Last week my mother in law passed away suddenly. I am at peace with her passing because she had lived a long life and she knew the Lord. There was no prolonged sick-bed or suffering. I believe she was ready to meet her Maker. I do not often think about death but when someone this close passed away it made me think. I am quite sure that the Bible doesn’t lie and that everyone who have given their lives to Jesus will not perish but receive everlasting life. At this stage all the details of how or where or what everything will look like does not concern me.
Acts 13:36 – 39, “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.”
These verses are so profound. Firstly, it says that David served God’s purpose for him in his own generation. Therefore it proves that every person has a purpose. We just have to make sure that we are in conversation with God so that He can lead us on the path of that purpose. Secondly, he fell asleep. There are a lot of verses in the bible that compares death to sleep. I found 8. So, it death is compared to sleep it isn’t final. If you go to sleep, at some stage you wake up again. If we die, we will at some stage wake up again, only not in the same place or in the same body. Now, David saw corruption, but David lived in the Old Testament and David wasn’t washed by the blood of the Lamb. Ephesians 4:8, “Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captive and gave gifts to men.’ (In saying, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.”
1 Peter 3:18 – 20, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited, in the days of Noah…”
I believe that after Jesus died and went to hell to take the keys of death from Satan, he also preached to those who had never had the chance to hear the gospel. Revelation 1:17-18, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”
The death of Jesus was very sad at the time, but three days later, when He was resurrected and appeared to his disciples it was a time of joy and triumph. He had the chance to walk with them for 40 days before He ascended to heaven, and then later the believers received the Holy Spirit. When I look at death in this light of Acts 13:39 which says, “and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.” death becomes much less frightening if you look at it in this light. 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, “O, death where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We need not fear death if we know Jesus. We can be comforted that those who go before us are only asleep and that we will see them again. Obviously we will be sad that they aren’t part of our lives at the moment, but death isn’t forever, it’s just a stepping stone into the eternal joy of being with your Heavenly Father.
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