There was a man. He was a Godly man and a hard worker. His family loved him and he loved them. One day, when his children were teenagers, he tragically died. His youngest son found him and the grief began. 

Death can be tragic for those left to mourn. I have seen death up close and far away. I have sat by the bedside and wondered, with each breath, if it was going to be the last. I have had God say, “Yes, he will live,” and “No, this is his time.”  For many, there are painful questions and emotions that follow:

Why?

How could you, God?

I still needed her. 

How am I going to go on without him?

What now?

I thought You wanted what was best for me? How can this be what is best?

Death can be ugly. It can be messy. It can be terrifying. It can feel like we are being ripped apart inside into so many different pieces that we will never be able to be put back together again.

But…

It can also be beautiful. I know a man, a local pastor, who eulogized a funeral at the beginning of this year. Not only was the chapel full after they brought in extra chairs, but they had to set up rows of chairs in the vestibule. Even then, it was standing room only. The deceased was a woman who had been in the community, doing God’s work, for over 30 years. There was not a dry eye in the building. You see, it was not just a pastor providing a eulogy for one who had been an active child of God. It was a man, providing the eulogy for his wife of fifty plus years. Let that sink in for a moment.

This man publicly said goodbye to his wife, his best friend, his partner in life for over fifty years just a few days after her death. How was he able to do this? When asked, his response was, “If God’s grace is not sufficient to get me through this, then I have been lying to myself and to you for fifty years.” Many people were there that day to say goodbye and to honor her life spent here on earth. Just as many people were there to pray for him throughout the funeral. So many friends showed up to symbolically join hands and unite in prayer to provide a human safety net, if you will, under this family. To hold them up and hold them tight when they needed the support. It was sad, heartbreaking. Again, everyone had tears running down their face. But, it was one of the most beautiful experiences and expressions of love I have ever had the honor to be a part of.

Satan wants to separate.

Let’s go back in time to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve communed with God daily until that one fateful event when they ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Everything changed and the world has never been the same. You see, Satan wants to separate us, but not just from each other. He wants to separate us from God. The person who dies unsaved is eternally separated from God. This is terrifying to imagine. But that is not what God wants for us and He had a plan.

After Adam and Eve sinned, God called to them and made them clothes of animal skins. An animal had to die, blood had to be shed. God did this for them because He loved them. Fast forward many years, and blood was shed again. But this time, not an animal’s blood. This time blood was shed to cover the sins of the world and to impute God’s righteousness on those sinners who would accept His offer of salvation. After this, God was able to look on us again, there was no more separation. Satan tried to separate God’s creation from their creator, but God said, oh no – I have a plan and you will not have the victory.

So, death, where is your sting? The grave, where is your victory? I can tell you. The victory is not Satan’s, it is God’s. The victory is our ability to spend eternity with the God who created us and loves us. Having someone we love die is still painful and difficult to navigate. We feel overcome by our emotions.  But there is One who has turned death from a way of eternal separation to a way of eternal communion. 

The wife I spoke of earlier – she is peacefully sleeping for the moment. One day, though, she will be in her glorified body, humbly laying her crowns at the feet of Jesus.

Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16 of this coming day and oh, what a day it will be! 

13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

He becomes much more specific in 1 Corinthians 15: 35-58

35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? 36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: 37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

God has given us the victory over death, through our Lord Jesus! Satan never had that victory. But not everyone knows this yet. So, please, do as verse 58 tells us. Be steadfast, unmoveable, abounding in the work of the Lord – your labor is NOT in vain!