Living With Purpose
There once was a little girl who told her father every night, “Goodnight Dad, I’ll see you in the morning”. She became ill, grew weaker, and on the eve of her death, knowing she was going to die, she whispered, “Goodnight Daddy, I’ll see you in the morning”. When we get to this point in life, we find there’s nothing to fear in death. We can say as King David did, “Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For You are close beside me. Your rod and Your staff protect and comfort me” (Psalm 23:4). The death of a Christian is like a sunset that Christ turns into a dawn. We close our eyes only to open them to a bright, glorious, and eternal morning. This is Christ’s pattern for death. Everyone has a perception about life and death. On a grand scale, physical life doesn’t even come close to rivaling eternal life. What’s amazing is that a Christian can enjoy both! Consider Christ’s own death. To understand Christ’s attitude toward death is to see life beyond the physical realm. To Jesus, his death was a crisis, but not a catastrophe. It wasn’t a horrible ending, but a glorious beginning. It wasn’t a senseless defeat, but a marvelous victory.
Jesus experienced what all of us must experience. Hebrews 9:27 says, “Each person is destined to die once (physically) and after that comes judgment”. We all have an appointment with death. And to overthink our own death is to miss the point of living. Physical death for the Christian is an entry into something even greater. However, to hasten death is to miss the whole purpose of being created. The completion of your life is subject to God’s appointed days whether it be 7 years or 70.
1 Peter 2 calls us, “Living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple”. The apostle Peter goes on to say that Jesus is our example, and we must follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21). All of his life, Jesus had been an example for us. Even in his hour of death (the crucifixion) he was an example. He set the pattern for us with his words: “Father, I commend my spirit into Your hands! And with those words he breathed his last” (Luke 23:43). These words are a challenge for us to come to the conclusion of our lives saying, “Into Your hands”.
If Jesus had not lived each moment of his life to do his Father’s will, being in his Father’s hands, how could he commit himself into the Father’s hands at death? One follows the other and our death should be like our life. If we turn away from God while living, what would make us turn to Him in death? If we deny Him in life, why should we expect Him to accept us at death? The formula for a hopeful life is to submit to God. If you walk with God daily, when your life is over, you’ll walk with Him in death also.
In their final hour, for the person who is unsaved or rejects God, they can’t say, I commend my spirit into your hands, rather they will realize that it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).
As Christ committed his spirit to God, he was also committing his work to us. In this way, Jesus also gave us a pattern for service. Consider 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, “God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. We are ambassadors for Christ. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, come back to God. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sins, so that we could be made right with God through Christ”.
When Jesus was on the cross, his disciples had been standing some distance away, but they later understood the meaning and significance of Jesus’s death and then his resurrection. This understanding propelled them to go throughout the entire world telling the Good News! How will you respond to Christ and his pattern for death, life, and service? How does his resurrection affect you? Every day we need to stand up and sing the words to a familiar old hymn: “Living he loved me, dying he saved me, buried he carried my sins far away. Rising he justified, freely forever. One day he’s coming, Oh glorious day.”
• This bi-weekly column is written by Matthew Dobson. He’s a teacher, U.S. Army Chaplain, and the Pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in the New York Community. His most recent book is titled: “How the Race Was Won: A Coming of Age Story About Running”. He can be reached by email: rmdobson@liberty.edu.
