Read Job 19:25
But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. (Job 19:25)
Too often Christians try to take the hideousness out of death. In doing so, however, we cut short the grieving process. We’re so eager to rush to the end and show the hope beyond the grave that we don’t deal adequately with the pain that accompanies death. For there is no denying it: Death is an ugly thing! Jesus says it is an enemy that He will ultimately destroy.
Someday we will stand before God. And when we do, we will need something more than speculative imagination or a warm, fuzzy feeling about nature. When we pass from time into the presence of the Eternal God, we will need more than good medical assistance or the promise of some well-meaning friend. We will need a goel, a living Redeemer, whose nail-pierced hands hold our salvation and whose shed blood is the wonderful detergent that can wash away our sins and present us faultless before the presence of God’s glory, with exceeding joy.
Because my Redeemer lives, I will live forever!
Today, hearts that are “as ghastly as ever” are seeking a goel, but too often they search everywhere but the right place. And where is that? Go to the cross where our Saviour died.
Go to the grave—to the empty tomb from which He was raised.
The question is not, “Will I live forever?” Everyone lives forever. The soul never dies. The question is, “Where will you live forever?” Where will you spend eternity?
Those who live with the greatest assurance and security and with the least amount of panic are those who know how to die, through the Redeemer who lives.
Thou has conquered in the flight,
Thou has brought us life and light:
Now no more can death appall,
Now no more the grave enthrall;
Thou has opened paradise,
And in Thee Thy saints shall rise.
—LATIN TEXT, 1632
Adapted by Insight for Living staff from The Darkness and the Dawn by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2001 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
