Ps. 49

One day a businessman bought a newspaper on his way to work. As he settled down to read it on the commuter train, he happened to notice that none of the headlines on the front page were familiar to him. Glancing at the date, he made the shocking discovery that the newspaper was from one year in the future. It described stories that had not happened yet, events that had not yet occurred.

Intrigued, the man turned to the sports page. There he read the scores of games that had not yet been played; of champions that had not yet been crowned. He turned to the financial section, where he saw that certain stocks had risen dramatically, while others had fallen.

He began to think with excitement of the opportunities afforded him by this amazing newspaper from the future. A couple of smart bets here, a few wise investments there, and a fortune could be his for the taking. In rising enthusiasm, he turned to the next page, only to find that he was looking at a picture of himself. It was the obituary page, and there in stark sentences, he read of his own death.

Death puts life into a different perspective. Death has a way of changing our sense of values. The Trappist monks have a strange custom when it comes to death. In order to remind themselves of their own mortality, they always maintain on the grounds of their monastery an open grave. When one of their number dies, he is placed in the grave, and another grave is dug to await the next man to die.

We live in a culture that tries hard to ignore death. We speak of it euphemistically, we cover it with flowers. At the cemetery, we put astroturf over the pile of dirt that is there to cover the coffin. To think too much about death is to be morbid, but to think too little of it is to be quite simply stupid.

The Bible says, in many places, but nowhere better than in the Forty-ninth Psalm, that death is the great leveler of men. Whether a man is a pauper or a prince, a simpleton or a scholar, he is going to die. His money won’t keep him from death, nor will his education.

Were we to visit some of the great universities of our land, we’d see hanging on the walls portraits of the brilliant men and women who founded those schools, who supported them, who taught in them. Yet all of them were enrolled in Death 101, because death is part of the curriculum of life and no one is exempt.

The longshoreman philosopher Eric Hopper, who himself died in 1983, cynically wrote about death…

“Night closes in on all of us. We’re condemned to death at birth, and life is a bus-ride to the place of execution. All of our squabbling and vying are about seats in the bus, and the ride is over before you know it.”

If this was the whole story, then life itself would be hopeless - a meaningless riddle - a road that leads nowhere.

But that isn’t the whole story. For the Bible says that though death is the great leveler of men, there is one who has conquered death. Listen to the words of the Psalmist…

Psalm 49:7 No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him— the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough. But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.

When you say that you believe in the God of the Bible, you are saying that you believe in the God of resurrection. The essence of the Christian faith is …

Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Because you’re believing that the God who raised Jesus from the dead is the God who can raise you. That changes the way that you think about death. You no longer need to fear death, you don’t have to despair in its shadow.

A few days ago, something woke my little boy up just before dawn. He was afraid and he called for me. I went into his room and comforted him “Don’t be afraid son, it’s almost morning.” That’s the way a child of God can look at death. When death comes, we don’t need to be afraid - it’s almost morning.

That changes the way that you think about life, too. Life, for the person who trusts God, becomes an overture for the great symphony of eternity - an anticipation of the wonderful things that are to come.

But it all depends on who you’re trusting. There are many people today who are trusting in their own works to get them to heaven. They say to God “Hey, I’m not so bad. Sure, I’ve done some things I’m not proud of in my life. Who hasn’t? But on the whole, my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds.” And they look at eternal life as something they’ve earned.

But the Bible says that eternal life is a gift. We have just celebrated Christmas. At Christmas, people give one another gifts. Suppose you purchased a very expensive gift for a good friend of yours. You shopped very carefully for it. Then you spent a lot of money for it. You took it home and wrapped it in the best wrapping paper you could find. And then on Christmas day, you took it to your friend and presented it to him. When you handed it to him, he didn’t even say thank-you. Instead, he took out his wallet and offered to pay for it. How would you feel?

Yet this is what people do to God. God offers us eternal life. It is a gift. It is so priceless that it cost Him His Son. There is no way that any of us could even begin to pay for it. Yet we insult God by refusing to receive His gift.

1 John 5:11-13 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.