The word “death” describes an event that all humans avoid. Nevertheless our bodies eventually cease functioning and we experience the awful event common to all humans. We struggle through emotional adjustments to the absence of loved ones and friends who pass away. Being a Christian doesn’t exempt us from death or the feeling of loneliness when loved ones depart.
Let’s look beyond the event called death. Let’s lift our attention to our God who always brings pleasant effects out of unpleasant events.
Complete Freedom from Sin’s Influence
Faith in Jesus’ blood forgives our sins. His blood annihilates our record of sinful acts and frees us from sin’s dominance of our faults and behavior. The presence of Jesus’ Spirit in our spirit fills us with a loathing of sin and a love of pleasing God. Yet, our bodies still die. How can this be?
People who love Jesus continue living in physical bodies influenced by sin. Everything touched by sin must die or pass away, (Genesis 2:17). Although the human spirit lives because of the indwelling Jesus, the body continues deteriorating because all of us “sinned and came short of the glory of god,” Romans 3:23. “Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God,” Romans 8:10 NLT.
The event we describe as death results from our sinfulness, but also removes us from sin’s influence. While our body lies in the grave, our spirit enjoys complete freedom from enticement to sin and temptation to commit evil. Our spirit enjoys the sights, the sounds and the fragrances of the New Jerusalem. We taste the delectable food of heaven and experience the caressing touches of our God. He keeps track of all the particles of our deceased body so that at just the right moment he can raise it a glorified body.
The Creator of pleasant effects uses our death as a passage way into an eternal life untouched by sin.
