Rooting Path · Christian Living · Lesson 7 of 7 · Death and Hope · about 5 min
From The Christian Life Catechism, Q87
How should I face death?
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.
Revelation 21:4 · WEB
From The Christian Life Catechism, Q88
What does Scripture say about this life and the next?
These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Matthew 25:46 · WEB
Hardship makes us think about the end. In the last lesson of the Rooting Path, we talk about that end directly.
Many Chinese people avoid even saying the word ‘death’. Yet the Bible says: “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:2) Only when you have thought clearly about how to die do you know how to live.
The Bible does not make light of the pain of death. What it promises is an ending: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more.” (Revelation 21:4) Paul can even taunt death: “Death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)—because Jesus has already risen from the dead. After Lazarus died, Jesus said to Lazarus’s sister Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.”
The book’s answer to Question 88 is solemn: “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46) Life has two directions, and this life carries eternal weight. Yet what Jesus said to those who followed him was a word of comfort: “I am going to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2)
With this hope, we may weep when we lose those we love—only we do not “grieve like the rest, who have no hope”; and this life is different too. “If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable” (1 Corinthians 15:19); precisely because our hope is not for this life only, Paul could say: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) Someone like that can live both at ease and in earnest.
Having come this far on the Rooting Path, all seven topics have been about real days. Now go back to the Rule of Life card you wrote on the New Believer’s Path: which line needs changing? “godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now and of that which is to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:21 · WEB
Open your Rule of Life card and revise it in the light of these seven lessons: which line is written too big, and what should be added? When you are done, show it to your companion.
Every line on the card can be changed. Making it smaller matters more than making it sound good.
Putting down roots is not something you do alone. Find a brother or sister you trust (ideally of the same sex) and talk this question over this week:
When did you first think seriously about death? Thinking about it today, what is in your heart?