By Rev. Gordon McClellan
President of ChristianNetworks.org

Knowing that God's love is eternal means we need not fear death.

Crosswalk.com Spiritual Life Channel - Recently, I lost a friend and colleague to a sudden and unexpected death. This event sparked much sadness in my heart, while it simultaneously generated a most important question in my head.  As the realization of my friend's death settled in, I began recalling the many people in recent years who have expressed to me their fears about death. I am certain that my faithful colleague did not fear death, but I wondered how many other people do? This is an important topic, about which the Bible has much to say.

The point about death that the many Biblical authors make throughout the different books of the Bible is always the same: Knowing that God's love is eternal means we need not fear death. This point is made well by the Psalmist, when he writes: "Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave …"(Psalm 16:9-10) This truth of God's everlasting love that the Psalmist spoke of was later realized in the life and death of Jesus Christ. His resurrection from death established for all that nothing can separate us from God's love, not even death. This realization moved the Apostle Paul to write that "death has been swallowed up in victory" (1Corinthians 15:54), which captures so well the reality of God's eternal love to overcome all things, even death.

When we believe wholeheartedly in this truth of God's love, we gain an understanding of the fact that God's love has promised immortality for every soul who believes in His truth. Proverbs 12:28 captures this point well. It says, "In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality." This is to say that by accepting the everlasting reality of God's love, we gain a faith that allows us to dwell confidently in the truth of that love and its promise to give us life eternal in Him.      

But the Bible makes it clear that by accepting the reality of God's eternal love, we gain more than an understanding of the immortality of our souls. More importantly, we gain a freedom to live our lives for Christ. We no longer live in fear of dying, but rather, in thankfulness for and service to the love that has promised us life eternal with God. The author of Hebrews understood this well. He wrote: "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death -- that is, the devil -- and free those whose lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." (Hebrews 2:14-15)

To fear death is to ultimately bear "false witness about God" (1Corinthians 15:15), who has assured us through Jesus Christ that by faith in His word, we will know no end to life, even in the face of death. Accepting the love that God offers us frees us from the fear of dying. Instead, we live each day in honor of and service to this love that we know will always be with us, for all time.