Certain things are just a certainty in life, like moving away from home; like getting an occupation; like taxes; like getting older. And yes, like death.
This past Sunday, I attended the funeral services of a dear friend. Her pilgrimage on this earth was eighty years. Among her many earthly accomplishments, she was a MENSA. To be a MENSA you have to score on a supervised standard test in the upper two percent of people in regards to their IQ. As you figured out, there are not a lot of those kind of people around.
Everyone will die one day. To put death in perspective for the Christian, Calvin Miller says it this way: “Death is not a threat to genuine life. It is but a paper tiger that is no longer free to terrorize us once we know the truth about the outcome of the cross. Death is but a temporary inconvenience that separates our smaller living from our greater being.” Look closely at the ending of that quotation. Death “separates our smaller living from our greater being.” Life on planet earth is the “smaller living.” You are alive on earth but created for so much more. C. Miller tells you that the Christian is heaven bound to become a “greater being.” The resurrection body you have in heaven is so infinitely “greater” than your earthly body, which moves you from just earthy “living” to heavenly, bountiful “being.”
The Apostle Paul closes his first letter to the Corinthians by quoting from Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is your victory? O death where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54-55). This occurs at the end of Paul’s discourse about the believer’s final victory, which is his earthly death.
Yes, that inevitable end for every person is death, but Paul, a few verses later, tells the Christian exactly what to do on earth in anticipation of death: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).
To recap, death is the inevitable end, so as you await entering into heavenly bliss, “toil”. Yes “toil.” But your “toil is not in vain.” Why? Because you are doing your “toil” in the matters that pertain to “the Lord.” Let’s get to work!
