The Christian’s Hope in Death[1]
By
D. Patrick Ramsey
Richard
Baxter felt the unwanted invasion of deep heartache that only death can deliver
when his beloved wife Margaret passed away.
He described his experience as being “under the power of melting grief.”[2] J.I. Packer noted that Baxter’s use of the
word “melting” perfectly captures the effect of being grief-stricken. Packer explained, “The capacity for
initiative and enterprise melts-dissolves- away, and so does the power of
empathy with and response to others. A
half-numb apathy, frequently alternating with bouts of tears, sets in.”[3]
Grief,
even the power of melting grief, afflicts Christians when their loved ones fall
asleep in Jesus. But we do not, as Paul
says, grieve as other people do because we are able to grieve as those who have
hope.
Christians
have hope in death. We have certain hope
in death. We often use the word “hope”
in reference to something that we want but may never experience. Hope in this sense is equivalent to wishful
thinking. I hope that my favorite sports
team wins the game means that I want them to win or expect them to win but it
doesn’t mean that they will definitely win.
Biblical hope is different. It is
used with reference to what will definitely happen because God has told us that
it will definitely happen.
What
biblical hope do we have in death? Drawing
heavily upon the Puritans, this article will look at the Christian’s hope at
death, after death, and for eternity.
The Christian’s hope at death
The
hope Christians have for themselves and their loved ones in the Lord at death
is that we will not be alone when we die.
Thomas Brooks, in a funeral sermon entitled A Believer’s Last Day is his Best Day, urged his audience to
consider “that the Lord will not leave thee but be with thee in that hour.”[4]
One
of the most common exhortations that God gives to us in the Scriptures is “Do
not fear.” Edward T. Welch has said that
this is by far God’s most frequent command.[5] The reason we don’t have to be afraid is
because God promises to be with us always.
He promises to never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). Brooks noted that there are five negatives in
the Greek text of Hebrews 13:5 “to assure God’s people that he will never
forsake them,” and that Scripture renews this promise five times so “that we
may press it till we have pressed the sweetness out of it.”[6]
God
will always be with us. The moment we
die is, of course, no exception. Brooks
pointed to Psalm 23:4, which assures us that God will be with us even when we
walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
Christ, by his Spirit, will be with us and he will hold our hand when we
take our last breath. There is,
therefore, no need for us to fear death.
As Brooks rightly asked, “Why should that man be afraid of death, that
may be always confident of the presence of the Lord of life?”[7]
Christ
is more than able to help and guide us in and through death because he tasted
death in its fullness. He knows
experientially what it is like to die.
He took a last breath. His body
stopped working. His human soul departed
from his body and went to heaven. Jesus
walked through the door of death. Richard
Baxter wrote, “Christ leads me through no darker rooms Than he went through
before.”[8] Christ, therefore, is able to walk you through
the same door.
In
fact, simply knowing that Christ has experienced death brings us “strong
consolation.” In the middle of his own
personal grief, Thomas Case, a Westminster divine, wrote:
Another
word of comfort is, that our gracious relations are not alone in their
death. The captain of their salvation
marched before them through those black regions of death and the grave, Jesus
died; this is implied in the following words, “If we believe that Jesus died.”
This is an argument that carrieth in it strong consolation. Our christian relations in dying run no
greater hazard than Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did; no greater hazard than all
the patriarchs, and prophets, and apostles did, for they all in their
generations died. Yea, what shall I say?
They run no other hazard than the Lord of all the patriarchs, prophets, and
apostles did, for Jesus died; this is wonderful indeed; the Lord of life
yielded up the ghost; the eternal Son of God was laid in the grave![9]
Christ
has gone through the black regions of death and the grave. He leads his people through those same black
regions every step of the way. But that
is not all, according to Thomas Manton.
He argued, on the basis of Luke 16:22, that angels are present with the
saints at death in order to carry them straightaway to heaven.[10]
Christians
are truly never alone at death. That is
the certain hope we have. Thomas H.
Ramsey (1905-1997) captured this wonderful and comforting truth in his hymn I Won’t Have to Cross Jordan Alone.
