Death Transformed

The text of today's post is from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, taken from a sermon he preached while serving as pastor of two German-speaking congregations in England prior to World War II. Bonhoeffer would eventually return to Germany, where he was both a pastor and an active worker against the Nazis. His life on earth ended when he was hanged in Flossenburg Concentration Camp on April 9, 1945. But as this sermon excerpt shows, Bonhoeffer had been thinking about death and what it means for a Christian for quite some time:

No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward joyfully to being released from bodily existence.

Whether we are young or old makes no difference.  What are twenty or thirty or fifty years in the sight of God?  And which of us knows how near he or she may already be to the goal?  That life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up—that is for young and old alike to think about.  Why are we so afraid when we think about death? ...Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it.  Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God’s Word.  Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him.  Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle; it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace. 

How do we know that dying is so dreadful?  Who knows whether, in our human fear and anguish we are only shivering and shuddering at the most glorious, heavenly, blessed event in the world?

Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith.  But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.

Bonhoeffer is remembered on The Martyrs' Wall at VOM headquarters.

YOUR TURN: How does your faith in Christ change the way you look at death? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

To learn more about Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life, read BONHOEFFER: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.

Comments

[STAR777]

for the Believers of GOD JESUS SAVIOR ,
the Temporary Death in World is the Beginning of the Eternal Life in Heaven .

for the Unbelievers of GOD JESUS SAVIOR ,
the Temporary Death in World is the Beginning of the Eternal Death in Hell .

[Susan Stowe]

His words so true, although I relish each and every day here on earth to show and speak God's salvation through His Son and Our Savior Christ Jesus, I too like Dietrich long to walk into the presence of the Holy One of Israel. Come quickly Lord Jesus!