John Wesley said, “Good Methodists die well.” He meant all Christians, not just Methodists. It was an interesting point of view for a man who is on record as having an all-encompassing fear of death until he was 35 years old. John was raised by his pastor father, Samuel, and his Christian mother, Susanna, along with their 16 other children. Susanna home schooled her brood in their early years instructing them in Latin, Greek, mathematics, literature and most especially, in biblical theology. As a child of five, John was rescued from a burning parsonage and his mother told him, “John, you are a brand plucked from the burning. God has a purpose for your life.”
Wesley was theologically astute. His family were dissenters, meaning they loved the Lord with “enthusiasm,” and not just intellectually, ritually or religiously. Samuel and Susanna taught their children that all salvation was about relationship with God and trained them to listen to the internal witness of the Spirit.
John was religiously devout even in his youth, but he realized his sinfulness and his need for God. John is quoted as saying that he had “sinned away his Baptism” by the time he was seven years old. Even as young man, he sought the Lord actively and prayed fervently on a daily basis.
While in college, he and his closest friends committed to live on a very small portion of their annual stipend so that they could afford to minister financially to the poor. They founded small businesses (e.g., shoe factories) inside the debtors’ prisons, taught the children and provided food and blankets to many hundreds. Their piety earned them the derisive moniker, “The Holy Club” from the cynical world around them. John’s organized, methodical approach to following God caused others to ridicule him and his friends as “Methodists,” a term he later wore like a badge.
But for all of his piety and good works, John Wesley was afraid to die. For the first 35 years of his life and 12 years after he had been ordained as an Anglican Minister, he was insecure in his salvation, afraid he did not measure up and he lived in the dread of death.
In 1736, John followed his brother, Charles to Savannah, Georgia. Charles had been hired to be the secretary to Governor Oglethorpe and John came over as the pastor of the Anglican church that still exists there in Savannah today. On the boat over, the seas were particularly rough and even the sailors thought they would founder. Grown men were weeping in terror fearing for their lives and none more so than John Wesley. However, on the boat were some Moravians who comforted everyone and held prayer and praise services, and John noticed that “even their children were unafraid to die.”
On his return journey in 1738, after a tumultuous and unsuccessful tenure
as a pastor in Savannah, John found himself once again in rough seas and once again in great fear of death. Once again, there were on the ship, Moravians returning home,
who exhibited a genuine peace in the face of death and he remembered, as he records later, that “even the children were unafraid to die.” When he inquired as to the source of their peace, they attempted unsuccessfully to enlighten him and eventually referred him to a Moravian meeting held regularly in Aldersgate Street in London.
There on May 24, 1738, in the wake of the unexpected death of his brother, Samuel,
John attended that meeting for the first time and heard a sermon on the Epistle to the Romans. In a moment of revelation, John finally understood that we are “saved by grace through faith and not by works lest any man should boast.” He records that he felt “strangely warmed,” that he knew he was saved and that he was no longer afraid to die.
From that point on, John Wesley taught a personal salvation based on relationship with God and on the freedom we have in Christ due to God’s grace. That included the freedom from fear of death.
Fear of Death is Not From God
Fear of death is common to man and has been with us since the fall of Adam and Eve. But no Christian needs to be afraid to die. In fact, a Christian properly trained in God’s word can face death with perfect peace and positive anticipation. Paul taught us that by his own testimony.
Phil 1:21-24 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. 23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. NASB
2 Tim 4:6-8 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day. NASB
Paul taught that all who are in Christ can and should look forward peacefully, even expectantly, to that time when we will die and be rewarded. He was not alone in teaching this important truth. We also hear it from James, John and Jesus.
James 1:12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. NASB
Rev 2:10-11 ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11’He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.’ NASB
It is right and proper to fear God, especially if we are His enemy. But for Christians with a Spirit-based, Christ-engendered relationship, the term “fear God” means to hold Him in awe and the highest respect. It does not mean craven or cowering fear. Paul tells Timothy (and us) that we are not supposed to live in craven fear.
2 Tim 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. KJV
Heb 2:14-15 Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. NASB
Fear is debilitating and enslaves us to Satan. Jesus became one of us to set us free from Satan and the fear that he engenders in his captives.
1 John 4:15-19 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. NASB
Not only are we relation-based Christians; i.e., those abiding in God through Jesus, not to fear death, but we are not to fear judgment either. That is one of the main reasons people fear death. They are afraid they are going to be punished. But remember, we Christians are ultimately judged on the basis of the life of Jesus, not on our own. We have nothing to fear as we stand before God. Our sin debt will have been paid. We will only be evaluated on our good works for the purpose of determining the level of our eternal reward in Heaven. According to Jesus, this is what we will hear.
