As Gerri and I ate lunch on Sunday, she commented that our world is currently obsessed with trying not to die, especially from the coronavirus (even though 99% who get it survive and those who don’t are mostly elderly or with underlying conditions). She said that the Lord had reminded her in her devotions that our task as Christians is not primarily to keep people from dying (which we all will eventually) but to help people be ready to die.
Great point, sweetheart! (I get some of my best points from her.) As Christians, we know the amazing good news that through Jesus—the way, the truth, and eternal life—anyone who trusts Him for forgiveness and eternal life can be ready to die.
It reminded me of something I read recently in J. I. Packer’s Quest for Godliness (pp. 13-14). The Puritan writings of the 17th century influenced Dr. Packer greatly. One thing he learned from them was to regard readiness to die as the first step in learning to live and that this life is essentially the gymnasium and dressing room where we are prepared for heaven. He stated that in the modern world, even Christians have lost touch with this truth. But these believers of the 1600’s were strong because they lived ready to die:
“The Puritans experienced systematic persecution for their faith; what we think of as the comforts of home were unknown to them... They had no aspirins or tranquillizers... just as they had no social security or insurance; in a world in which more than half the adult population died young and more than half the children born died in infancy, disease, distress, discomfort, pain and death were their constant companions They would have been lost had they not kept their eyes on heaven and known themselves as pilgrims travelling home to the Celestial City. Dr. Johnson is credited with the remark that when a man knows he going to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully, and in the same way, the Puritans’ awareness that in the midst of life we are in death, just one step from eternity, gave them a deep seriousness, calm yet passionate, with regard to the business of living that Christians in today’s opulent, mollycoddled, earthbound Western world rarely manage to match. Few of us, I think live daily on the edge of eternity in (a) conscious way.”
Dr. Packer pointed out that this eternal perspective gave these Christians an “unflinching, matter-of-fact realism with which they prepared themselves for death, so always to be found, as it were packed up and ready to go.” Was this morbid? No, “reckoning with death brought appreciation of each day’s continued life, and the knowledge that God would eventually decide, without consulting them, when their work on earth was done brought energy for the work itself while they were still being given time to get on with it.”
What a great perspective! Being ready to die makes us ready to live more effectively, joyfully, and certainly with more peace of mind. God numbers our earthly days and will give us every one He has planned for us and then: eternity in His presence.
As God seeks to get our world’s attention through the pandemic, we have such good news to offer people—we know the cure for the disease of sin. It’s Jesus and through Him they can be ready to die, whatever their age. It’s not just older people who die. And COVID is not the only cause of death.
If we are ready to die, we are ready to live. Jesus came to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:15). He promised, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you... Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).