its prize just as the belly of the whale vomited Jonah out many years ago…
This One death could not hold.
Death marched right back up to sin and asked for its payment back.
Yet sin had its pay… this was death’s problem.
Death had met its match and death lost. Death lost big. Death attempted to consume Christ, yet Christ consumed death. Now Christ stands with His life wide open inviting us to die in Him. This death does not separate… for the first time in all time, there is a death that unites to life.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
Romans 6:5-9
Death still tromps around this earth, and this earth continues to groan, because sin remains. We never know when death will show up at our door claiming sin has required its payment… however we don’t have to live in fear of this payday… if we have died in Christ.
When death comes knocking at my door requesting that sin wants its pay… I shall smile and hand death my receipt that says Paid In Full
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said,
It
is
finished!
And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
John 19:30
Whether my life on this earth be ripped from me through the winds of a tornado, by a destroying disease, by an out of nowhere accident, or by sudden failing of heart. It doesn’t matter. I am ready. I pray that if you are reading this… you are as well.
I pray that if you are a parent this is foremost in the front of your minds for your children… you never know when you put them on the bus or drop them off at daycare or send them home with a friend if this is the last time you will see them… do they know the Gospel… do they know about death in Christ… do they know that you know… do they know if death came to snatch you away from them that Christ would be there to make the interception because He had already paid your price?
Death is no respecter to persons.
Praise God, neither is Christ!
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:8-13