Matt 25:21-24 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.’ NASB
Why Does God Allow Humans to Die?
The faith-based Biblically trained Christian should understand that death is our friend, not our enemy, and we have no need to fear it. So let’s unpack what the Bible teaches us about death.
Man was not originally intended to suffer death. If man had not fallen, he would never have died (or even aged, since aging is a part of dying). Several men are recorded in the Bible as not having died. God so loved Enoch that He just took Enoch to Heaven apparently without dying (Gen 5:24). Elijah is another example of one who apparently went to Heaven without dying. The Bible tells us that all Christians who are alive at the time of the Second Coming will not die either, but they will be changed into their glorified bodies in the twinkling of an eye.
1 Cor 15:51-52 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep (die), but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. NASB
So why then must we die? Is there no way to prevent it? What did we ever do to deserve such a fate?
Gen 2:16-17And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” NASB
Death came upon us as “the wages (consequences) of sin.” (Paul speaks to this in Romans, especially Rom 6:23.) It was the main negative consequence of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. They died spiritually immediately. The Holy Spirit who had resided within them on an ongoing basis, left them to follow after the spirit of their new master, Satan. They suddenly felt the Holy Spirit’s absence for the first time by the new feelings of fear and shame. They began to more gradually die physically through the process of aging, a process they had never experienced nor were intended to experience ever.
Before Noah’s flood, most of the patriarchs lived almost 1,000 years before they died. Because they were so well made, they took many hundreds of years to deteriorate until they became so broken that they could no longer sustain life. After the earth-shattering events surrounding Noah’s flood and because the gene pool began to be progressively corrupted by man’s new physical brokenness, we today live and average of “70 years and by reason of strength 80” (Ps 90:10).
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. NASB
All who sin must die. It is the penalty for sin. Jesus died on the cross to pay that penalty for us. Well then, what about those Christians who do not die at the Second Coming? They are not sinless and yet they do not die. The answer is that their legal requirement to die (and ours) is satisfied in Baptism.
Rom 6:3-11 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. NASB
Well what about Enoch and Elijah? Were they sinless? Probably not, but, “Hey! God’s rules and He can make exceptions. Take it up with Him when you get there ?.
Death Can Be Our Friend
The Bible tells us that, for the believer, death is actually our friend. We can see this all the way back at the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned, they (and all of their descendants) began the long arduous process of progressive corruption that includes both physical deterioration and moral depravity. By the time we get to Noah’s day, mankind has become so depraved that only Noah and his family are still rightly related to God. God sends the flood to wipe out sinful mankind and start over.
In a relatively short time after the flood, mankind has again deteriorated to the point that God has to separate us from one another to slow down our progressive wickedness. After the Tower of Babel, God divides and scatters us throughout the earth by confusing our languages.
Knowing that sin, left unchecked is unendingly progressive, God stations two angels at the entry to the Garden of Eden to prevent Adam and Eve (and their descendants) from accessing the Tree of Life and living forever. To us it may sound like meanness and vindictiveness on God’s part. All too often we view God that way, and it is unjust. God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good. The truth is, God knew that a progressively corrupting man who lived forever would soon be so tormented that he himself would wish for annihilation. God knew that death would at least end our progressive physical and moral corruption.
Progressive and eternal corruption is so tormenting that it actually provides a good description of Biblical Hell. Death released the Old Testament saints from progressive physical and moral corruption until Jesus could come and redeem them in Sheol on Good Friday. Death ends ours as well and allows us to come into the loving and saving presence of God. Death is our friend.
When we get older (like me) we realize that youth is fleeting. As our parts and pieces begin to fail and fall off and our various capacities diminish, we begin to realize that at some point our human existence is going to be unsustainable and uncomfortable. When we realize that death will release us into health and happiness, into the presence of God, into the community of the beloved who have gone on before, we begin to see death in a more positive light. Paul tells us that death is but a doorway into the presence of God. He describes our human bodies as an “earthly tent.”
2 Cor 5:1-4 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
As far back as Aristotle, man has understood that we are tri-part beings consisting of body, soul and spirit. I am not my body. I just live in it. My spirit is the life force given me by God at conception and my soul is the “Wayneness” of me. It defines and explains who I am versus who my wife is or who you are. So I am not my body. I am on the inside looking out of a deteriorating dwelling. Whenever I pass a mirror, I always wonder who is the old fat guy who has stolen my body ?.
