A Theology of Death

As Christians, we are called to think biblically about all aspects of life, including aging and death. However, most of us don’t make a discipline of reflecting on our mortality. We live in an unprecedented time of medical care, low infant mortality, increasing life expectancy, and cosmetic cover ups. The expectation and experience of death are not part of our everyday lives, so we have been able to marginalize and ignore it.

But death is inevitable, and as we age, we realize its imminence, whether we want to or not. How do we honor God in seasons of pain or sickness, or comfort others in their grief, or find hope at the end of life? The Bible provides guidance for these questions. God doesn’t shrink back from addressing the reality of death in his Word, and neither should we.

The Cause of Death

In order to respond well to the reality of death, we must first understand the cause of death. Scripture presents death as a consequence for disobedience to God. In Genesis 2, God creates Adam and Eve and gives them everything they need for a perfect, flourishing life, including intimate fellowship with him. However, he also gives them this command: “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die” (2:16–17).

In Genesis 3, the serpent tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, claiming, “You won’t die!” (3:4). Eve chooses to trust the word of the serpent over the command of God, and she eats the fruit. “Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too” (3:6).

When Adam and Eve sin, they immediately fall into a state of spiritual death—a loss of communion with God and each other—and their physical death is irreversibly set in motion.

The curse of death falls on all of Adam and Eve’s descendants, all who follow them in sin—that is, us. It is not a random or foreign occurrence imposed on us from the outside. We are responsible for it, and we cannot ignore it, flee from it, or eradicate it.

But that does not mean we have no hope.

God’s Plan of Salvation

We often think of Genesis 3 as a bleak ending to the creation story—we commonly refer to it as “the Fall.” However, embedded in the curse of death is God’s plan of salvation for mankind: “And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (3:15).

The offspring of the serpent represents all that stands in opposition to God: the devil and his spiritual forces, mankind’s wickedness, and death itself. There are many foreshadows of Eve’s offspring in the Old Testament, but the ultimate fulfillment came in Jesus, fully God and fully man, who lived the sinless life we could not in order to be the perfect sacrifice for us. He paid the wages of our sin (Romans 6:23) and shed his blood for our forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22). He conquered death with his own death, and he rose to life again to prove that death does not have the final say for those who trust in him.

How Do We Respond to Death?

1. We wait expectantly, even as we groan.
   
   2 Corinthians 5:4–5 and Romans 8:20–23 acknowledge that we live in a state of “groaning.” We experience prolonged pain because we know that the world and our lives are marred by sin and death. However, “we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory,” and he helps us endure adversity and fix our eyes on the day when we will “be released from sin and suffering.” Living by the Spirit keeps us from becoming embittered by entitlement and unrealistic expectations of this life, for we know a better life awaits us.
   
2. We allow aging and suffering to shift our worship.
   
   Youth and health have a way of making us blind to or complacent with the idols in our lives. However, aging and suffering help us see more clearly that the things of this world cannot satisfy or rescue us from our great enemies, sin and death. If we humble ourselves as we age, the Spirit opens our eyes and hearts to our true Savior, Jesus, and moves us to worship him.
   
3. We view death as a discipleship issue.
   
   Death and dying are spiritual disciplines. What we believe about aging, death, and life after death will shape how we walk through suffering, grieve for loved ones, use our final years for God’s glory, and prepare for our own deaths. There is work for us to do to develop a biblical perspective around these things; if we wait until the end of life, it will be too late. Awareness of impending death gives us a sense of urgency and focus, prompting us to use everything we have—our lives, our relationships, our resources—to serve God’s purposes rather than our own agendas.
   
4. We count our lives as offerings to Christ and our deaths as a great gain.
   
   If we focus our lives on our own comforts and pursuits, we will likely see death as the ultimate loss. But that idea was foreign to the apostle Paul. In Philippians 1, he expresses his torn desires between serving God’s people and going to be with Christ through death (1:21–24). He views his life as a drink offering being poured out to God in reverence and obedience (2 Timothy 4:6). He is able to endure because he knows that great reward—Christ’s own presence—awaits him after death (Matthew 5:11–12, Philippians 3:13–14, James 1:12, 2 Timothy 4:7–8). In the same way, we should let the promise of our union with Christ motivate us to live on mission for God in this life, with expectation for great blessing in the life to come.
   
5. We reject a worldly view of death and embrace a godly view of death.
   
   For unbelievers, who do not have the promise of eternity with God, this life is all they have, so death is a terrifying reality for them. They will either respond to death in denial (pursuing all the world has to offer) or in despair (viewing life as meaningless and cruel). In 1 Thessalonians, Paul calls us to respond to death differently, to “not grieve like people who have no hope” (4:13). Grieving is a natural and healthy part of the Christian experience—whole sections of Scripture are dedicated to it—but our grief is not exclusive of hope. In fact, our grief makes our hope sharper as we look forward to a day when God will “wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever” (Revelation 21:4).