When I come to the river at the ending of day
When the last winds of sorrow have blown
There'll be somebody waiting to show me the way
I won't have to cross Jordan alone
I won't have to cross Jordan alone
Jesus died all my sins to atone
In the darkness I see
He'll be waiting for me
I won't have to cross Jordan alone
The Christian’s hope after death
The
hope that Christians have after death is twofold.
First, death puts to death everything bad in a Christian’s life. Death kills all misery and suffering. Thomas Brooks observed that even the best man
in the world is too often like Noah’s dove that found no rest. You may experience the best this world has to
offer and suffer the least, but you will still be restless and suffer to one
degree or another. You will lack “some
external or internal mercy.” Death,
however, brings all misery to an end. It
is, therefore, “another Moses: it delivers believers out of bondage, and from
making brick in Egypt.”[11] Thomas
Watson rightly said that death is the funeral of all of our sorrows.[12]
Death
also kills that which is mortal and corrupt.
God has promised us eternal glory in Christ. But in order to experience the fullness of
that eternal glory, we have to put off the mortal and the corruptible. Thomas Manton described our present body as
“a mass of flesh dressed up to be a dish for the worms.”[13] We can’t live forever with a body like
that. We need to put it off and death is
the way we do it. This is why Thomas
Case wrote, “Death serves the saints now for no use, but to kill mortality, and
to extinguish corruption.”[14]
Still
further, death puts sin to death. The
battle against sin and temptation is one that the Christian engages throughout
his life. The struggle, as every true
Christian knows, is real and relentless because sin never gives up. Death, however, brings our war with the
world, the flesh and the devil to an end.
When we close our eyes for the last time, the final bell rings. The fight is over.
In
a sermon entitled Death’s Advantage,
Edward Reynolds highlighted five ways that death frees us from the evil and
toilsome labors that we were subjected to by the curse of sin. Believers find rest in death from 1) the
toilsome captivity and tyranny of sin, 2) the buffets and temptations of Satan,
3) the cares, sorrows, snares, toils, temptations of the world, 4) the
difficulties of duty itself, 5) the evils to come.[15]
Similarly,
Thomas Boston said that death brings a perfect freedom from sin. More specifically, we are freed from all
commission of sin, from the very inbeing of sin, and from the possibility of
sinning. Although sin no longer has
dominion over a believer in this life, it “still abides as a troublesome guest;
but at death it is plucked up by the roots.”[16]
God, therefore, turns the tables and
uses the wages of sin to destroy sin.
Second,
death is gain for the believer because he immediately goes to be with Christ,
which is far better. The Bible doesn’t
tell us everything we might want to know about life after death, but it does
tell us what we need to know. And it
tells us that when we die, our body returns to dust, and our soul or inner
person lives on and goes to be with Christ in heaven. Jesus told the converted thief on the cross that
he would be with him in paradise that very day.
Paul says that to be away from the body means that you are at home with
the Lord, and that to depart this life is to be with Christ. The day we die is the day we go to be with
Christ. Indeed, the very moment we die
is the very moment we are with our Lord.
Thomas Case said, “it is but winking, and he is at home; as soon as the
eye of the body is closed here, the eye of the soul is open there.”[17] This is why my predecessor at Nashua OPC,
Steven F. Miller, told his congregation that he wasn’t going to die. He was going to go from life to life. A believer doesn’t cease to exist at
death. He doesn’t enter into judgment or
condemnation. He goes to be with Christ
in heaven. Life to life.
Since
Jesus is in heaven, that is where we go.
Heaven is God’s special dwelling place.
It is where Jesus in his glorified body is right now. We can’t see it or take a rocket to get to
it. It is not like it is on the other
side of the moon or by the planet Mars.
Nonetheless, it is a created place where humans are able to go and live,
and it is where the souls of departed Christians go.
The
apostle Paul says that to be with Christ in heaven is far better than life on
earth. That might be hard for us to
understand or imagine because life on earth is all we know. We might be willing to put up with the
miseries of this life as long as we can continue to enjoy the delights of this
world. But the best this world has to
offer doesn’t compare to life with Christ in glory. And we know that to be true because God has
told us that it is better, and not just better, but far better.
This
is why Thomas Brooks entitled his funeral sermon, A Saint’s Last Day Is His Best Day.
