Dust Shalt Thou Return - Death

Different Hopes at the Coffin - Out of the Book: The Faith in Jesus Concerning the Faith in Jesus and the Traditions of Men - A Conversation with a Converted Pastor - Which is Right?

“Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good.”

In time of need the friend is tried. When we are placed face to face with our dreadful enemy, death, who has seized our beloved, so that he or she lies silent and cold in the coffin, then the hope of the disciples of Jesus becomes apparent to the eye of faith. Yea, those who have no hope at all bow as deeply in grief as those who have a false hope. We ought not to be like them.

The apostle Paul therefore wrote the following words of consolation to the disciples of Jesus concerning this matter:

"But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thess. 4: 13-18.)

To the mind of the disciple of Jesus, it has become plain that it is through the realization of the promises given by God we must await eternal life as a gift from God, and that this life is in the Son of God, not in an "immortal soul." The one who has the Son has life, and in him the heavenly life-power springs forth so that he controls his grief in trials, yes, and his joy in life. This heavenly life-power constitutes the very germ of life embedded within the mortal soul lying in the grave. The hope goes with the disciple into the grave, so that the deceased is like a kernel of wheat sown in the ground in order to rise in a new body. Whosoever has received the Word concerning faith, and confirms with his conduct of life that he is a disciple of Jesus, the same separates himself from the world in order to follow the faith and example of Jesus. Therefore the world does not know him, for it knew not the Master. Jesus died, but he rose incorruptible.

The disciple of Jesus cannot honor death with flowers, for that would be the same as glorifying the work of th€ enemy of Jesus in honor of the father of falsehood—the origin of death. No flowers adorned Jesus in death, and the true disciple wants to follow his Lord both in life and in death. His mourning friends did not dress in the black garments the world has prescribed, neither did they give way to an unrestrained weeping and bawling "as the others who have no hope." We hope to rise incorruptible. While serving our penal servitude for life, imposed upon us by God, we want to bear resemblance to Jesus in everything. God said:

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Gen. 3: 19.)

If God had given no promise to resurrect his people who had been slain by death, the Adamical inheritance would have undone the work of God. It is through His gift of love—the promise in living flesh—that he has set a limit to the victory of death and Joshua (Jehovah's salvation) tells us in what manner this wonderful salvation shall be brought about, giving the following promise based on the foundation of the Father's name:

"For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6: 38-40.)

The Father said we should remain in the graves till the wrath is over; then he opens the graves and again gives life to the dead. (Compare Is. 26: 20 and Ezek. 37: 12-14.) The Father draws us to his Logos in order that we may learn to know the True One. The Son gives to his disciple knowledge about our great Father and God, who in his infinite love has planned to unite the mortal man with himself through his Son, "the Man Jesus Christ," and for that purpose God's Logos was born into the fallen world. As the seed of the woman; he was as mortal as Adam and we; but after he had cleared the way to God through obedience and faith and had given his soul in death for us, God raised him and begot him from death and the grave to a life-giver for all those who receive the Son. They "receive power to become the children of God," for they are begotten by the seed of God, the Word, and through the resurrection they enter into their incorruptible Father's kingdom as sons and daughters.

Hence, the resurrection at the second coming of Jesus constitutes the anchorage where the disciple's hope has a firm hold. Death is a sleep, and the grave is the soul's chamber, to which "the Resurrection and Life" has the keys. The Father's name is a castle of defense to the disciple, both in life and in death, for in Is. 26: 20, God points out this way, cleared in and through his Son. Through John, who saw Jesus, not only immediately after his resurrection, but also after he had been with his Father for a few years, Jesus sent to all his friends the following testimony:

"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and death." (Rev. 1: 17, 18.)

These magnificent words, in connection with what Paul has told us to be the Word of God concerning the dead, appear to the believer's mind, while standing beside the casket of the dead disciple. To this is added the promise of Jesus: "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." (John 11: 26.) God made his Son Lord and Messiah: i.e., "the Resurrection of Life," which embraces this: that he as the Lord and Messiah possesses power, which he will apply when the time arrives to subordinate all under himself: kingdoms, authorities, death, and the grave.