– 10 min read
Introduction
When thinking about the death of the Christian, two things come to mind: the end of our sins in our death and how we should be on guard against sin leading up to our death. There is a healthy balance in this part of the series. In Part 1, we introduced the concept of death, where it came from, and how it is for all to comprehend, including children. Now I would like to tease out some of the parts at play with death in general and in the death of the believer. Realities such as the final end of our sinful nature and how we ought to die in our final moments.
Death Is the End of Sin
Death is not… the death of the man, but the death of his sin. When Sampson died, the Philistines died together with him; so, when a believer dies… his sin dies with him. As death came in by sin, so sin goes out by death.
– Thomas Brooks, Heavenly Cordial, 78.
One of the blessings of being a Christian is that we will not die in our sins (John 8:24). When our body perishes, our sinful nature will perish with it. Brooks also once said, “A Christian knows that death shall be the funeral of all his sins, his sorrows, his afflictions, his temptations, his vexations, his oppressions, his persecutions. He knows that death shall be the resurrection of all his hopes, his joys, his delights, his comforts, his contentments.” It is indeed an excellent view of our death to think of it as the funeral of our sins. Though Jesus has taken them all away by the cross, we nonetheless still struggle with our sin day by day. Since this is the case, we can have a certain comfort in our death, knowing that it is just another step in our journey in grace. Not that death is good, but that God can use it for our ultimate good (Gen. 50:20; Rom. 8:28). Another way the Christian can grasp it is in the death of the Son of God.
When Jesus was dying on the cross, He took upon Himself our sins in His body (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24), and when He died, He declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Our sins were put to death in His death. The consequence of our sin, which is the wrath of God, was satisfied by the death of Christ. Another way to say it is that the penalty for sin was abolished. Yet, the effects of sin remain in our flesh until we die (Rom. 7:14-25). Paul says that “the sting of death is sin” (1 Cor. 15:56; see also Rom. 7:13), and that death now has no sting for those in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 15:54-55). This means that the eternal condemnation that awaited us after death has been removed. Christ took on the full sting of our death so that we would not have to.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
– Romans 6:8-11 (LSB)
What is true of every single human being is that when they physically die, their soul goes on. Where that soul goes, and the condition of the soul varies depending on whether someone is in Christ or outside of Christ. For those in Christ, they are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The Bible speaks of the souls of God’s people being washed clean and clothed in white robes (Psalm 51:7; Isa. 1:18; Rev. 6:10, 7:14). Our baptism, a symbol pointing to our union with Christ, is an outside sign of an inward reality. Though we are washed outwardly, it communicates to others that we have been washed inwardly (Rom. 6:3-7; 1 Peter 3:21). Therefore, when we experience death, we will no longer experience sin. Just as it died with Christ’s flesh and not His soul, so it dies with our flesh and not our soul.
Sin is connected not only to death, but also to separation from God. This is the greatest consequence of sin, not our physical death but our separation from our good, Creator God. In this respect, we could say that the sting of death is sin, and the sting of sin is separation from God. God cannot have fellowship with sin and darkness; He who is holy cannot be in communion with that which is unholy. There is a logical chain or order we perceive. God is life in and of Himself. He is the author of all life and the giver of life (Psalm 36:9; Acts 17:24-28; John 1:3; Col. 1:16-17). When mankind fell, we lost communion with God, and because we have been cut off from the giver of life, we die. But for the Christian, this communion has been reconciled in Christ Jesus our Mediator. Now, when we die, we are actually brought back into full fellowship with the true and living God because our death is the death of our sin.
In Richard Baxter’s Christian Directory, he directs the “aged and weak,” who are close to death. His second and third directives are of great benefit for the Christian to hear, though they may be interpreted as very harsh. In Directive 2, he commissions the Christian to “cast back your eyes upon the sins of all your life, that you may perceive how humble those souls should be, that have sinned so long as you have done; and may feel what need you have of Christ, to pardon so long a life of sin. Though you have repented and been justified long ago, yet you have daily sinned since you were justified; and though all be forgiven that is repented of, yet must it be still before your eyes, both to keep you humble, and continue the exercise of that repentance, and drive you to Christ, and make you thankful.“[1] In Directive 3, he adds: “Cleave closer now to Christ than ever. Remembering that you have a life of sin, for him to answer for, and save you from. And that the time is near, when you shall have more sensible need of him, than ever you have had. You must shortly be cast upon him as your Saviour, Advocate, and Judge, to determine the question, what shall become of you unto all eternity...”[2] It is clear that Baxter wishes the professing Christian to truly be one and not some superficial believer. But what we hear in Directive 4 is a balm to the soul.
Direct. IV. Let the ancient mercies and experiences of God’s love, through all your lives, be still before you, and fresh upon your minds, that they may kindle your love and thankfulness to God, and may feed your own delight and comfort, and help you the easier to submit to future weaknesses and death. …This is a great privilege of an aged christian; that he hath many years’ mercy more to think on, than others have. Every one of those mercies was sweet to you by itself, at the time of your receiving it;… and then how sweet should all together be!
– Richard Baxter, Christian Directory, Chapter 29, The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, Vol. 1, (Soli Deo Gloria Publications, Grand Rapids, MI, 2023), 520.
What makes the death of a Christian so sweet is that we can look back on the mercies of God in taking away all of our sins. Our sins will not be present to us in our death, for they were vanquished in the death of Christ. The sting is gone, and instead of feeling their piercing pain, we are flooded with the memory of God’s mercies towards us.
CONCLUSION: The death of the Christian is simply the end of this fallen age, our fallen flesh, and this fallen world. We pass on into the age to come, we leave this corrupted body behind, and we go to heaven and wait for the resurrection of the body. The Christian life and the Christian death share many things, and our victory in Christ over sin and death is one of them. We can live in confidence because of what Christ has accomplished for us, and we can die in confidence because of what Christ has accomplished. The sting of death (sin) has been taken away.
