"To hell with you!"
Is victory over death always sweet? Always! Though for some poor souls, wrestling in agony and too high strung, life is no prize to be cherished and death no enemy to be conquered. A host of our fellow-humans lie wishing for death, sometimes even begging for it and asking those that love them to wrench their lives from them. But it’s only the ill and those for whom life is indeed a crushing weight and utterly without discernible purpose—it’s only people like these that beg to be freed once and for all from the experience of living. (I grant that sometimes they’re made to feel that they are burdens on those that “love” them and that dying is the only decent thing to do.) All this is understandable and those that say they don’t grasp the reason for their fevered request should keep their mouths firmly shut about matters in this area. An iron horse would have enough feeling to have some grasp of a situation like that! Those for whom life is better than just tolerable and those for whom life is a glorious dance—these have no wish to die. And so it should be.
But victory over death is truly gained in and through resurrection. To win over death would have to mean more than surviving serious surgery or overcoming a major disease. For later, death would return and—whatever some silly people think—it will grasp them and take them with it to the “realm” of the dead. Only the word “resurrection” makes Death grow pale and only the reality of the word turns Death into a vapour that will finally vanish as if it had never been.
George Herbert knew what he was talking about. Here in one of his poems is his brief dialogue with death.
Christian: Alas, poor Death, where is thy glorie?
Where is thy famous force, thy ancient sting?
Death: Alas poore mortal, void of storie,
Go spell and read how I have kill’d thy King.
Christian: Poor Death! And who was hurt thereby?
Thy curse being laid on him, makes thee accurst.
Death: Let losers talk: yet thou shalt die;
These arms shall crush thee.
Christian: Spare not, do thy worst, I shall be one day better than before:
Thou so much worse, that you shalt be no more.
But that vibrant and glorious hope is only for those embraced in the redeeming work of the Death Destroyer. This galvanising truth is not the pathetic self-assuring thing offered by Hollywood movies, where the amoral or half-decent or self-sufficient have nothing to fear in death.There is everything to fear in Death for those who cheapened life and expelled from it any thought of God or the gospel or their fellow-humans.This promise of full and immortal life is always and only given as a gift in and through Jesus Christ and the life that is given will be lived out in Christ-imaging righteousness.
Hollywood lies when it says: “You have nothing to worry about because you have within you what it takes to beat death. The other side is a continuation of the partying you have come to know and love so well.”
And so, are we to settle for misery now in hope of a vibrant life in the future? I’ll grant that some believers are such misery-bound moaners that they shame the promises of scripture. And I’m well aware that hosts of believers have lived tortured lives of deeper level pain and loneliness; but ignoring the extremes, there’s more life in the weakest believer, more adventure and engagement with life, than in the masses of the beautiful bed-hopping people or the disco addicts that whirl like dervishes.
We watch the heroes in the Lord of the Rings as they battle their way through pain and loss and fear and uncertainty, with a stubborn refusal to bend to the enemy. We watch them, and it isn’t their misery that we’re taken with—it’s their mission. Fiction or no, we wish them well, admire their bravery, we wish to be like them and we rise to our feet inside to applaud their victory. And after that we should go back to our discos, booze, drugs, record-breaking and the trivia that we call life? Well, some will.
We believers believe in life before death! No one enjoys a well-cooked steak—if a steak is to be had—more than a free believer does! No one takes more pleasure than a free Christian when biting into a crisp apple or drinking a clear cold glass of clean water, or making passionate love to a husband or wife, or wrestling with kids and grandkids, or camping or trekking or climbing or the smell of fresh-baked bread—no one! Not any one! And these blessings taste better and are more pleasant because the believer knows they are part of the proof of something more wonderful than all these. World! You have nothing on us. We outlive you even if we out-suffer you. We outlive you, even now, because we have come to know the Death Killer and even now we sense the beginnings of immortality.
Ignoring the immediate context of Revelation 20:14 let me make use of the imagery. The entire section (chapters 20-22) is a description of God’s triumph over enemies aTo hell with you!"
