Some Thoughts About Death

While death comes to us all (Hebrews 9:27), we need not feel that God has somehow perpetrated an injustice to those individuals who die prematurely — those individuals who we “think” have been deprived of that precious commodity called “time.”

Sometimes, we think that just because an individual lived a long life, that somehow they were rewarded for good behavior. The Scriptures tell us that Methuselah lived to the ripe old age of 969 years, and yet, nothing else is recorded about his life here on earth, except that he begat children “and he died” (Genesis 5:25-27).

Our lives here on earth are not so much about how much “time” that we have been allotted, but in the “way” we use that time (Ephesians 5:1-17; Colossians 4:5).

Consider the fact that our bodies are lent to us during our earthly existence to bring honor and glory to God (1 Corinthians 6:13-20). However, when our bodies grow old, with all of our physical ailments and handicaps (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 NLT), what a wretched world this would be without the prospect of death. We would not want to forever carry our youthful immaturity, nor would we wish to forever bear the infirmities of old age.

Death is a merciful means by a merciful God, of getting rid of this old physical body which houses our spirit here on earth (James 2:26) and trading it in for a new and incorruptible body (1 Corinthians 15:51-57; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1-4). Associate the throwing off the shell of this old physical body, with that of a little chick that comes into a new realm of existence after discarding its shell.

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets