I Choose Death (revised)

There. That got your attention. Now let me explain what it means when I say "I choose death." 

You might guess I'm talking about becoming less self-oriented and more Christ-oriented.

That would be a good guess. Jesus spoke repeatedly to His disciples that they must die to living for themselves and instead live for Him. Matthew 16:24 and Mark 8:34 are good examples. That is the subject of many sermons, and rightfully so, but that's not the kind of death I'm talking about today.

This is. 

Every so often, some researchers somewhere claim that they hope to solve the biological riddle of what makes our bodies age, wear out and die. They think that if they do that, they can extend their lives for a very very long time. 

Well, let's think about that for a bit. 

First, they fail to correctly answer the question "What does it mean to die?" The Bible has a lot to say about it, if only they would believe the Bible. 

Those researchers assume that your body is the sum total of you. They ignore the Biblical truth that each person is a three-part being. 

You are much more than your physical body. Yes, you have a body, but you also have a soul and a spirit. Three parts. Body. Soul. Spirit. 

Your body is the physical you that you see in a mirror. Your soul is your mind, will, and emotions. Your soul is eternal. It’s permanently attached to your invisible spirit and will go with your spirit into eternity with Jesus in Heaven or away from Him in the fires of hell. There’s no third option.

The truth is that your physical body has been engineered by God to die. At a funeral, you may hear the words "Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust". 

Your physical body is made from elements of the earth. It will return to being elements of the earth. That's how God constructed our physical bodies.  

Genesis 2:7, NKJV

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 

Adam's physical body was made from earthly elements. But Adam's spirit was made from the breath of God, that is, God's Spirit. His physical body didn't come to life until it had a spirit.  

In Genesis 3:19, God said to Adam

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.

Many years later, Abraham said to God  

Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.

That's in Genesis 18:27, RSV.

These verses illustrate the temporary, earthly nature of the physical body. It's clear that God intentionally made our physical bodies with an expiration date. That’s not something that medical science can change.

So, what happens when the body dies? The answer is rather straight forward and simple. 

The body dies when the soul and spirit leave it behind. I like to think of it as the eternal soul and spirit escaping from the temporary grip of the body. In God’s plan, He will give Jesus’ people new physical bodies engineered for Heaven, not Earth.

You may have heard the phrase "Earth Suits". It's a useful metaphor for our physical bodies. These physical bodies...our Earth Suits... are what our eternal souls and spirits wear while we're in this physical, earthly realm. 

Let me say that again. Your physical body...your Earth Suit...is no more than what you're wearing while here. Your soul and spirit are eternal, but your Earth Suit isn't.

The biggest question after your body dies isn't where or how it will be buried. It isn't whether it gets a big funeral. No, life's biggest question asks where your soul and spirit will spend eternity. The only good response is to make sure you belong to Jesus.

In the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we're told about a 12 year old girl Jesus raised from the dead. She's the daughter of Jairus, a ruler in the local synagogue. Earlier that day, her Earth Suit had died when her spirit left.

Luke 8:54-55, NIV includes the most detail. 
 

Quote:

...(Jesus) took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up...

End quote. 

When Jesus told her to get up, her spirit returned to her Earth Suit, bringing her physical body back to life. You see, her soul and spirit hadn't died. Only her Earth Suit had died. 

Even Jesus, when dying on the cross, went through the same process. His physical body didn't die on the cross until His spirit left it behind. In Luke 23:46, we're told that Jesus called out

'It is finished!”, then said “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last.

Just like one of us, His spirit left His body (John 19:30). To any observer, it looked like He'd died. But in reality, only His body died. His soul and spirit had simply escaped the grip of His broken flesh so that He could go on to complete His mission.

Here's more verses that illustrate what I'm saying about you being more than your Earth Suit. 

 
Ecclesiastes 12:7

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it..

 

Job 34:15 (New Life Version)

If He should take back His spirit and His breath, all flesh would die together, and man would return to dust.

Psalms 103:14 

For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 

When the Apostle Paul was faced with his own physical death, he wrote this, found in Philippians 1:21-24. I'm reading from The Voice translation. Here, Paul refers to Jesus as "the Anointed" and "the Anointed One".

Quote: 

For my life is about the Anointed and Him alone. And my death, when that comes, will mean great gain for me. So, if it’s His will that I go on serving here, my work will be fruitful for the message. 
I honestly wouldn’t know how or what to choose; I would be hard-pressed to decide. I lean toward leaving this world to be with the Anointed One because I can only think that would be much better. To stay in this body of flesh—even with all its pains and weaknesses—would best serve your needs. 

End quote.

Paul further expressed his attitude towards his Earth Suit in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, NIV. He refers to his Earth Suit as his “earthly tent”.

1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

That's what the Apostle Paul wrote. He wasn't the least bit afraid of physical death. In fact, he was looking forward to it because he would then be with Jesus. But he didn't want to leave his tent, his Earth Suit, before his work on earth was complete.

