'Til Death Do Us Part

I was brushing my teeth yesterday when the conversation among my three children turned to spiritual matters and concepts of life and death. My mouth was full of toothpaste, and I really wanted to jump into the dialogue, but before I could spit my Crest with Scope, they said things like: "I don't want to die," and someone else said, "But there's heaven on the other side of death," and someone else said, "I wonder if there'll be trees and nature and stuff in heaven?" and someone else said, "But to get there, it'll be painful, and why can't we skip the pain?" and someone pointed out, "Maybe we can be like Elijah and skip the death part and just jump in the chariot when it comes."

By the time I spit my toothpaste and rinsed my mouth, my kids had built a philosophy of life and death, and I'd had no part in it except as I was able to emit the full-mouth sounds of "Mmm," "Mmmfff," "Mmm" on the sidelines.

It had all started, because my daughter had written out a verse she'd memorized on a post-it note, decorated the note, and taped it to her bedroom door. It said: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). 

Okay, so -- toothpaste-delay aside -- I was (and still am) thrilled that my children are showing interest in something deeper than Legos, Splatoon, and Mario Kart. I pray and intercede for my children each day, asking the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of their hearts, to give them a hunger for Jesus, and to root them deeply, deeply in the Word of God. I know each person makes his own choices, when it's all said and done, and honestly, I have to daily release my grasping for control of my children and open my hands to let Jesus take their life trajectories into His far more capable nail-scarred hands.

Is anyone else hearing this? The spiritual lives of the young people are the center-point of a struggle between good and evil, between God and Satan. This struggle may be nothing new, but the times we live in are new, and this generation is going to experience some wild things. Y'all, without a solid and deep rootedness in Scripture, without a Holy Spirit-led understanding of the Word of God, spiritual chaos is going to result.

Anyway, back to the fun subject of death. In Romans 7:1-6, Paul reminds his readers that death -- is an end. Using the illustration of marriage, he says: "By law, a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man" (Romans 7:2-3).

So that "death do us part" that some of us spoke as a part of our marriage vows to our spouse in front of God and witnesses is pretty literal. There are things that come into our lives that sometimes can make us distant from one another: Unfaithfulness, physical separation, pain, mental or chemical imbalances, busyness, a whole slew of factors -- but death is the only irrevocable contract-breaker. It's the only thing that completely and absolutely ends that relationship.

So the parallel Paul draws is this: As he writes in Romans 6:2: "We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" In Romans 7:4-6, he keeps going along these lines: "So, my brothers, you also died to the law (irrevocable breakage) through the body of Christ (He died for us once and for all -- we never have to again), that you might belong to another, to Him Who was raised from the dead (we belong to Christ!), in order that we might bear fruit to God (check out Galatians 5:22-23 for the kind of fruit Paul means). For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us (permanently ending the contract), we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."

It's a new marriage, y'all. "'Til death do us part" has been served. We are free of our old marriage to sin. And it's not a limited freedom. It's not a freedom born out of unfaithfulness, physical distance, pain, mental or chemical imbalances, busyness, or other factors. It's not temporary freedom. It is permanent freedom brought about by death. And because we are free from it (because of what Christ did on the cross), we have instead a brand spankin' new covenant with Christ Jesus, Who leads us to "serve in the new way of the Spirit." 

I say "we have...", but you realize, right, that this is each person's decision? Much as the Scriptures call us to community and being a part of the body of Christ, much as we are a part of a collective whole, each of us must decide... on our own... if we choose to enter this new covenant. 

Emily Dickinson (one of my favorite poets) once famously wrote: "Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me. The carriage held but just ourselves... and immortality." Death doesn't crowd two people into the same trip. Death is not a group cause. Two people might die at the same time, but we do not get to travel that road together. There is a marriage contract between you -- and death. Every person faces it. Every person enters into that contract, as a result of Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden. 

Jesus Christ is the only One Who has the power to break that contract with Death and lead us out on the other side to life, eternal life. But it's your choice. You can climb into that carriage with death and live in it forever -- or you can choose to have death... die, as you take up your new covenant with Christ.

We the body... we are the bride of Christ. We are preparing ourselves for the wedding feast of the Lamb. We are making ourselves ready for His return when the Bridegroom comes for us. I posted this yesterday on Facebook, but I'll post it again here, because it's the heart of this message in Romans: 

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another -- and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:24-25). That Day is approaching. Of all the important decisions out there -- Who will I marry? Where will I go to college? What job will I take? -- this one is the one that is the most important. So like I tell my kiddos, make sure you're ready. There is nothing more important than that." 

A recent conversation with my pastor has made me think about some of these things. You know, I don't necessarily agree with a lot of things going around among "church circles." In fact, there are some things that I downright disagree with. There are some things that I think have the church dipping their toes outside the boundaries of Scripture, which is a big deal, and something we need to address. But I'm not getting into that today.

What's important to remember, though, is that there is still a wide variety of viewpoints that remain true to Scripture, and inside those boundaries (to be clear), I've got brothers and sisters on the right and on the left and on the top and on the bottom. And within those Scriptural boundaries, I am going to be standing in the throne room of heaven some day right next to some of them. 

Wait... them? Yep, them. I can see them side-eyeing me: Wait, her? Yep, me. 

So here's a thought: Let's stop wasting our time arguing about semantics. Again, to be clear, these would be interpretations of Scripture, viewpoints that are still within Scriptural boundaries. 

I know. I hear some of you saying: "But what you consider to be outside Scriptural boundaries, others might consider to be within those boundaries." 

Scripture, y'all... it's not confusing. What confuses us is often a result of our dislike of discomfort. We don't like what Scripture says, so we don't accept it. And y'all, I'm aiming this at myself just as much as at anyone else. It's hard to be a square peg in a round hole world. But the Holy Spirit tells us through Paul: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then (and only then) you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- His good, pleasing, and perfect will" (Romans 12:2).

Heh, I said I wasn't going to get into that today. Back to the point I wanted to make: Let's return our focus to that all-important contract. Have we died to sin, to "the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2)? Have we gotten ourselves dressed in our bridal clothes for our new covenant with the Spirit of Life, with Jesus the Bridegroom?

Because if we haven't died... we won't live. Please, please, make sure you're ready. There is nothing, nothing more important.