A Christian’s relationship to death changes when he accepts Christ as his Savior. In the mind of the natural man, death reigns (Romans 5:14); but in the mind of the committed believer, death fades into the shadows and he becomes occupied with “life and immortality.” which have sprung up inside him because of the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10). To be sure, death does not cease to be a fact, but it ceases to be a pertinent fact. Just as Christ, after He died, found that death had no more power over Him (Romans 6:9), so the believer, who is in Christ, finds death unimpressive and weak.
The Greeks used to say, “A man can’t look at death or the sun very long” True enough, but the believer does not look at death at all (or does not need to). He is now the possessor of eternal life, which is more than immortality. Immortality is endless personal relationship with God, the attribute of only those who know God through Jesus Christ. Thus, I am not to be occupied with dying, but with living, that is, with an increasing knowledge of God that builds my life with richness that will blossom forever.
A believer in Christ already has the seeds of eternity in his heart; therefore, there is no need to consider death, which, after all, is only a momentary hesitation in his eager strides to glory.
“We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). A person who has spent a lifetime saying no to self and yes to Christ will find very little that death can do to him. Death’s final no has long been satisfied, and Christ’s final yes will be a welcome, joyous leap into eternity.
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you be- lieve this’” (John 11:25-26).
Daily with the King 