Ultimate Matters: It Is Irrelevant How You Die
In our last post we discovered that, ultimately, the most important issue we face is where we go when we die. Regardless of what happens on earth, the fact of the matter is that everyone will either enter into the glory of God forever, or eternal damnation forever, once they die. The determination is seen in one’s response to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that He laid down His perfect life as an atonement to pay for the sins of all those who would call upon His name for mercy, in faith and repentance.
This being the case, we are led to one more very practical matter of life and death that must be understood and properly appreciated: ultimately, it is irrelevant how you die.
It is easy for people to become overwhelmed with fear and anxiety about the unknown way in which they will one day die. Too often, we think more about then than we do about how we can serve the Lord better today. Others may become caught up in a bitter lawsuit against another party because someone they loved has died needlessly as a result of medical mal-practice, drunk driving, a hate crime, or some form of negligence.
One thing we covered in our last post that bears repeating is this: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb 9:27). It is hard to be more to the point than that. When we stand before God on that appointed day, we will not be asked by God how we died and whether or not we felt it was a noble or justifiable way to die. God, knowing our hearts, will simply separate the sheep from the goats. And as if the presence of God in all of His holiness wasn’t enough, somewhere in that process will be a moment for each person to face the inescapable reality of the guiltiness of their sin.
“We will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom 14:10–12).
“The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb 4:12–13).
“Live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached . . .” (1 Pet 4:2–6).
“I tell you,” Jesus warned, “On the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt 12:36–37).
The Apostle John was given a glimpse of what this would look like, which he passed down to us in Revelation: “I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done” (20:11–12) (emphasis mine).
No where on this appointed day is the method of death a data point that is considered before the verdict is made on our glorification or damnation. It is completely and unequivocally irrelevant.
Jesus once leveled with his disciples on this very issue. The Jewish logic of the day was that the way in which someone died, or just their health in general while living, was some kind of meaningful indicator of one’s relationship to God, hence their question to him about the blind man in John 9: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (vs. 2). Even Job’s ignorant friend, Eliphaz, operated under the same assumptions as he implicated Job with wrongdoing for his sufferings: “Who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” (4:7–8).
Eliphaz’ ignorance stands in sharp contrast to Solomon’s unsurpassed wisdom that understood the meaningless aspects of the temporal life on earth as well as its many circumstances. He acknowledges, from a human perspective, how pointless everything really is given the fact that bad things happen to both relatively good and bad people:
“The righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all” (Ecc 9:1–3).
Nonetheless, the Jews weren’t the only ones with this simplistic paradigm. When the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta, the kind natives took him and the rest of the crew in under their wings and kindled a fire for them to stay warm during the cold rainstorm. At one point, Paul replenished the fire with a bundle of sticks, which, unbeknownst to Paul, housed a poisonous viper that quickly slithered out to escape the heat and bit him solidly in the hand. The natives’ response was telling as they watched the snake hang there: “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live” (Acts 28:4).
Of course, the next couple of verses tell us that Paul just shook the snake off into the fire and that no harm came to him. Once they realized that Paul wasn’t swelling up or keeling over suddenly to die, they then determined he was a god. Such is the way that many people even today shape their own theology—arbitrary, subjective experiences.
It is in Luke 13, however, that Jesus clears the air on this.
“There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (vv. 1–3).
While people were talking about the unthinkable heinousness committed by Pilate, Jesus leveled with them saying that there’s a more important matter at stake you have to be concerned about—being ready to die. This act by Pilate was indeed wicked and, as we have seen in Revelation, Pilate and his cronies will give an account to God for it. But, Jesus says, we must always have an eternal perspective.
He continued with another example: “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Between the two, He gave an example of personal, unjust manslaughter, as well as a seemingly random and unfortunate disaster. Neither death type was of any eternal consequence. Ultimately, what mattered most, Jesus pointed out, is that we are ready to die. And the only way to be ready is by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, in repentance and faith.
While we tend to think that all of history is hanging by a moment on our next move, we must step back and remember that God is the one who directs the course of human history and that man is but a mere breath in the middle of it. Death is imminent. It will happen to everybody.
The giant-slaying David wrote, “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Surely a man goes about as a shadow!” (Ps 39:4–6).
“What is your life?” James asked, rhetorically, “For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (4:14).
Isaiah excoriated Israel: “Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?” (2:22).
The Bible goes on and on about this.
The fact that we will certainly be judged by God someday is a sobering reality in itself that we do often consider. The fact that our moment of recompense could be around the corner of every inhale we take should strike deeply into the heart of every man and woman a panicked sense of urgency that they need to be reconciled to their Creator.
For the Christian, of course, “we may have confidence for the day of judgment . . . perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 Jn 4:17–18). To not be perfected in love means we have not been reconciled to the perfect God who is love. If God abides with us and we in God then we have no fear of punishment because He is the Judge. For those who do not abide with God, then they will most naturally be in dread of that day when they are honest enough to think about it.
Jesus told his disciples: “Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Lk 12:4–5).
Ultimately, the most important issue we face is where we go when we die.
Ultimately, it is irrelevant how you die.
Dear unbelieving friend—turn to Christ for mercy and forgiveness by admitting your sin and turning away from your life of sin. Admit that Jesus Christ was God and that only through His shed blood can your sins be atoned for.
Dear Christian, fear not. “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Eph 1:13–14).
In Christ alone,
Ben
