Mortality is a problem, is it not? We all know we are going to die – we just don’t want it to happen in our lifetime.
Adam Gollner has written about efforts to remedy the problem of death. At the front lines of this endeavor, we find some of the world's richest people. Larry Ellison, for example, is CEO of Oracle Corporation and contributes more than $40 million per year to a foundation he set up dedicated to finding the remedy by understanding the “disease” of aging.
Ellison says, “Death makes me very angry. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Death has never made any sense to me. How can a person be there and then just vanish; just not be there?”
Gollner, concludes: "Death may not make any sense, but perhaps it can be defeated?"1
Enter a man in history who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die”2 He could not say that if it were not true. He was also angry at death – and did something about it! “Christ Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”3 Death has been defeated.
Fear of death enslaves (Heb. 2:15). In Christ we are liberated from such fear of death because we are prepared for it. Only when you are prepared to die can you truly live. That is why the apostle Paul said, “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord. . ., but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling.”4 That holy calling is to live with abandon for the opinion of One as a living sacrifice.
Don’t waste your life fearing (trying to remedy) death. Thrive with the end in view, for then you will be face to face with Christ – your highest good and deepest satisfaction (Ps. 16:11).
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.
Psalm 121:7–8
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1 Adam Leith Gollner, “The Immortality Financiers: The Billionaires Who Want to Live Forever” The Daily Beast (7-11-17)
2John 11:25-26
3 2 Timothy 1:10
4 2 Timothy 1:8-9a
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