Paul (above) says we groan, “longing to be clothed with a heavenly dwelling (body).” We do not want to be unclothed (without a body), because we were created to live in one. But the one we have now is diminishing and will soon be untenable. Paul says we long for our mortality to be overtaken (swallowed up) by eternal life. Death is the change agent that allows that to happen. I am not presently in a hurry to get there, but I know it will be a blessing when it comes in God’s good time. It will set me free from all my trials, which is better, as Paul tells the Philippians. He tells the Corinthians that he would prefer it!
Phil 1:21-26 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. 23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. 25 And convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. NASB
2 Cor 5:5-9 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. 6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord — 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight — 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. NASB
Paul goes on to say that once we had become captured by Satan, God intended this liberating event (death) and in Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit as a pledge of our physical liberation to come. As long as we are in the body, Paul says, we are not fully in the presence of God. We may be spiritually in God’s presence, but we are not physically in God’s presence and that is the goal. This is getting to the biblical definition of Heaven; i.e., physically present with God. Paul says he would prefer to be absent the body and be present with Jesus.
Paul tells us that all creation suffered bitterly due to the fall of man, its steward. He says that creation was subjected to futility. It no longer works the way it was designed to work because man fell.
Rom 8:19-24 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. NASB
He goes on to metaphorize that “all creation groans” breathlessly awaiting the time when mankind will receive their glorified bodies at the Second Coming.
What is a Glorified Body and How Do I Get One?
So what is a glorified body and how do I get one? The only example of a glorified body we have in the Bible is the one Jesus received at His resurrection. In it, Jesus was able to be touched by others and to eat fish, but it was also able to walk through closed doors and apparate (like Harry Potter) ?. And so far, only Jesus has one. The rest of the saints will get theirs “at His coming.”
1 Cor 15:22-26 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, 24 then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. NASB
Paul tells Timothy that he will receive his glorified body “at His appearing.”
2 Tim 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. NASB
So if we get our new bodies at the Second Coming and we shed our old bodies at our death, what are we Christians like in Heaven between those two events? The Bible tells us we are spirits with souls “hanging out” at the feet of God bugging Him with the Heavenly version of “Are we there yet, Daddy.”
Rev 6:9-11 And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long , O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also. NASB
I Corinthians 15 Teaches us About Christian Death
Perhaps the clearest and most positive explanation of death in the Bible is found in Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians in chapter 15.
First Paul defends the doctrine of the Resurrection, both Jesus’ and ours. Without the resurrection, Christianity would be invalid and foolish, but there are numerous eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, so we believe in resurrection (verses 1-19).
Then he explains the order of resurrection. Jesus was the first person to be resurrected and all other Christian believers will be resurrected at the Second Coming (verses 20-28). There is a clear distinction in the Bible between resurrection and re-animation. Many people in both the Old and New Testaments were raised from the dead, like Lazarus or Jairus’ daughter. But they were then re-animated into the same body they had when they died and they would all have to die again. Biblical resurrection involves a new, improved, glorified body, and those who are resurrected will never die again.
Paul’s discussion about the nature of the resurrected body is found in verses 35-50 of 1 Cor 15. Resurrected bodies are different but similar to our original earthly body. In the same way we plant a seed and get a tree, we plant the human body and get the resurrected body, same genus but different and more mature form. What goes into the ground is the natural body but what comes back up is a spiritual body with natural characteristics. It will be like the body given to Adam and Eve or more importantly, like the body given to the resurrected Jesus.
Reanimated bodies, like those of Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter died a natural body and came back a natural body. They were, indeed, raised from the dead, but this is not resurrection as descried in the Bible. They will receive their spiritual bodies at the Second Coming along with the rest of us. Only then will they be truly resurrected.
Since Adam and Eve are considered perfect in creation, our resurrected bodies will be young and vibrant like theirs were. Adam and Eve were created neither 6 months old nor 60 years old. The resurrected body will not age or show signs of aging. All the cares of the world will have been washed away. This explains why the two men on the road to Emmaus failed to recognize Jesus until He broke bread with them, but afterwards said He seemed so familiar.
Your mother will look like her youthful wedding picture, not like she looked when you laid her to rest. Men will be men; women will be women. Angels never have been and never will be human. They are a different species altogether. If there ever was a natural being, there will be a corresponding spiritual being. None of us are pre-existing spirits, because the first rendition of us was natural, then comes the spiritual. There is no reincarnation because the Bible says that it was appointed to man once to die and then comes the judgment (Heb 9:27).
