No Fear In Death

Heaven. Many may never see this holiest realm of God’s glory. But I’ll tell you something about this blog. Triple Vertex was founded partially to make sure you’re not one of those people. Death is the price everyone has to pay for sin ( John 3:16), because Eve and Adam ate the apple of the Tree of Life and sin was released into the world (see The Story of Sin).

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”” 1 Corinthians 15:54

We are the perishable and the mortal, and when we die (or Jesus returns) we will be imperishable and immortal. Jesus conquered death and took the blame for our sins. He took the weight off our shoulders, so that we could have eternal life in him (yes, John 3:16 again). He paid the price of death so that we didn’t have to.

Death is difficult, nonetheless. Jesus made it possible for us to be comforted in death, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard. When someone dies, it seems that’s something we have to overcome all over again. But for those who die with their faith in Christ, there is no place for fear. We are sinners, but by the blood of Christ, by his death and resurrection, we are sanctified in our acceptance of him.

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with mennor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

We must sanctified in order to be worthy and holy enough for passage to heaven. That is why we all must be redeemed by Christ, accepting the sacrifice he made in his death, so that we’re sure about ours. It involves only two steps:

If you [1] declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and [2] believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9

This verse makes it plain and clear. Believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord, and that he was resurrected for us, and we can be sure of our passage upstairs. This is why there is no fear in death for us–but hope. Death isn’t a pleasant thing, but in our deaths as Christians, we will be more alive than before when we are with the Lord.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Hebrews 2:14-15

It isn’t fair!!: An In-Depth Analysis of God’s Justice

As you read the title, it’s likely that you were reminded of the image of a younger child, whining to a parent about how something wasn’t fair. Or maybe, you were reminded of the last time you thought something was extraordinarily unfair. Or, you might have been reminded of song lyrics, or the saying “Life isn’t fair”, or–maybe you didn’t really think anything and just decided to start reading and find out what it meant. Well, it could be a lot of the above. You be reminded of our previous post on God’s justice, but this post is firstly more in-depth (as you never would have guessed), and secondly uses more direct examples, explaining why exactly the things that happen are fair, or, at least, they are just. The “fairness” of the world has always been an issue for everyone, as humanity has strived to make life fair as possible (ahem–fair as humanly possible, being the core of the problem), and governments have been founded to promote justice. And what is the only thing that is truly fair and rightly just? I think you know.

The Lord has been bringing justice to the world as long as there has been a world. In saying that, there have been many cases which may leave many wondering how justice was served, or such a thing was right, and often those questions concern 1 of 2 scenarios: your life, or the lives of the Israelites (Don’t worry–I plan on going over both).

As far as the Israelites go, it never seemed in the bible that they could stay faithful to God for longer than two politicians can go without shifting blame. But here’s the thing: God forgave them. He constantly had to deal with the cycle of apostasy: the Israelites would fall away from God, then get into trouble, then call on God, then get rescued, then worship God, then fall away and start over again. In some cases, thankfully, it didn’t always involve the Israelites’ near desolation. There are a lot of examples, though, of God not only rebuking Israel, his people, but other nations. Many will point out that other nations’ people, all of them, couldn’t have all known about the God of Israel. The thing is, they didn’t have to know.

Have you ever been punished for something that you didn’t do? Or, especially, have you been punished as a group when you didn’t do anything. I remember personally back in grade school, whenever I had a loud or talkative class, that the rewards would be taken from everyone, not just the main culprits of the greater noise. The teachers often even knew who the main motor-mouths were, but more often than not, they would punish all despite this. They didn’t want to risk the group mentality. That’s something like how God operated in that day and age. Nations like Babylon, Moab, or Ammon worshipped other gods and idols, but those surrounding Israel (note that due to Israel’s central location, there were quite a few) knew about Israel’s god. It’s important that we realized these people, as a nation, rejected the one true God for others. The alternative?

And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountainand give them joy in my house of prayer.” Isaiah 56:6-7

I think God made it pretty clear that other peoples were certainly to be accepted if they decided to follow the Lord. Every time God punished a nation for their unrighteousness, that nation would have known fully well what they were doing. It’s not necessarily true that every individual would have known that they should have been worshipping the Lord, but it was the nation as a whole that had to be punished. On the other hand, it should

Why? God had to keep his kingdom holy, and to preserve his name. When nations defied God and defiled his name in everything they could, competing for the sovereign kingdom, they were asking for it. The Lord had established his holy kingdom in Israel, which is why he had to keep the Israelites on their toes with specific rules and regulations. God had a relationship with the people only as whole, in a relatively impersonal way. With the relationship, he was glorified. Today, we glorify God on a personal level of acceptance, so that God has a relationship with each and every individual, so it isn’t necessary to execute judgement on the scale of an entire nation. So, was it fair to punish nations outside of Israel, sometimes by killing thousands? It’s slightly more complicated, perhaps, than we think but it was absolutely fair. If there was any doubt, it was decided by the ultimate and righteous judge, the Lord.

So Part 2 of all this our modern-day lives following the life of Christ: your life. Or–since I don’t actually know anything about your life–we’ll go with our lives. As I mentioned, we have a relationship with God today on a personal basis for his glorification. In laymen’s terms, we can know God as a friend. The advantage to this is that judgement does seem a little bit more fair, because day-to-day we are personal held accountable for our own actions, instead of those of our nation or country.

Bad things happen to good people, right? Yes, but for specific reasons. This isn’t an easy thing to accept, or even to live with–especially when we’re the good, striving people who undergo difficulties. But things happen to people for reasons we don’t understand, and the world’s horrible things don’t exist by God’s preference in the first place.

So justice is served in our lives, making things truly right, because God just says so? Yes, but there’s a little more to it. Things come together for those who follow God, as a huge part of the bible is used to tell us. Likewise, those who don’t follow God, by choice, will be punished appropriately. Of course, this doesn’t mean that will always be the case. In fact, it may never seem to be the case in your life.

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ” 2 Corinthians 9:10

Just in case you didn’t get the message: God will supply. And further, he will “enlarge the harvest of your righteousness”, so he will reward you as well. God’s plan for our lives is perfect for us, as he made us, and cares for us personally, so whatever happens, you can face it (that’s definitely in the bible, but I can’t recall where…). As the apostle Paul simply describes trials:

You know quite well that we were destined for them.” 1 Thessalonians 3:3

We were destined for difficulty, and why wouldn’t that be fair? Difficulty builds us up in faith (James 1:2-4). But now that we know all this, we have the responsibility to play our part in God’s plan for justice.

And in the entire world, God is working through countless Christians, people of all ages, origins, and skill sets, occupations, knowledge, and everything else to get the word out, the good news, to all people. And, if one person from some ancient civilization was killed in innocence, or if a woman in a remote village today dies before ever hearing about Jesus, or a child dies in birth–who’s to say, on Judgement Day, God won’t give them a fair sentence? It is fair, whether we understand or not. We can trust the ruling the Lord gives everywhere on Earth or in Heaven. And better, God’s ruling is just–of that we can be sure.

After getting through all of that, you may still have lots of 
unanswered questions, and there are many things I didn't explain.

Luckily, we've probably explained that in another post.
I know for sure there's useful stuff in these two:

A Forgotten God: Just, The Story of His Love