The last day is the believer’s “coronation-day” and “marriage-day.” It is the day he exchanges earth for heaven,
a wilderness for a Canaan, an Egypt for a land of Goshen, and a dunghill for a
palace. It is the day he enters into
“Abraham’s bosom, into paradise, into the ‘New Jerusalem,’ into the joy of his
Lord.”[18]
Although
death is the chariot that takes us to heaven, it is still not a pleasant
ride. Death, after all, is our enemy and
part of the wages of sin. As Brooks put
it, death is the “dark, dirty lane” that we need to take to the glorious city
above. But it is a road that believers
will be more than willing to take because it will take them home. Brooks wrote, “Every man is willing to go to
his home, though the way that leads to it be never so dark, dirty, or
dangerous; and shall believers be unwilling to go to their homes, because they
are to go through a dark entry to those glorious, lightsome, and eternal
mansions that Christ hath prepared for them? surely no.”[19]
Christians have great hope not only at death
but also after death. The moment they
die, they find rest from all evil and sin and they go to be with Christ in
heaven. They go from life to life. Indeed, they go from life to a far better
life. As Thomas Manton once said, “Death
to the godly is not only an end of misery, but a beginning of glory and
happiness.”[20]
The Christian’s hope for
eternity
The
Christian’s hope for eternity is manifold.
One aspect of our hope is the resurrection of our bodies. The personal pronoun “our” is key here. Our body will be raised from the dead, not
some other body. The very concept of
resurrection presupposes this. If we
were given a different body, then it wouldn’t be a resurrection. A new creation, perhaps, but not a
resurrection. Paul says that the Spirit
will give life to your mortal body
and that we wait for the redemption of our
bodies (Rom. 8:11, 23). Thomas Case
rightly wrote that “the saints shall rise with the very same bodies they lay
down with in the graves.”[21]
Since
our bodies will disintegrate completely, we might well wonder how this is
possible. We might even begin to doubt
the resurrection when we think that when our bodies turn to dust, that dust
will be, as Thomas Case noted, “possibly, mixed with the dust of wicked men, or
of the brute creatures; it may be, dispersed into the remotest parts of the
world.”[22] Eusebius wrote that the Romans would mock the
Christian hope in the resurrection by burning the bodies of Christians and
scattering their ashes in the Rhone river so that all trace of them would be
gone forever.[23]
How
then can we receive again that which has been so thoroughly destroyed? The answer is, of course, God. God who made all things is certainly able to
re-assemble all things. God who made us
from the dust is certainly able to raise our bodies from the dust. As Paul said in his defense before Agrippa,
“Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raised the dead (Acts
26:8)?” Case wrote, “Christ by his
mighty power shall command the bodies of his saints to come forth, shall unite
dust to dust, every dust in its own proper place and form it into the same body
it was when it was dissolved and laid down in the grave.”[24] Don’t, therefore, let the destruction of our
bodies diminish your hope in the resurrection of your own body or of the bodies
of your loved ones who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Trust in the power and promise of Almighty
God.
Although
it will be our body that we will receive at the resurrection, it will be a new
and improved version. It will be
glorious, spiritual, immortal and incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:35-49). Indeed, it will be like Christ’s resurrected
body. Paul proclaimed that Jesus will
“transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body (Phil. 3:21).” Thomas Case said that our new body will be
“made up into a beautiful structure, more beautiful than ever it was in its
first creation.”[25]
One
of the enormous benefits of our new bodies is that they will be free of all
defects and blemishes. Case put it this
way: “The infant shall rise a man of perfect age, the lame shall rise sound,
the blind shall rise seeing, the deaf shall hear, the dumb shall be able to
speak, the resurrection shall take away all defects and excesses of nature, the
deformities of the saints shall not be raised together with their bodies; yea,
deformities shall be turned into comelinesses and beauties.”[26]
Case
was also quick to point out that these differences do not substantially change
the person or his body. He wrote: “and
yet all these alterations do no more change or destroy the individuality of
person, than youth doth make the person numerically different from what it was
in infancy, or old age from what it was in youth; or as it was in the persons
of all sorts, which Christ healed in the day of his flesh; they were the same
individuals after cure, as they were before; cure makes not another individual
man of a cripple nor health of the sick; so shall it be in the resurrection,
the bodies of the saints, shall be the same for substance and matter; but
wonderfully changed for form and supernatural endowments and qualities.”[27]
Another
aspect of our hope for eternity is eternal life. We
cannot give a detailed explanation of what our life will be like in the future
because Scripture doesn’t. Hence, we
will only fully understand it once we get there. Thomas Manton rightly said, “What [our]
blessedness shall be then, we cannot now know to the full. We shall understand
it best when the great voice calls us to come up and see.”[28] Nevertheless, God has revealed to us some
things about our future life to encourage us and to feed our hope. So then, what can we say about our future
life?
