Christian Death – The Gateway to Glory
John Wesley learned that he didn't have to fear death, as we saw yesterday. And his brother Charles also has much to teach us on this topic. In the 1750s he published a book of funeral hymns, and I was quite taken with the words of one of them:
'Tis finish'd! 'tis done! The spirit is fled,
The prisoner is gone, the Christian is dead!
The Christian is living in Jesus's love,
And gladly receiving a kingdom above.
Death as a Transition
I thought that was profound – first he pronounces that the Christian is dead, because his spirit has left him; and then straight away he follows this up by proclaiming that the Christian is living in the love of Jesus in a kingdom above.
This is what we believe as followers of Jesus, that death is not the end, but a new beginning. After all, Jesus claimed this in John 11:25-26: "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die."
The Christian who dies, then, lives on in God's heavenly kingdom.
Passing Through to Our True Home
A minister was conducting a funeral in a cemetery one day, when a little girl came skipping along through the graves, singing and having a great time. The minister took her aside and said "don't you know what this place is?" The little girl replied "oh, I only pass through this place on my way home."
For the Christian, the grave isn't where we end up! We pass through the grave in an instant, and find ourselves at home with God.
In fact the great novelist Victor Hugo said that when his time came to die, he would say though his day's work was finished, his life was not! His day's work would begin again in the morning. He saw his tomb not as a blind alley, but as a thoroughfare. The tomb closed with the twilight only to re-open with the dawn.
What is death to you? The end of it all? Or do you see it as the gateway to glory – the thoroughfare to heaven where you will meet your God?
Remember, when the man on the cross next to Jesus cried out to Him in faith, Jesus told him that they would meet up in paradise that same day, when they had both died.
Don't fear death, my friends. As a Christian, the day you die is the day you begin to really live.
