The week before Christmas we lost two friends to the Covid virus. Their age and comorbidities were contributing factors. But both were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet in some ways it doesn’t make it any easier to lose a loved one.
A friend of mine wrote the following blog which I thought was very appropriate concerning the death of a Christian. It speaks to the heart of those who are dealing with the loss from a Biblical perspective.
“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep (died), lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)
The Apostle Paul says Christians should not mourn the death of their loved ones in Christ the same way those without Christ mourn their loss. What does that mean? Does it mean the whites of our eyes not be turned red with tears? Does it say we put on a brave front and a good show for the world? Does it mean we go about like rocks, unemotional and unbreakable? When the doctor offers his condolences and informs you your parent or spouse has died, what is a Christian to do? When your baby never lives to be born or lies still in the crib, never to awaken, does being a Christian steel you to the body blows of loss and emptiness? If you sit up waiting to hear your teenager’s key in the front door, and instead, the phone rings and the voice on the other end shatters your life…..
Christians feel. Christians feel things deeply in their quickened spirits. Christians mourn. Christians grieve over the death, sin, suffering, injustice, perversion, and the rampant evil in this world. So what is Paul telling you and me? He is telling us to cry away the whites of our eyes, but do so with the assured hope that Jesus will wipe away our tears. He is telling us to endure the body blows of loss and that painful empty feeling deep inside, but do so with the assured hope that Jesus will comfort us and fill us with His love amid our pain. Be breakable, vulnerable, and honest in our grief before the world, but do so with the assured hope that Jesus will ultimately heal our broken hearts.
The citizens of this world wander about in confusion when faced with mortality and seek an unknown higher power or one of the earth’s thousand and one religions in a vain attempt to find answers. They say of the dead, with uncertainty, “Well, they’re in a better place now.” Not so for Christians, citizens of heaven; we see life and death in Christ-illuminated clarity. We have an assured hope in Jesus Christ, who died, was buried and rose again. Our loved ones who have died in Christ are with Him, and when He comes again, they will accompany Him.
What glorious reunions await us when our temporal earthly mourning gives way to a fantastic new spring-fresh eternal heavenly morning. That is the assured hope of the believer. Thank You, Lord Jesus! https://calvarybaptistirwin.org/blog.html
You can know you have assurance and will one day go to be with the Lord.
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