Death is only a doorway into the next world and we Christians have no need to fear it. Death is for us a blessed release from the trials and tribulations of this world and the gateway into an everlasting peace with God. We will be met by the angels and accompanied to the throne of God. There our Savior and Defender, Jesus will plead our case to the Father.
He will not deny the accusations of our enemy (for they are all too true), but He will grant us His righteousness and we will be judged on that basis. His righteousness is imparted to us a gift and imputed (credited) to us as if it were ours. In God’s eyes I will be justified; i.e., treated “just-as-if-I’d” not sinned. God will put our sins into “the sea of His forgetfulness” and “remember our sins no more.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who resisted the Nazi state church (Hitler’s church), and was executed for it just before the allies arrived to liberate him. While a pastor in London, and as he was preparing to return to Germany in support of his persecuted German Christian countrymen, Bonhoeffer addressed this issue telling his audience that day why he was unafraid to die, saying:
No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward joyfully to being released from bodily existence. Whether we are young or old makes no difference. What are twenty or thirty or fifty years in the sight of God? And which of us knows how near he or she may already be to the goal? That life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up—that is for young and old alike to think about. Why are we so afraid when we think about death? . . .
Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it. Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God’s Word. Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him. Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle; it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace. How do we know that dying is so dreadful? Who knows whether, in our human fear and anguish we are only shivering and shuddering at the most glorious, heavenly, blessed event in the world? Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.
In Ps 116, David talks about his own fear of death and how he overcame it.
Ps 116:1-4 I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications, 2 because He has inclined His ear to me. Therefore, I shall call upon Him as long as I live. 3 The cords of death encompassed me, and the terrors of Sheol came upon me. I found distress and sorrow. 4 Then I called upon the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I beseech Thee, save my life!”
David was afraid to die. It caused him great distress and sorrow. Death and Sheol terrified David. So he called upon the Lord to save him from death or at least from the terror of it. David here says he loves God because, among other things, God hears and answers his prayers. God answered David in this prayer also.
Ps 116:5-10 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous. Yes, our God is compassionate. 6 The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low, and He saved me. 7 Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For Thou hast rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. 9 I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living. 10 I believed when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” 11 I said in my alarm, “All men are liars.”
In His grace and compassion, God saved David from his fear of death. David tells his soul; i.e., his mind, to be at peace about death. “Return to your rest, O my soul!” David remembers that God has always “dealt bountifully” with him. And now God has rescued his soul from death, actually from the fear of death.
God has washed away the tears and kept him from panic. David sees that even though he will die, he will walk with God afterwards in the land of the living. David was one of the men in the Old Testament who understood resurrection from the dead. Job was another (Job 19:25-26). David believed God in the midst of great mental affliction and in the face of the insistence of lying men.
Ps 116:12 What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? 13 I shall lift up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. 14 I shall pay my vows to the Lord, oh may it be, in the presence of all His people. 15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones. 16 O Lord, surely I am Thy servant. I am Thy servant, the son of Thy handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. 17 To Thee I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call upon the name of the Lord. 18 I shall pay my vows to the Lord, oh may it be, in the presence of all His people, 19 in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! NASB
In repayment to God for this great mercy, David will boldly proclaim to all around him that there need be no fear of death. He will tell people that God actually rejoices at the death of one of his saints, His set-apart ones. Why? Because God knows that death will send His children home to Him. So David will praise God who loosened his bonds, his fear of death. He will testify to God’ grace and faithfulness. He owes it to God to do so. (He will pay his vows.)
It is understandable and human to be concerned about the manner of our death. We would all like to avoid a difficult physical death. But God has promised to be with us in those hours and what comes afterward is all good for we who believe.
Your Father in Heaven does not want you to be afraid of death. He offers you an intimate personal relationship that allows you to have a peace that is beyond human understanding in any and all circumstances, including your death. I have watched the passing of my 17-year-old son, my father, my mother and others I have known who had a relationship with God in Jesus. I have been told that I myself have only a short time more to live. But in every case, I have been at peace because I have had good teachers who taught me why should never fear death, mine or any other. Your inheritance in Christ is the same as mine. You need not fear to die.
If you are afraid to die, go to the Lord and His word. Get with your pastor or Bible teacher and let him or her help you sort this out. There are things in this world that you may find concerning, even fearful, but death should not be one of them.
1 Cor 15:51-55 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” NASB