And we saw that our being conscious that we are rooted in The God of Heaven answers for us the related critical twin questions of our identity and the purpose for our existence.
And we also saw that the primary purpose why we exist is that we glorify The God and Father of our Lord Jesus by bringing forth His Fruit unto God.
Today, we will look at another critical issue that also springs out of our knowing that we came out of God from Heaven in our union with our Lord Jesus Christ.
This issue is your disposition to depart from the world.
Put in plain language, what does the thought of your physical death do to you?
Does it bring fear and uncertainty to you?
Or, do you have a quiet assurance whenever the thought of your departure crosses your mind?
Do you have peace and joy if you are faced with the prospect of dying?
Our main dish for the day is served from the words of our Lord Jesus taken from John 16:28:
I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world. Again I leave the world and go to the Father.
Our Lord Jesus knew that He came out of His Father and came into the world.
Premised on His consciousness of His Root, He also knew in Himself that when He leaves the world, He was going back to His Father.
Simply put, because He knew His Root, He was aware that His death would kick-start His journey back Home to be with His Father.
His inner consciousness at this pivotal point in His earthly sojourn is again revealed by His Apostle in John 13:3:
Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and went to God,
- Our Lord Jesus knew He came from God and was returning to God.
- He faced death with no fear and with no uncertainty.
- Rather His exit was met with tranquility, founded on His awareness that He came out of His Father from Heaven, and into the world, and that He was leaving the world to go back to be with His Father.
That was The Lord Jesus.
What about you and me?
After we must have served our own generation by the will of God, how would we face our physical death?
What does it even mean to die physically?
The Apostle of our Lord Jesus gives us the clear answer in the opening segment of James 2:26
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Physical death is the absence of the inner man from the mortal body.
In 2Corinthians 5:8, the Apostle Paul reveals what happens to the inner man when he leaves the body:
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
When a saint dies, he or she goes to be with our Lord.
And he would repeat same amongst these words in Philippians 1:23:
I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
Just like our Lord Jesus knew He was leaving the world to go back to His Father, we also know that when we shed our mortal bodies, we go to be with our Lord Christ.
Here is the point:
- The fear of death with its torments is eliminated when you are fully conscious that in your union with our Lord Christ you came out of God from Heaven.
- This consciousness of your Root in Christ conditions your mentality for who you are in truth: a stranger and pilgrim in the world.
- And you thus know that when you die, you are only being transported to be with our Lord Christ.
- And like a bride who is secured in the love of her husband for her would rejoice at the prospect of her reunion with him, death to you is the horse you ride with peace and with joy back Home to be with The Lover of your soul.
Going further, we will move beyond our personal departure, and to how we face the death of our loved ones with particular reference to those who are saved.
In John 14:28, our Lord Jesus spoke these words to His disciples concerning His imminent death:
You have heard how I said to you, I go away and I am coming to you again. If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, I go to the Father, for My Father is greater than I.
He said to His disciples that if they loved Him they would rejoice at the prospect of His return to be with The Father.
And He said they would rejoice because His Father is greater than Him.
His Apostle Paul would interpret these words in their application to us in Philippians 1:23:
I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
The Apostle Paul desired to depart from his body and to be with our Lord Christ.
Furthermore, he knew that to depart this world and to be with our Lord Christ is infinitely better than to remain here.
Hear Him again in 2Corinthians 5:6–8:
(6) Therefore we are always confident, and know that while present in the body we are absent from the Lord,
(7) (for we walk by faith, not by sight;)
(8) we are confident, I say, and pleased rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.
And again in Philippians 1:21, where he uses the everyday word “die”:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Here is the summary of what is being said concerning the departure of our loved ones:
- Like our Lord Jesus said to His disciples, in the midst of our sorrow at the temporary loss of the fellowship with our loved ones who died in The Lord, if we loved them, we would rejoice at their departure from the world.
- We rejoice even while we mourn their absence not only because they have gone to be with our Lord Christ, but also because we know that their being with The Lord is far better for them.
Going further, the Apostle Paul reveals the hope of reunion with our loved ones who died in The Lord as he writes to us in 1Thessalonians 4:13–18:
(13) But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
(14) For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
(15) For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
(16) For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
(17) Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
(18) Therefore encourage one another with these words.
We are sure that when our Lord shall return, He will come with our loved ones, and we, with them, shall receive our glorious resurrection bodies like unto His, and we shall all be with Him forever.
Praise The Lord!
The Apostle exhorts us to comfort one another with this sure hope of restored fellowship with our departed loved ones — a hope that is hinged on the soon coming of our Bridegroom.
And thus, The Spirit and The Bride say, Come.
Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.
And I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they shall rest from their labors, and their works follow them.
Amen.
