NOVEMBER 6
“This mortal must put on immortality.”
I Corinthians 15:53
Gregory Zilboorg tells us that the fear of death is present
in our mental functioning at all times. Melanie Klein, the
British psychologist, adds that the fear of death is at the
root of all human anxiety. Yet we seem to do everything
possible to avoid any confronting of the subject. It is the
forbidden subject in our generation. The dying are sealed
off in intensive care units, drugged to unconsciousness and
surrounded with lifesaving instruments. Few people actually
witness death, and families are robbed of the last few hours
or minutes with their loved ones because of science’s last ditch
effort to cheat death for only a few more minutes. Death
becomes impersonal, until it is too late to think about it.
Yet we are all mortal, and unless Jesus comes in our
generation we know that we shall go the way of “dusty death”.
It is upon this background of fear and anxiety that the good
news is written: we must put on immortality! We are now
dying creatures. It is wrong to run away from the fact or
to live in the dream of finding some fountain of youth. It
is worse to place hope in some of the materialists who suggest
quick-freezing a person until a cure for all disease has been
found, then thawing him out so he can go on living. As long
as this earth stands the curse of death will stand with it.
God does not desire to have sinful man living forever. But
He has promised the Christian that in the resurrection day
he will “put on” immortality. He will be resurrected from the
dust, restored as a human personality without the curse of
death, no longer subject to the things that cause death, but
with a body that will live forever. Therefore the Christian
has no fear of death, nor is he anxious about it. After Christ
has destroyed the present earth and the wicked (II Peter 3:7)
there will be a new heaven and a new earth (II Peter 3:13)
wherein dwelleth righteousness. In this new world we shall
live as immortal children of God. This is the end purpose
of Christianity, that we might be saved from sin and its
consequence, death, in order to live forever. What a hope!
What a victory Christ has won. What a future! Is it yours?
PRAYER: Thank You, Father, for the debt Christ paid to release me from sin
and death. Hasten the day of His coming and the realization of immortality. In His
name I pray. Amen.
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