What is our only hope in life and death? The catechism says, “that we are not our own but belong body and soul both in life and death to God and to our Savior, Jesus the Messiah.
Amen and amen. My kids fear death. They all go through a phase where the fear really grips them. They also fear my death and my wife’s death. It’s a bummer for me because I want to encourage them and take their fear away or severely weaken it but fail almost every single time. At least in that moment. But we review the catechism question and think afresh about the gospel. I recently heard John Stott’s sermon on 2 Timothy 1:8-18 and the section on death was so edifying. Here’s the verse he’s commenting on:
This has now been made evident through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 2 Timothy 1:10 (CSB)
Commenting on Christ abolishing death, John Stott made death feel so light and weak to me. He writes,
Physical death is no longer the grim ogre it once seemed to us and still seems to many whom Christ has not yet liberated. “Through fear of death’ they are ‘subject to lifelong bondage’ (Heb. 2:15). But for Christian believers death is simply ‘falling asleep’ in Christ. It is, in fact, a positive ‘gain’, because it is the gateway to being ‘with Christ’ which is ‘far better’. It is one of the possessions which become ‘ours’ when we are Christ’s (1 Thes. 4:14, 15; Phil. 1:21, 23; 1 Cor. 3:22, 23). It has been rendered so innocuous that Jesus could even state that the believer, though he dies, ‘shall never die’ (Jn. 11:25, 26). What is absolutely certain is that death will never be able to separate us from God’s love in Christ (Rom. 8:38, 39).
Spiritual death has, for Christian believers, given place to that eternal life which is communion with God begun on earth and perfected in heaven. Further, those who are in Christ will ‘not be hurt by the second death’, for they have already passed out of death into life (Rev. 2:11; Jn. 5:24; 1 Jn. 3:14).[1]
[1] John R. W. Stott, Guard the Gospel the Message of 2 Timothy, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 38.