Well,
for starters, we can say that our life will be full of joy, peace and
happiness. Manton said that we will be
“completely blest at the resurrection.” [29]
Jesus said that he came so that we might have life and have it abundantly (John
10:10). He came so that we might have
his peace and that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be full (John
14:27; 15:11).
According
to Scripture, life is more than mere existence, peace more than the absence of
conflict, and joy more than a feeling.
Life, peace, and joy are akin to salvation in its broadest and fullest
sense. And full salvation is deliverance
from
all forms of misery to all grace and glory.
It is to take away the evil and to replace it with the good. It is to be transferred from Satan’s kingdom
to God’s kingdom. It is to have God as
your God and dwell with him. That is
what it means to have full salvation or true life, peace and joy. But more than that, it means to have them
forever. Thomas Brooks cited Gregory of
Nazianzen who said that “there is nothing excellent that is not perpetual,” and
the philosophers who said that a man is never happy that might afterwards
become miserable.[30] Brooks could have also cited the Rabbis who
taught that you can’t have perfect joy in this life because it is riddled with
worries and ends in death.[31] All three citations capture an important
truth. Perfect joy or peace or life must
not only be misery free and contain the good, it must also be eternal. And that is the hope we have in Christ. Manton wrote: “Our blessedness is full for
parts, full for the degrees and manner of enjoyment; and all this continues for
ever, without fear of losing it. Our crown of glory is a garland that will
never wither; it is an eternal state of actual delights; we are blessed in our
bodies, blessed in our souls, blessed in our company.”[32]
Practically
speaking, this means that we will never again have any physical problems, or
mental problems, or spiritual problems, or relationship problems, or political
problems, or indeed any other kind of problem.
Eternal life involves the removal of all evil because God will wipe away
every tear and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor
crying, nor pain anymore (Rev. 21:4).
This
also means that we will perfectly love God with all of our heart. We will never again sin against our God. We will walk with him and experience his
favor and blessing. True life is to know
God and in God’s presence there is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are
pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16).
Still
further, this means that we will perfectly love our neighbor as Jesus has loved
us. We will never again hurt another
person, and we will always be good to everyone.
And everyone else will do the same.
This too is an important part of the hope we have for eternity. As Manton noted, we are social creatures and
therefore complete happiness requires that we be blessed not only in our
persons but also in our “company and relations.”[33] Thomas Case described our communion with the
saints thus:
“Oh what will their communion and fellowship…be…when they
shall be totally divested of all their sinful corruptions and natural
infirmities; when there shall be such a perfect harmony amongst the saints, as
if there were but one soul to act that whole assembly of the first born? When
there will be nothing in them to converse with but pure grace; grace without
mixture, grace and nothing else but grace? Yea, not pure grace only, but
perfect grace; when every grace shall be in its perfect state, and have its
perfect works. Now the saints are like an instrument out of tune, jarring and
disharmonious; when one is alive, the other is dead; when this is hot, the
other is cold; when one is ready to give, the other is not fit to receive the
communications of grace. But oh, when all the instruments of glory are alike
strung, and equally tuned, what sweet rapturous harmony, what heavenly music
will they make.”[34]
At
this point, we might wonder if our joy in heaven will be spoiled in part by the
fact that some of our friends and family members are not there with us. Case argued that it won’t for two reasons. First, all imperfect or defective affections
will be “totally abolished” for they are “inconsistent with the glorified
estate.” Second, our will in glory will
be perfectly aligned with God’s will so that we will be pleased with whatever
God does or has done. Case wrote: “The
saints in glory would have nothing otherwise than God would have it; so that
now, to the full and perpetual silencing of this objection, I answer, that the
glory of God shall so perfectly swallow up all private personal considerations,
that, I am confident, it is no breach of charity to say, that the believing
husband shall fully admit the justice of the damnation of the unbelieving wife,
the holy parent in the damnation of the stubborn and ungodly child, &c.
