When the Body Fails

We were not made for death. Every living being in God’s original creation was spun into existence with a perfect genetic code void of decay. There was no plan for natural degeneration. No plan for a loss of neurons or bone density. We were not made to age, but to live in perfect health, united in an intimate relationship with our creator. Death is the consequence of sin. God’s perfect creation was broken by man’s desire to be like God. Now, when the body fails, we should remember that we were made for more than death.

THE CYCLE THAT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE

In our world today, we think of death as being a natural part of life. We refer to our days on earth as a cycle. We’re born. We age. We die. But as Christians, we know that cycle was never meant to be. How are we to think about death, then? It wasn’t the plan, but we’re surrounded by it everyday. We live with the consequences of sin everyday. So is death the enemy? Is it a sweet release from the broken bodies we now inhabit? Is it to be feared or anticipated? When the body fails, what are we to make of death?

WHAT THE CULTURE SEES IN DEATH

I can think of several perspectives that are common in our culture today. Some people see death as a final and complete end to life. There is then nothing on the other side, just as there was nothing before conception. In death, we simply cease to exist. People who believe this would say that such finality gives our lives purpose. Because our time is finite, we must make the most of each day. Our good deeds are for those around us, perhaps to leave the world better than we found it.

There are also those in our culture who see death as a release. These people acknowledge the brokenness of our human bodies. They recognize pain and sickness and suffering as foreign to life’s intended design. When the body fails, they see a release from the torment and sorrow of life. There may or may not be existence on the other side of death, but there is peace. There is freedom from pain. And that is enough to covet life’s end. For those who believe this, life’s purpose can be seen as the pursuit of joy and happiness.

In still yet another perspective, death is seen as cyclical rather than a single, determinate event. These people would say that life is not linear, but according to one’s deeds, the soul is liberated to be born again. Death, then, is not an end, but a beginning. Over and over, death begins something new. Purpose in life is found in how one’s deeds affect the future position and well-being of the soul.

WHAT THE CHRISTIAN SEES IN DEATH

As Christians, we should see death as something unnatural. Again, creation wasn’t made for death. Being that death is a consequence of sin, it’s not a foreign thing to us. We’re all intimately connected to sin from conception. We’re born into the sin of generations before us. Sin and death are not foreign, but they are both unnatural.

For Christians, death should be seen as a temporary end to our physical life on earth. With faith in Jesus Christ, we’re promised a place in heaven from the very moment of our death. Jesus said to the thief on the cross beside him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) We do not die and simply rest in sleep. We die, and immediately see our savior.

Some people who believe in heaven, or the idea of a place apart from earth, believe that our lost loved ones become guardian angels. There’s a certain comfort there, perhaps, in the idea that those who have moved “beyond” can guard and protect those who remain behind. But this desire simply isn’t biblical. The promise of heaven is not that we become something else. The promise of heaven is that God, through the death of his son Jesus, redeems and saves and preserves the person that we are. Psalm 139:13 says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” God renews and restores his creation. He doesn’t turn us into something we are not.

Finally, heaven is not a believer’s final resting place. We are not meant to be souls for eternity set apart from our physical bodies. Our bodies have value to the creator. He made them. God will redeem his whole creation, not just save our souls.

WHEN THE BODY IS MADE NEW

In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul writes to Christians about the second coming of Christ. In verse 16, he writes, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” 

In Revelation 21, John writes of his vision. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…and he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new…It is done.” God sees value in his original creation, so much that he plans to redeem what was broken by sin. He will make his creation new. That includes us. Our broken, damaged bodies will become new. We will be made again in the image of our creator. We will be made without sin, perfected, as God always intended.

I want to end these thoughts with the hope that is in Christ. Philippians 3:20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

Your body is a blessed creation that does not end in death and decay. Your body matters to the creator. With faith in the redemption offered through Jesus’ death and resurrection, you will be made new. In death, you will anticipate the new creation.

Even when the body fails, our God saves, preserves, and creates anew.

(You can find more “real food” for the soul here.)