Natural to each of us is the fact that some day we must all face death. For those left behind, emotional pain and grief will follow. Yet, God hears the cries of the humble and penitent and brings comfort to ailing souls. When our hearts are filled with sorrow over the loss of someone we loved, due to our own mortality we cannot stop death from happening and expunge it out of existence. The Bible speaks of death as the last enemy. “For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death” (1 Cor. 15:25-26). Jesus has won the victory over death at the cross where He died and three days later resurrected to life. As such, death cannot keep us from God; it has no hold on us. Death has been defeated since it has failed to keep Christ in the grave. He resurrected the third day and because of His triumph over death, the Believer is united to God the Father after life ends. It is on account of Christ’ resurrection, that the Christian can be assured that his body will be resurrected in the final day. We can prepare for our eventual death by placing our hope and trust in the risen Savior. A confidence in Him looks forward to a far better place that awaits our soul.
Our Father who art in heaven – is a familiar phrase for many and recognized as the opening words of our Lord’s Prayer. It speaks of God’s Fatherliness and corresponds well with His promise to forgive us, to provide us with our daily needs and to protect us from the evil one (Matt. 6:11-13). God in heaven is over all and infinitely supreme and powerful. If it were not so it would be of little value to ask God for our daily bread, for restoration and preservation. God is not someone who flashes his muscles and smarts then leaves us to ourselves. God who reigns in heaven enters our daily lives and helps us. Since death and judgment are inevitable, spiritual preparation then becomes tantamount. God has given us His Son and has provided a way to stand before Him justified. A relationship can only be possible if, in fact, we can be found in God’s family as adopted sons and daughters.
Truly we can rightfully call God “our” Father only when we are brought into a personal relationship with God. God has made this possible through Christ. For all those who have received him, and believe on him to them he gave the right to be called the sons of God (John 1:12). This blood bought relationship is possible because of Christ sacrifice on Calvary. Christ substitutionary death means that God accepts us as His own, for He died on the cross and resurrected satisfying God’s righteous demand of the broken law and the cost of sin. Death is no longer the terror it once was, but simply an event that we must endure in order to join the throng in heaven who have also put their trust in Christ alone.
