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Working toward the Fifth Sunday of Pentecost - Year A This Week's Theme: "His Kingdom Comes" Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Archive  Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 (ESV) 1 I love the Lord, because he has heard But Christians have...the very greatest future blessings certainly awaiting them; yet only through death and suffering. Although they, too, rejoice in that common and uncertain hope that the evil of the present will come to an end, and that its opposite, the blessing, will increase; still, that is not their chief concern, but rather this, that their own particular blessing should increase, which is the truth as it is in Christ, in which they grow from day to day, and for which they both live and hope. But beside this they have, as I have said, the two greatest future blessings in their death. The first, in that through death the whole tragedy of this world's ills is brought to a close; as it is written, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints"; (Psalm 116:15) and again, "I will lay me down in peace and sleep"; (Psalm 4:8) and, "Though the righteous be prevented with death, yet shall he be at rest." (Wisd. 4:7) But to the ungodly death is the beginning of evils; as it is said, "The death of the wicked is very evil," (Psalm 34:21) and, "Evil shall catch the unjust man unto destruction." (Psalm 140:11) Even so Lazarus, who received his evil things in his lifetime, is comforted, while the rich glutton is tormented, because he received his good things here. (Luke 16:25) So that it is always well with the Christian, whether he die or live; so blessed a thing is it to be a Christian and to believe in Christ. Wherefore Paul says, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," (Philippians 1:21) and, in Romans 14:8, "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." This security Christ hath won for us by His death and rising again, that He might be Lord of both the living and dead, able to keep us safe in life and in death; as Psalm 23:4 saith, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." If this gain of death move us but little, it is proof that our faith in Christ is feeble, and does not prize highly enough the reward and gain of a blessed death, or does not yet believe that death is a blessing; because the old man is still too much alive in us, and the wisdom of the flesh too strong. We should, therefore, endeavor to attain to the knowledge and the love of this blessing of death. It is a great thing that death, which is to others the greatest of evils, is made to us the greatest gain. And unless Christ had obtained this for us, what had He done that was worthy of the great price He paid, namely, His own self? It is indeed a divine work that He wrought, and none need wonder, therefore, that He made the evil of death to be something that is very good. (Genesis 1:31) Death, then, to believers is already dead, and hath nothing terrible behind its grinning mask. Like unto a slain serpent, it hath indeed its former terrifying appearance, but it is only the appearance; in truth it is a dead evil, and harmless enough. Nay, as God commanded Moses to lift up a serpent of brass, at sight of which the living serpents perished, even so our death dies in the believing contemplation of the death of Christ, and now hath but the outward appearance of death. (Numbers 21:8 f.) With such fine similitudes the mercy of God prefigures to us, in our infirmity, this truth, that though death should not be taken away, He yet has reduced its power to a mere shadow. (Matthew 9:24) For this reason it is called in the Scriptures a "sleep" rather than death. (1 Thessalonians 4:13 ff.) —Martin Luther,
letter to Pope Leo X, The
old man struggled to breathe. He did not know he struggled because
he had lost consciousness two days earlier. His body simply continued
to work hard for him because these bodies cling to life; they
were designed to do so. But the old man's soul had years ago
made peace with this eventual struggle between flesh and spirit.
Early the next morning, his fast, shallow breathing became less
frequent, less troubled, and he died. |
or here...
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| © 2007 MARK E. RYMAN |
| For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8a, ESV) |
