Shared Fate

"One person dies in prosperity,

completely comfortable and secure,

the picture of good health, vigorous and fit.

Another person dies in bitter poverty,

never having tasted the good life.

But both are buried in the same dust,

both eaten by the same maggots."

Job 21:23-26 NLT

"Everybody dies.  

There's nothing you can do about it.  

Whether or not you eat six almonds a day.  

Whether or not you believe in God."  

Nora Ephron, I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections

Job understood this truth thousands of years before screenwriter, director and journalist Nora Ephron penned these words.  As humans, we have a shared fate.  There is an end to our life here on earth; on that we can count!

It doesn't matter how rich or poor, educated or ignorant, how well-bred or common;  one day each of us will die.

How does knowing Jesus alter this fate?

Power Lost.  It looms like a dreaded, dark cloud over every moment of life.  It is inevitable, yet many spend thousands of dollars trying to prevent its arrival.  Many fear its pending appearance, living in anxiety and trepidation with the thought of the end.  There is no doubt that death has a certain power over humans.

Death, however, was never part of God's master plan for His creation.  It only entered the scene when Adam and Eve sinned, disobeying God's one command to avoid eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Once they crossed that line, partaking of what God forbade, His warning that disobedience would bring death came to fruition (Genesis 2:17).

And with death came dread.  With the end came fear.  With an expiration date came anxiety.  Death held mankind with an ugly grip, weighing us down with its inevitability and unpredictability.  

Then came Jesus who broke the bonds of death, freeing me from such dread (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).  In Christ, death no longer has a hold on me because the end of this life simply marks the beginning of my eternal life.  I have "victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:57 NLT)

The power of death is lost through Christ.

Transition.  Now that death no longer has a hold on me, I can look forward to the end of this life with great anticipation.  Through faith in Christ, my physical death results in a transition that takes me to my eternal life.  

Instead of staying with my flesh that will rot in the ground, I will be transformed into an immortal body.  My soul will be transferred from this broken, constantly-deteriorating flesh to a permanent, everlasting home more consistent with the magnificence and eternal nature of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

Through Christ, death simply becomes a transition from this life to the next.

Hope.  Apart from Jesus, my life would consist of what I make it to be.  I would work hard to try to make a difference, to leave my mark, to have a legacy that would last beyond my own days.  I would want to know this fleeting life of mine had some kind of purpose.  

As my life entered into it's Autumn, I would wonder what is the meaning of it all.  It may seem a bit empty and worthless.  I would tire of doing the same chores, eating the same foods, seeing the same sights, talking to the same people.  What is the point if I only end up in some forgotten cemetery (Ecclesiastes 1:2)?  A hopeless thought indeed.

Yet in Christ, I have hope.  I have the assurance that there is something more beyond this life.  My belief assures me that there is a place being prepared by Jesus especially for me in my permanent and true home located in my Father's house (John 14:2).  Thinking about how much God loves me, all the big and little ways He cares for me while here on earth, I cannot fathom how He will demonstrate such extravagant love once I enter into my eternal dwelling place (Romans 5:8, 1 John 3:1).

Now that I have Jesus, I no longer dread death as the end, but look forward to it with great hope as the beginning of what is to come.

We all must face death.  It's our shared human experience.  I could even say it's our fate.  Yet Christ changes this for me when I enter into a personal relationship with Him by faith.  Jesus breaks the power of death, transforming the once ugly, feared word into a wonderful transition into my heavenly home.  This eternal destination bought for me by the blood of Jesus gives me hope that cannot be extinguished.  Our shared fate is now something to long for!

As I begin this day it is my prayer that I can see death as the beginning of eternal life.

How do I take on the beliefs of this world, buying into hopelessness instead of letting the hope of what is to come propel me forward in joy?

When do I find myself in despair when I see how quickly the end approaches?