God’s will is the law, and his glory the triumph, of the heavenly inhabitants.”[35]
Another
thing that we can say about our life in eternity is that it will be on the
renewed earth. Jesus said that we will
inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5). And Paul
said that God promised Abraham and his offspring (which includes us who
believe) that they would be heirs of the world (Rom. 4:13). Paul also said in Romans 8 that the creation
itself is waiting to be redeemed from bondage to corruption. This suggests substantial continuity between
this age and the age to come. We will
enjoy God and his creation that he has renewed for us. We will engage in all sorts of human
activities and industry. As J.I. Packer
has said, we will “worship, work, think, and communicate, enjoying activity,
beauty, people, and God. First and foremost, however, we shall see and love
Jesus, our Savior, Master, and Friend.”[36]
Finally,
we can also say about our hope for eternity is that it will be beyond our
wildest dreams. Paul declared, “For this
light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison (2 Cor. 4:17; see also Rom. 8:18).”
Conclusion
Christians
have a sure and certain hope in death. At
death, their hope is that they will not be alone. Christ by his Spirit will be with them every
step of the way. After death, their hope
is twofold. Death brings an end to evil
and misery and it is the door to a far better life with Christ in heaven. For all eternity, their hope is that they will
be raised from the dead with a glorious body and will dwell with God and with
one another in God’s redeemed and perfect world forever.
[1] This
article first appeared in four installments at www.meetthepuritans.com. It has been slightly modified.
[2] J.I.
Packer. A Grief Sanctified (Kindle Location 94). Crossway Books.
[3] J.I.
Packer. A Grief Sanctified (Kindle Location 2024). Crossway Books.
[4] Brooks, T. (1867). The
Complete Works of Thomas Brooks.
(A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 6, p. 404). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol;
James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.
[5] Edward
T. Welch, Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest (New Growth
Press: Greensboro, NC), 59.
[6] Brooks,
6:405.
[7] Brooks,
6:405.
[8] J.I.
Packer. A Grief Sanctified (Kindle Location 1973). Crossway Books.
[9] Case, T. (1836). The
Select Works of Thomas Case (Vol.
2, p. 7). London: Religious Tract Society.
[10] Manton, T. (1871). The
Complete Works of Thomas Manton
(Vol. 2, p. 453). London: James Nisbet & Co.
[11] Brooks, 6:399.
[12] Thomas
Watson, Body of Divinity (BOT), 298.
[13] Manton,
2:465.
[14] Case,
2:214.
[15] Edward
Reynolds, Works (SDG), 4:469-470.
[16] Boston, T. (1848). The
Whole Works of Thomas Boston: An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian
Religion, Part 2. (S. M‘Millan,
Ed.) (Vol. 2, p. 38). Aberdeen: George and Robert King.
[17] Case,
2:215.
[18] Brooks,
6:400.
[19] Brooks,
6:403.
[20] Manton, 2:458.
[21] Case,
2:60.
[22] Case,
2:42.
[23] Eusebius
of Caesaria. (1890). The Church History of Eusebius. In P. Schaff & H. Wace
(Eds.), A. C. McGiffert (Trans.), Eusebius:
Church History, Life of Constantine the Great, and Oration in Praise of
Constantine (Vol. 1, p. 217). New York: Christian Literature Company.
[24] Case,
2:37.
[25] Case,
2:37.
[26] Case,
2:61.
[27] Case,
2:61-62.
[28] Manton,
2:461.
[29] Manton,
2:461.
[30] Brooks,
6:398.
[32] Manton,
2:464.
[33] Manton,
2:458.
[34] Case,
2:129-130.
[35] Case,
2:135-136.
[36] J.I.
Packer, I Want To Be A Christian (Tyndale House, 1983) 100.
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