Are You Afraid Of Dying?

I posted this as a comment to a Facebook post last night and it has since been removed by the admins, but I believe in the message. Here it is, without need of context.

Regardless of who has and who hasn’t gotten COVID-19, there’s still one nagging fact that few people talk about: we’re ALL going to die eventually of one thing or another.

What happens then? Why do we all have such a fear of death? If we’re all just here to eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die, then why so much fear and uncertainty about COVID?

The fact is, we all fear death because deep down, we all know that death isn’t really the end for us. It can’t be. We all know we will eventually stand before the one who created us (call it God, Creator, higher being, whatever), and have to give an account for our lives.

The fact is, we were created by God to serve as representatives of Him on Earth. He gave us a very small set of moral laws to obey and we’ve broken every one.

People are NOT generally good inside. We’ve all lied, stolen, cheated, used God’s name as a cuss word, lusted, etc. These are the very things God has commanded us NOT to do, and He even gave us a conscience to convict us whether we’ve read His law or not. We have no excuse.

And worst of all, God says that we “shall have no other gods before [him]” or “bow down to them or serve them.” And yet we all have. We have bowed down to our jobs, our sports teams, our money.

So because we’ve broken God’s laws, we are will stand before His courtroom when we die, already condemned and deserving His wrath and punishment. We will be cast into hell (God’s prison) as the vile lawbreakers that we are.

“But God is a loving God” and “no good God would ever send anyone to hell!” Yes, God is a loving God, but He’s also a just God. We would never allow a judge on Earth to look at a rapist and say “I’m a good judge so you’re free to go.” That would make God a corrupt judge!

No, God is a righteous, holy, fair, and just God and He therefore MUST punish sinners (those who’ve broken His laws).

“For the wages of sin is death.”

But what, then, about God being loving and forgiving and merciful? Well, we’ve already established that a good judge cannot let a criminal go free just because they are loving. A crime must be paid for; there is a fine to be paid.

That is why God, in His infinite love, provided a way for your sins to be paid for. Jesus Christ, God’s own son, came to Earth about 2,000 years ago and he lived a life of complete obedience to God’s laws. As an adult, he was arrested and murdered, being hung on a cross. While Jesus was on that cross, God poured out all the wrath and punishment that we deserve onto Jesus. In essence, Jesus stepped into the courtroom and declared “This man is guilty, but I will pay his fine for him!”

When Jesus died, all of our sins were transferred to HIS account, so to speak.

But Jesus did not stay dead. If he had, there’d be no reason to believe that God accepted his payment. Today is Easter, you know! On the third day after Jesus died, He proved His message by raising himself from the dead. Over 5,000 people in history witnessed this! His resurrection proves that God accepted his sacrifice.

And now, Jesus has returned to heaven and another transaction took place. Not only did Jesus take our sins upon himself, but He also credited His perfect life to us. That is, the perfect obedience of Jesus was transferred to OUR account. So now God can look upon us and forgive our sins (since they’ve been paid for) and welcome us into heaven when we die!

God has one stipulation for this transaction to take place, however. He commands us to repent (a religious word meaning that we “turn away” from our sins; stop loving them) and trust that Jesus sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for our forgiveness.

If you will do that, if you will cry out to Jesus and ask for his forgiveness, he will grant it to you and you’ll no longer have this fear of death!

I know this has been a super long comment and it likely will be deleted soon, but if you’ve read this far and still have questions, please reach out to me. I will be happy to talk about it more and show you, from God’s own words, how you can be forgiven.

Repent and believe this good news!