God made this world to be a beautiful place. Sadly, it has become deeply contaminated with grief, suffering, evil, and rebellion towards the Creator. This world is no longer close to what our Creator God intended. 

I fully understand Paul's sentiment. There's absolutely no way that I want to be stuck in this Earth Suit on this earth any longer than necessary. When my assignment is done here, I'm quite ready to leave this Earth Suit behind. Like Paul, I look forward to moving into the realms of heaven with my soul and spirit.

And what does God say about His people leaving their Earth Suits and going in the heavenly realms to be with Jesus? He tells us in Psalm 116:15, NIV:

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.

Like us, God looks forward to His faithful servants leaving this world and going into Heaven with Him

So, where does this take our discussion? Your spirit and soul will live forever in one of two places: with Jesus or without Him. If you don’t know Jesus in this life, you won’t know Him in the next. 

 

The Second Death

Beyond the death of these Earth Suits, the Bible also talks about something called the "second death". You really really don't want to experience the second death, and you don't have to. You can read about it for yourself in Revelation 2:11, 20:6 and 21:8. 

Matthew 10:28, NIV, gives us another look at Jesus' perspective on death, including the "second death". He said 

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 

The second death will be a final and permanent separation from the glorious life of God. The second death is the final destination for those whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. 

You see, every person who ever lived will stand before the Throne of God and His son, Jesus. Those who didn't get right with God during their time on this earth will suffer the second death in the Lake of Fire, also called Hell.

Revelation 20:12, NIV

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 

 

Revelation 20:15, NIV 

Anyone whose name was not found written in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Whether they were the least of sinners or the worst of sinners, there's really only one thing that will send people to the "second death" in the Lake of Fire. They didn't trust God to forgive and transform them, something He freely offered to do through Jesus. 

Jesus' true followers will not face the second death. If that sounds exclusionary, it is. It's what the Bible tells us. If you don't like what I'm saying, take it up with the Bible.

When He died on the cross, Jesus paid the full price for all of mankind's sin: past, present and future. All of it. 1 John 2:2 (NIV):

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

 

1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NIV)

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

 

Isaiah 53:6 (NIV)

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.

Everyone has sinned. That sin always carries a debt no one can pay or work off.

Beginning with everyone we might call regular people to those we'd call deeply evil, humanity's total sin debt has been paid in full by Jesus. Yes, paid in full. He paid the sin debt for all of humanity, a sin debt humanity could never pay for itself, not even a little bit.

 

But there's a catch, and it's a big one. 

Each person still has a personal account before God. 

For Jesus' full payment to be applied to your personal account, you must choose to fully surrender to the transformation God wants to bring in your life. The Bible's term for that surrender is "repentance". 

Reading from the NIV translation, Paul is quoted in Acts 20:21:

I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. 

You can't pay your own sin debt or work it off, not even a little bit, no matter how hard you try, no matter how religious or spiritual you are, no matter how much better than the next guy you may be. Your "good" will never outweigh your sin debt. 

That's where trusting in Jesus' sacrifice and surrendering completely to Him comes in.  

When you trust Jesus to forgive, transform and make you right with God, your spirit is joined with God's Spirit. In John 3:3, that's an event Jesus calls being Born Again. If you're not Born Again, your spirit is permanently incompatible with Heaven.  

 

Let's circle back to where this message started, back to the death of our earthy physical bodies. 

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah tells us that a righteous person's physical death is really God's rescue from the evil of this world. 

Isaiah 57:1, NIV 

The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. 

For people who belong to Jesus, physical death is the door to ultimate rescue. I'm not afraid of physical death. In fact, I'm looking forward to it. 

When my work is done here, I will gladly leave this Earth Suit behind and go be with Jesus. That transition is the greatest adventure any person can have.   

Because Jesus made the total payment of humanity's sin debt, anyone can receive His grace and forgiveness. Anyone can choose to repent and live in a personal relationship with God. Anyone can experience His plan for this life and then spend eternity with Him in heaven.

You can't pay your sin debt, but He made it so you don't have to. Your part is to accept the payment Jesus made on your behalf, then repent.

As an act of your will, choose to accept His total Lordship and transformation over who you are and what you're all about. Speak it out loud to Him.

After all, He is the Creator, the Potter who can truly make things right. You are simply clay, no more and no less. Choose to make yourself His clay.  

Let's summarize all of this.   

• Believers should not be afraid of death.
• Non-believers should be very afraid of death.

Pray this with me. This isn't a formula and the exact words aren't important; it's the attitude of your heart that makes the words work. God knows what's in your heart.

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank You for dying on the cross in my place. I know I can't earn what you've done for me. Forgive me and cleanse me. I choose to give my life to You, all of it. Live in me through your Holy Spirit. Change whatever You want, however You want. Just don't leave me the way you find me now.

In Jesus' name, Amen.