Is victory over death always sweet? Always! Though for some poor souls, wrestling in agony and too high strung, life is no prize to be cherished and death no enemy to be conquered. A host of our fellow-humans lie wishing for death, sometimes even begging for it and asking those that love them to wrench their lives from them. But it’s only the ill and those for whom life is indeed a crushing weight and utterly without discernible purpose—it’s only people like these that beg to be freed once and for all from the experience of living. (I grant that sometimes they’re made to feel that they are burdens on those that “love” them and that dying is the only decent thing to do.) All this is understandable and those that say they don’t grasp the reason for their fevered request should keep their mouths firmly shut about matters in this area. An iron horse would have enough feeling to have some grasp of a situation like that! Those for whom life is better than just tolerable and those for whom life is a glorious dance—these have no wish to die. And so it should be.
But victory over death is truly gained in and through resurrection. To win over death would have to mean more than surviving serious surgery or overcoming a major disease. For later, death would return and—whatever some silly people think—it will grasp them and take them with it to the “realm” of the dead. Only the word “resurrection” makes Death grow pale and only the reality of the word turns Death into a vapour that will finally vanish as if it had never been.
George Herbert knew what he was talking about. Here in one of his poems is his brief dialogue with death.
Christian: Alas, poor Death, where is thy glorie?
Where is thy famous force, thy ancient sting?
Death: Alas poore mortal, void of storie,
Go spell and read how I have kill’d thy King.
Christian: Poor Death! And who was hurt thereby?
Thy curse being laid on him, makes thee accurst.
Death: Let losers talk: yet thou shalt die;
These arms shall crush thee.
Christian: Spare not, do thy worst, I shall be one day better than before:
Thou so much worse, that you shalt be no more.
But that vibrant and glorious hope is only for those embraced in the redeeming work of the Death Destroyer. This galvanising truth is not the pathetic self-assuring thing offered by Hollywood movies, where the amoral or half-decent or self-sufficient have nothing to fear in death.There is everything to fear in Death for those who cheapened life and expelled from it any thought of God or the gospel or their fellow-humans.This promise of full and immortal life is always and only given as a gift in and through Jesus Christ and the life that is given will be lived out in Christ-imaging righteousness.
Hollywood lies when it says: “You have nothing to worry about because you have within you what it takes to beat death. The other side is a continuation of the partying you have come to know and love so well.”
And so, are we to settle for misery now in hope of a vibrant life in the future? I’ll grant that some believers are such misery-bound moaners that they shame the promises of scripture. And I’m well aware that hosts of believers have lived tortured lives of deeper level pain and loneliness; but ignoring the extremes, there’s more life in the weakest believer, more adventure and engagement with life, than in the masses of the beautiful bed-hopping people or the disco addicts that whirl like dervishes.
We watch the heroes in the Lord of the Rings as they battle their way through pain and loss and fear and uncertainty, with a stubborn refusal to bend to the enemy. We watch them, and it isn’t their misery that we’re taken with—it’s their mission. Fiction or no, we wish them well, admire their bravery, we wish to be like them and we rise to our feet inside to applaud their victory. And after that we should go back to our discos, booze, drugs, record-breaking and the trivia that we call life? Well, some will.
We believers believe in life before death! No one enjoys a well-cooked steak—if a steak is to be had—more than a free believer does! No one takes more pleasure than a free Christian when biting into a crisp apple or drinking a clear cold glass of clean water, or making passionate love to a husband or wife, or wrestling with kids and grandkids, or camping or trekking or climbing or the smell of fresh-baked bread—no one! Not any one! And these blessings taste better and are more pleasant because the believer knows they are part of the proof of something more wonderful than all these. World! You have nothing on us. We outlive you even if we out-suffer you. We outlive you, even now, because we have come to know the Death Killer and even now we sense the beginnings of immortality.
Ignoring the immediate context of Revelation 20:14 let me make use of the imagery. The entire section (chapters 20-22) is a description of God’s triumph over enemies and the resulting triumph of his people. 20:14 in particular says, “Then Death and Hades [the "place" where the dead are] were thrown into the lake of fire!” These two figures are presented as two enemies of God’s people and their end is utter destruction in the lake of fire.
In the name of the resurrected, glorified and deathless Jesus the Christian’s final word to Death is this: “Death! To hell with you!”
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.nd the resulting triumph of his people. 20:14 in particular says, “Then Death and Hades [the "place" where the dead are] were thrown into the lake of fire!” These two figures are presented as two enemies of God’s people and their end is utter destruction in the lake of fire.
In the name of the resurrected, glorified and deathless Jesus the Christian’s final word to Death is this: “Death! To hell with you!”
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.