The Truth About Death

Halloween is coming at the end of this week. Halloween, also known as All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It is at the beginning of the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the Christian liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed. It seems like an appropriate time to talk about death. Here is a short devotion for today...

No matter what part of this planet you live on, how well you take care of your body, or how much money is in your bank account, there is no escaping death. 

Sound a little depressing? Sure. But there’s still good news! Really, really good news.

For those who belong to Christ, we have a hope that’s beyond this world…

“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”
Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Death is the greatest tool of our enemy, which is why Jesus came to defeat it. That’s why He became human, took the ultimate punishment, and put death in its rightful place—under the authority and dominion of God. 

For the believer, death is only temporary. And the Spirit of God can do what no human can—give life to the lifeless and redeem what has been lost. 

The truth about death is that it’s not the end of the story.

Soon, God will wipe away every tear and make all things new. Just as a baby is given the miraculous and mysterious breath of life, His Spirit will revive the seemingly perished and bring the dead back to life.

And that is the really, really good news. 

Romans 8:11 gives us two back-to-back mentions of the resurrection: the audacious claim that followers of Jesus have made for 2,000 years, that three days after Jesus literally died, he literally came back to life.

And this verse uses the resurrection of Jesus not just to make a point about life after death, but about life before death. Most people tend to think of life as kind of an either-or thing: either you're alive or you're dead. But the Bible often talks about life as if it's on a kind of continuum. In John 10:10, Jesus says, "I have come, that they may have life, and have it to the full." In other words, it's possible to be living but not fully alive. So what does it mean to be fully alive?

Well, Romans 8:11 doesn't give us an explicit answer to that question, but I think the rest of Romans 8 does give us a few clues. Being fully alive, as the Bible talks about it, means living a life without fear of condemnation. It means living a life of freedom, a life of righteousness, and a life of belonging to God and to others. In short, when God gives life to our mortal bodies, as this verse talks about, we get closer to the sort of life he originally created humanity to have.