When someone dies, I often hear phrases that infer or even state that God somehow took this person from us. Often, I will also hear something to the effect that we can’t understand it all now, but will some day. Many times those words are uttered as an attempt to comfort, but they are little comfort to me…please don’t use them when you visit with me about someone who as died. Let me offer a perspective on this that may be a little different than what you are used to hearing.
John says that in the Word of God (the second eternal person of the Trinity, the Logos, whom we know as Jesus Christ) was life (John 1:4). John records Jesus as saying that he (Jesus) is “the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25) He also says that Jesus said that he was “the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6).
Nowhere in the Bible do we see anything about Jesus Christ being or representing death. In fact, the Bible places the responsibility for death at the feet of Satan (Hebrews 2:14). So, with that in mind, let’s pursue this a little farther down the road.
I believe that God somehow allows death and destruction in His creation without compromising his holiness, goodness, or purity. I don’t know how that works, but by faith I understand that to be true. I do not believe, however, that God necessarily likes death. Nor do I believe that God somehow enjoys death or participates in the death and decay that goes on in His creation.
Paul says in Romans 8 that the whole creation groans, anxiously awaiting and longing for release from the bondage of decay (verses 18 to 24). We too groan and long for that same release and the redemption of our bodies, Paul says. Who provides that release? God does. How can God at once embrace death and decay while also embracing life and freedom?
Could it be that one reason that Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus in John chapter 11 was that He was troubled by the death that he saw there and the effects that death had on the creation and on His people? Could it be that when John says twice in that account that Jesus was “deeply moved and troubled”, it wasn’t because He had come too late to heal Lazarus, or that He was touched (mourning) that Lazarus was dead (because He knew that in just a few short moments, Lazarus would come out of the tomb and be alive again), but rather that He was truly troubled and distressed at the havoc and pain that death causes His creation. Remember, the One who at that moment was upholding all creation by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3) and was the source of life itself was also seeing firsthand what death and decay were doing to His creation and what death was doing to the human beings whom He loved and would shortly die for.
I think God is deeply moved by death. I think death is abhorrent and repulsive to God. I think death represents and is everything that God is not. I cannot imagine this God using death in such a way that He gains any pleasure or contentment from it. I can only imagine a God that one day will, after the history of the creation has run its course, not only defeat death, but will eliminate death entirely, finally, and completely.
3 comments:
You have a different perspective for sure, but not necessarily a bad one. Just one thought that comes from Ps. 116:15. The Lord considers the death of his servants as "precious." Perhaps that's because death delivers them from the possibility of falling prey to satan's lures.
WDK
Yes, as usual, you have a different perspective :). You well know that this life is not all there is, and in fact, you affirm that. For believers, physical death brings us into perfect relationship with God and with each other. God's plan initially did not include physical death, so yes, He may not gain "pleasure" from it as He doesn't like causing pain to those of us who remain behind, however, I think, and this is just conjecture, but I would hope that He welcomes us home when it's our time to make that trip and we arrive in His Presence. I imagine that He is glad to "see" us, and that He is overjoyed when we become a part of His forever family. Up to this minute, physical death is how we get to do that. It is the ultimate price we pay for sin and rebellion, but what we gain from it if we have trusted Christ as our Savior!
Of course I agree with both comments. I also am aware that Lazarus very well was in the presence of God and was "called back", so to speak, by God the Son into a broken world.
It was not my intent in the article to dismiss the thought in Psalm 116 or diminish God's delight that His children come into His presence after this life on earth. Rather, my focus was on the God-man at that moment and a perspective on His weeping and troubled nature that makes eminent sense to me, even though no one can state with certainty what His thoughts were at that time.
Thanks to both for your comments.
Post a Comment