Understanding God’s sovereignty over death means that we can trust him with the difficult questions. The pain of loss is hardly removed, but there is peace to be found in trusting that God is always far ahead of us in compassion. He does not answer all of our questions but instead came himself to suffer and die, and in this we find that he is trustworthy. Finally, the reality of death must impact the way we live today. Even the most noble of interests, such as family, can distract our focus from that which truly matters. And yet it is death, the thing that appears to take everything away from us, which fixes our eyes upon our final salvation in Jesus Christ and ultimately leads us into his presence.

Grief and mourning bring a fresh look at the gospel for us. Walking the line of despair is a journey to know God in a newer, greater way. Instead of being detached from our grief, God has entered into the world to experience for himself the sting of death and to give us hope for the future relief from it. He is closely acquainted with his own loss, and he welcomes us to draw near in ours.

The ideas of aging, suffering, and dying are a work in and of themselves—something that God has called us to embrace. With the decay inherited in Genesis 1 comes the spiritual work of aging maturing, and influencing the world around us. Our brokenness is meant to awaken our souls; a physical reminder of our damaged spiritual condition. What follows is a realization that any hope and peace we can long for has to be rooted elsewhere.

The challenge that we find in Paul’s words is that death is only gain if, as he says, to live is Christ. Life for Paul was to love Christ and recklessly spend his life for Him. If he drew life from the things of this world – comfort, safety, reputation – then death could be loss for him. In the same way, if we draw life from the things of this world, even good things, then we will find death to be unmitigated loss as all of that which we have spent our lives amassing in this world is taken from us in the final moment we occupy it.

Death is a paradox. The way out of death is through death. We cannot be fully redeemed until we pass through the veil of physical death. Christ himself used dying to defeat death—his death on the cross provides the ultimate means to the redemption of creation itself as well as its human inhabitants. Only in Christ’s death can our own sin, brokenness, and mortality be defeated and permanently redeemed.