“Do you want your comfort or My glory?”
I had been praying for relief. Superficially, it seems morbid that the theme around my life and study this past year and a half keeps coming back to death. I certainly did not intend it to be. I intended to understand love. Presently, I’m not sure I can coherently express how it was inevitable that I’d end up here. I won’t try. We cannot adequately know the sacrifice of the cross (love) unless we’ve understood the sting of death (total destruction).
I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
I shall redeem them from Death
O Death, where are your plagues?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Hosea 13:14
Death is total destruction and loss in this world. Somewhere along the way we’ve lumped in the acknowledgment of death with the fear of it. As a consequence, the Church has not spent enough time teaching the body how to adequately define death, prepare for it and comfort others through it.
The enemy is all too happy to fill in the gap. He offers us counterfeit circumventions or dream-like distractions. What are some examples of counterfeit circumventions? Well, every year we prop up billion dollar youth seeking industries in health, wellness and beauty. In a darker, not too far off future, the integration of AI will bring back to life our loved ones with voice samples, photos and robotics. The enemy will make it so that there appears to be no loss at all (deception).
“Death, where is your sting?”, asks the enemy mockingly. Our dreamy distractions simply refer to our preference for alternate versions of reality that better suit our taste. This will pave the way for the counterfeit to go on replacing the truth. We escape to our social media platforms to tell the world about the best edited versions of ourselves complete with selfies. We preach idealistic philosophies about love and light that we would impose on others but don’t fully live out ourselves. Social media has brought our escapist, idealistic and covetous imaginations to life. We are racing to the time the Bible warns of where our mind, will and emotions (souls) will be the most valuable commodity in the marketplace.
When Jesus was arrested the disciples fled. They had lived with Jesus for three years. During that time, they followed the Man who performed miracles, could not be outwitted by any religious leader of their time, spoke to demons and had the power over them. They did not know loss during that time. They could not perceive that there could be loss by His side. At the cross, they could not reconcile how this Jesus who days prior they had acknowledged as God, could be losing -losing in a most devastating and humiliating manner. For Jesus, death most certainly had a sting, and all who loved Him felt it too.
Jesus died. Between the cross and the empty tomb, Jesus was dead. For three days. We tend to emphasize the sin that drove Him to the cross and redemption He finalized at His resurrection. We don’t recognize the time spent in between. Maybe that’s partly what sanctification is. At the very least, that in between is where the seed for sanctification is sowed. It would help explain why we’re reaping so little of it in the western body of Christ.
Jesus proclaimed. Peter gives us a glimpse of what Jesus did in the grave in 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ … 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, …”. For us as believers, our time between the forgiveness of our sins (accepting in faith the gift of the Cross) and the resurrection of our glorified body, we must proclaim to the parts of our soul held in bondage to the flesh the word of God. In the process, our flesh is still not redeemed BUT our soul is released for renewal, transformation and sanctification.
I was sitting by my dad’s side in the hospital. This time it was a stroke. For almost 2 years now, I’ve watched the strongest man I knew become the weakest. I was asking God for His help and intervention. That’s when He said, “Do you want your comfort or My glory?” I understand now the confusion the disciples must have felt. “But, You’re God, how could we be losing this badly?” Death is a total loss in this world. Nothing in our flesh is redeemable. It must all go down into the grave. And, even heaven and earth will one day pass away. However, the word God spoke concerning my dad is still true. And, I am confident of that. He who began a good work in my dad will carry it to completion.1
Why does this all matter? Watching firsthand the process of the death and grieving the loss, I now fully understand the urgency of the gospel and know the depth of the love of God for us. Without Jesus there truly is no hope. Without Jesus, death remains a loss in this world and the next.
Philippians 1:6
And oh how we long to be completely sanctified, how we loath our flesh and wish it to be gone. It’s such a burden carrying it along when we just wish to fly and be free in the arms of Jesus!