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Being Alive

The frequency with which I am attending funerals seems to have picked up in the last little while. I guess this is a by-product of my accumulation of years. Many of my peers are becoming aware that the aging process has stepped up its campaign against them. Some are finding their physical bodies so inhospitable that they are leaving them behind and going home to heaven.

I’ve discovered something, though. Funerals make you think about the big issues of life - issues of life and death, as a matter of fact. Often as we consider what we call the decline in the quality of life, we make judgments about that. We distinguish between levels of that quality of life. Eventually, even though a physical body can be kept alive artificially for a period of time, we cease the effort because we can’t perceive anything remotely positive about the person’s life. It’s as if they are trying to die and medical interventions are preventing it.

I don’t mean to get morbid about this, but it makes me think. How does God see us? When He looks at humanity with its array of situations and conditions, what is his perception? The Bible answers this for us. God sees us as spiritually dead. Unless we have become connected to Him as the source of life through the Lord Jesus Christ, He sees us as dead, regardless of how robust our physical life might be at the moment.

Just as we look at someone lying in a hospital bed and say “It’s only a matter of time, now.” God looks at us - even the most strong and healthy - and says “It’s only a matter of time.” When we say that of the physical life of a friend or loved one, we have nothing to offer. We accept that there is no reversing of the situation. However, when God looks at us, even in our moribund state, He offers hope. Physically, we will one day be released from our mortal bodies, but spiritually we never have to die. Paul explains this by saying that “because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions [sins] – it is by grace you have been saved. [Ephesians 2:4-5]

On an everyday basis, we’re very concerned about the physical quality of life, but God is concerned about the spiritual quality of life. He knows that without the eternal life He offers, we’re not just “as good as dead,” we are dead - dead in sins. But He doesn’t just write us off because of this. He doesn’t just “pull the plug” and go to make funeral arrangements. God can actually do something about our condition - better said, God has done something about our condition. As Paul wrote, because of His great love, this merciful God offers us life. And this isn’t just some cheap and easy offer. The price was high - the death of His own Son. Because sin demands death, Jesus, the Son of God stepped into our place and died our death. Now we can live His life.

When it comes to being alive, there’s a world of difference between mere physical life which is the ultimate dead end and spiritual life which lasts forever.

Ron Hughes
© September 2006