No man isn't afraid of death. When we see that casket, everyone's heart skips a beat.
We put on a brave face to mask the fear of all fears.
Death.
Most people remember the first time a person died. Most people remember the first funeral that they've attended. You see people crying and some are getting hysterical. The room is filled with sorrow. They can't believe that someone they loved will no longer be around.
The family makes final arrangements.
Most of the family is calling all the distant family members. It's a solemn moment and you really don't know what to expect if you've never done this before. Your loved ones call the funeral director to make arrangements to pick up the body. Depending upon the condition of the body, will you choose to embalm the body?
The next of kin gathers all the information. If any, you gather all the insurance papers to make sure that the funeral could be paid for to cover the funeral expenses. Or you use other means to cover the expenses. Usually some families will be prepared, but other families will have to ask other family members, friends, and acquaintances to pitch in to help with the costs.
The burial clothes. Who'll handle the hair and make-up. That is, if the condition of the body is open casket worthy. The floral arrangements, the music, a memorial of video clips of pictures. Writing the obituary and what picture you'll use of the deceased.
The casket rolling in to the church, or as you enter the funeral home, the casket is against the wall. You walk inside, not really knowing what to expect. The pinkish lighting around the casket to give the face of the deceased a lifelike look and appearance.
Then you see the body in an expensive box, picked out by the family.
Most funeral directors do a really good job of making the body look like it's just sleeping. For children, they have no clue because of their immaturity and they sometimes talk to the dead to ask them to wake up. Then the reality sinks in that that person is no longer alive.
More mature family members can't believe it either and talk to them like they were alive but the dead doesn't respond.
And they know it.
After the funeral, the casket is closed. Never to be opened again unless the family requests a final glimpse at the grave or before cremation. If it's a burial, the casket is placed over the 6 foot deep hole in the ground and is partially lowered. A final short cemetery service.
Or if it's a mausoleum, you watch the casket get lifted up and slid into a wall where other caskets are kept and entombed. The cries and the tears intensify because as long as the deceased is outside of the grave or mausoleum, it seems as if they're alive and still with you.
The reality sinks in deeper that this is final.
Earth to earth. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.
For most people, they believe that death is it. That there's no afterlife. That there's no heaven or hell. Even when they say that their loved one, regardless of their "religion," is in heaven.
Death is for keeps. There's no return or coming back. For now.
What do you mean for now?
But first.........
Who said that we have to die and why do we have to die?
Most people don't ask this question to themselves.
The Bible has the answer. Now just because most people say that they don't believe the Bible, it doesn't stop death from coming.
Genesis 2:15-17 (NKJV) "Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 3:1-7 (NKJV)
"Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings."
Someone told the truth and someone lied.
The toe tag, body bags, caskets, the graves and the tombstones reveal Who told the truth.
The Lord is the one that said to Adam, of the trees of the Garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
Every human was in Adam and Eve.
Now many will blame the Lord and that's what Adam did. But God didn't disobey the command. Adam and Eve did. All they had to do was leave the tree alone.
Romans 3:23-24 (NKJV) "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..."
Galatians 3:22 (NKJV) "But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe."
Romans 5:12 (NKJV) "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned..."
Sin is the reason why we have to die. Death came upon all men because all have sinned. God placed all of mankind within Adam and Eve and this is the reason why all have sinned.
Because of the sin that Adam and Eve committed, the whole human race became subjected to death. Now you may be asking yourself a question.
Why didn't God just judged Adam and Eve and created another set that would obey Him?
Because the Lord knew that the next set would do the same thing. The Lord, in His infinite wisdom, decided to do this one time and one time only. After everything is done. Sin and Death will no longer be seen or experienced again.
The lesson to obey the Lord and that He is true to His Word will be so engrained in the redeemed that we will never want to see this ever again.
It's a tough lesson but it's the only lesson to be taught and learned.
In part two, we'll show from the Bible God's plan to save man from sin, death, the grave and hell.
The Lord in the Bible has the only solution to the question of death.
You don't want to miss part two.
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