Question 1: “How often do you thank Jesus for dying for you in your prayers?”
Question 2: “How does knowing that in death you will shed your sinful flesh influence your view of death?”
Question 3: “Though death may be physically painful, does it bring you comfort knowing that there is no spiritual pain?”
Dying Well
It is most true that sin and grace were never born together, neither shall sin and grace die together; yet while a believer breathes in this world, they must live together, they must keep house together. Christ in this life will not free any believer from the presence of any one sin, though he doth free every believer from the damning power of every sin.
– Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 158.
In his Treatise on Dying Well, William Perkins exhorts Christians to desire to die well, arguing that it is necessary. One may be perplexed by this idea, but let us remember that “whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we do everything for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31), and this includes dying. Perkins reminds the reader that “death, which is certain, is most uncertain.“[1] Death, though we know it comes, comes sometimes when we least expect it. We must look so intently to Christ in the last hour, just as we looked to Him in the first hour of our conversion. When faced with “certain” death by stoning, David fixed his gaze upon God and so “strengthened himself in Yahweh his God” (1 Sam. 30:6). This was the model set before him in history. When the serpents in the wilderness bit the Israelites, they were instructed to look upon the bronze serpent and so be saved (Num. 21:8-9). And there is an escalation of this model after the time of David, culminating in the fulfillment in Christ.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
– John 3:14-15 (LSB)
The Christian is called to look to Christ all their life; how much more should they look to Him in their death? We fixed our eyes upon Christ to be delivered from our spiritual death; why should we not continue to do so in our physical death? The question for some may be, “What if I lose my cognitive abilities, or speech; what if I am in such a state of confusion?” Though this is a legitimate concern, let us not forget that Christ will be with us always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20). Also, we should do well to remember that He knows our hearts, the very hearts which He made new in us. Perkins adds this,
“Here it may be alleged that men, in the pangs of death, want (lack) their senses and convenient utterance, and therefore they are unable to pray. Answer. The very sighs, sobs, and groans of a repentant and believing heart are prayers before God, even as effectual as if they were uttered by the best voice in the world. Prayer stands in the affection of the heart. The voice is but an outward messenger thereof. God looks not upon the speech, but upon the heart. David says, ‘God hears the desires of the poor’ [Ps. 10:17]. Again, ‘He will fulfill the desires of them that fear him’ [Ps. 145:19]. Yea, their very tears are loud and sounding prayers in his ears.”
– William Perkins, A Treatise on Dying Well: A Salve for the Sick Man, 447-448
However it may be, when we are facing death, we are to turn our face to God. Do not think that we can neglect our vigilance in the hours of our death, for temptations will indeed come until our final second has passed. This is all the more reason for us to bury God’s word deep into our hearts. The Psalmist says, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (Ps. 119:11). For where our treasure is, there our heart shall be also (Luke 12:34). John Knox (1514 – 1572), the Scottish Reformer, was to Perkins (1558 – 1602) a great example of this need.
“[T]he temptation of Master John Knox, in the time of his death, is worth the marking. He lay silent on his death bed for the space of four hours, very often giving great sighs, sobs, and groans, so as the bystanders well perceived that he was troubled with some grievous temptation. And when at length he was raised in his bed, they asked him how he did. He answered them thus: that in his life he had endured many combats and conflicts with Satan, but that now most mightily the roaring lion had assaulted him. “Often,” said he, “he set my sins before my eyes, often he urged me to desperation, often he labored to entangle me with the delights of the world, but being vanquished by the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, he could not prevail. But now he assaults me another way. For the wily serpent would persuade me that I shall merit eternal life for my fidelity in my ministry. But blessed be God who brought to my mind such Scriptures whereby I might quench the fiery darts of the devil, which were: ‘What hast thou that thou hast not received?’ ‘By the grace of God, I am that I am.’ ‘Not I but the grace of God in me.’ And being thus vanquished, he departed.’”
– William Perkins, A Treatise on Dying Well: A Salve for the Sick Man, 458
One could be confused with the idea of dying well as thinking it is some physical performance, when in reality, it is a discipline of the spirit. As Christians, we are encouraged to remain vigilant, turning to God and His Scriptures as our source of strength and comfort, especially in our final hours. The assurance that Christ is with us, even in our weakest moments, empowers us to face death with hope and confidence. By embedding Scripture in our hearts and looking to Christ, we can navigate the challenges of dying well.
CONCLUSION: We do not know when, where, or how we are going to die. To meditate on things that God has deemed unsuitable for us to know is an improper use of our time. Instead, we can bring the promises and truths that God has chosen to share with us to the forefront of our minds. Even though our minds suffer from the fall and may further decay in our last days, we can rest assured that God is powerful to overcome our weakness. He will be ever-present in our time of need. Even when we do not have words to say, or the power to form sentences, we can rest in the knowledge that our life is hid with Christ in God. We can also do ourselves great favors in our life and in our death by memorizing Scripture.
Question 1: “How is your prayer life now, and where can it improve?”
Question 2: “How is your memorization of Scripture now, and where can it improve?”
Question 3: “What are you doing to combat temptations now, and would you say it’s working?”
Continue reading this series by clicking here for Part 3
Works Cited
[1] Richard Baxter, Christian Directory, Chapter 29, The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, Vol. 1, (Soli Deo Gloria Publications, Grand Rapids, MI, 2023), 520.
[2] Ibid. 520
[3] William Perkins, A Treatise on Dying Well: A Salve for the Sick Man, The Works of William Perkins, Vol. 10, (Reformation Heritage Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 2020), 418.