Death: Not Just A Mystery
Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
1 Corinthians 15:51 RSV
Paul did not describe death as a mystery. He was quite open about death and the fact that Christ had defeated it, so that we would have nothing to fear. What Paul described as a mystery was the transformation of these mortal bodies we now inhabit into immortal bodies that will be precisely like Jesus Christ’s resurrected body. This transformation is a mystery because it transcends human thoughts, scientific inquiry, and even human understanding.
How can a miraculous process be reduced to mere language? It cannot and that is why Paul referred to it as a “mystery.”
Yes, the dead in Christ shall rise first (talk about a mystery!) and then those of us who remain (after witnessing this incredible event) will be changed in a moment, “in the twinkling of an eye.” We will be caught up in the air to meet the Lord, and so we shall be with the Lord forever. Talk about flying first class!
God wanted Christ to be first in everything, so He preceded us in death and into a resurrected life to show us what it would be like. As we trust Him to save us from the penalty of sin, which is death and eternal separation from God in a literal hell, we can also follow Him in newness of life, through the grave, without fear, comforted in the knowledge that He waits on the other side of a very short journey to take our hand and welcome us into His (and our) dwelling place where the mansion He has prepared for us stands in readiness.
Mystery? Yes, but God has given us enough facts so that we might trust Him for the rest.
Our Father and our God, thank You for Christ, who showed us the way through death to life everlasting. Give me spiritual confidence to follow Him all the way to heavenly rest. Even so, hold my hand, Lord, as that time comes. I face death as I face life, all in the name of Jesus, through whom I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).