It is with a heavy heart that I write this article. My wife’s grandmother passed away a little over a week ago. She had been sick for the last couple of months, but the death came quickly and was unexpected. We were close to Dena’s grandmother, so this was hard to take.

Thankfully, Nellie had trusted in Christ as her Savior. We know that we will see her again someday and that the goodbye was just for a little while. We are thankful that when we grieve, we grieve with hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Oh, how much harder would it be if goodbye were forever?

God is a good and merciful God. The same verse that I quoted in my title (Romans 6:23) tells us in the first half of the verse why people die. The verse tells us about how our sin has cursed us and that this world is full of death and decay. This is not the way things were supposed to be. Sin has ruined and corrupted this world. BUT, God is a good and merciful God. He has provided hope in the midst of sin. The same verse in Romans that tells us of our curse also provides us with the hope that God has given us. The verse finishes with …but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is grace. That is hope in the midst of the worst that life can throw at us. In one verse, the Bible tells us of our deplorable condition but finishes the verse with what Christ has done for us. Grace is truly amazing.

I have truly been amazed by God’s grace in the last week. He has comforted a family that is hurting. He has encouraged and strengthened. He has provided hope. In something as wrong and evil as death, God’s grace and mercy triumphed. A few days before Nellie died, the doctors ran many tests on her. We were awaiting the results and preparing for the worst. It appeared that she had a long, drawn out, and painful road ahead. God called her home quickly and painlessly in the night. Even though it was hard to let go, and we were clearly not ready, God was so merciful. Nellie did not have to suffer. She did not have to know that she was going to die. She did not have to watch her family suffer knowing she was very sick. God was good.

Don’t misunderstand me. Death is wrong. It is evil. It is not supposed to happen. Death reminds us that there is something terribly wrong with this world. It is solely and completely a result of the Fall and our rejection of God. God is bigger than sin and death though. He has triumphed over it. He has provided light in the midst of great darkness.

When someone dies, it should cause us to do 2 things. First, it should cause us to examine our own lives. We all know that the wages of sin is death, but have you personally accepted the gift of God that is eternal life through Jesus Christ? Have you accepted the forgiveness that God offers us from our sin? The second thing that death should cause us to do is to hate sin. We should see the sin in our own lives and grieve over it. We should see that every time we chose sin, we are making the same choice that Adam and Eve made. We are adding to the corruption of this world. We are adding our stamp of approval to the death and decay around us. We have only ourself to blame when we see death.

To sum up, we grieve for this world right along with the Apostle Paul and await with great hope the full redemption of this world.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:20-25)