As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Genesis 15:15
The ancient perspective, that death could be a peaceful conclusion for one who had lived well and long, was forever shattered by the revelation of God in Christ. The One who declared himself to be life, who had come to empty the tombs, and give us eternal life, refuted the ancient worldview.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 1 Corinthians 15:26
Before Christ, death was not an enemy, but simply a part of life’s journey. With Easter, however, the story of our existence has been rewritten. The new understanding of ourselves and our destiny is about life, with death as an unwelcome intruder thwarting the will of God.
We are created for life. Death, though ubiquitous and unavoidable under our present circumstances, is thoroughly abnormal, because normal is not defined merely by what is common but by what aligns with our essential nature.
Once we know our true selves in union with God in Christ, death can be nothing but an enemy. To be alive, not merely biologically animated, but living in the fullest sense of wholeness, is our normal state and the incontrovertible essence of our being.
All forms of loss and demise, the significance of death as a symbol of what opposes the flourishing of existence, are alien to the nature of life itself. Though in the reality of our existence, entropy, deterioration, and death appear to be natural, life is truly what is real and normal.
For while we are in this tent, we groan under our burden because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 2 Corinthians 5:4
All mortal things, that is, all which is characterized by being under the tyranny of existential death in any form, will be set free when life itself swallows up death. This is what happened in Jesus. Life is stronger than death and triumphs in the end.
Therefore, we do not view resurrection as a supernatural intervention, contrary to the natural order of things, even though so far in the chronology of this world it has only occurred in Jesus, but as a natural occurrence. This life-over-death, and life-from-death, is at the heart of the Christan message. What we experience now is a world corrupted and disordered, but one which God is reordering so that all things return to the original goodness of life in God. That is the natural order congruent with the intent of God’s creation.
The thief comes only to steal kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:28
Jesus proclaimed this reordering, which he called the kingdom of God, and invited all to enter and experience the transformation of the world. Death is the thief, but God is the author of life. This fullness of life, much more than simply living and breathing, but growing into the essence of our created nature to truly live the life of God, is what Jesus brings us as pure gift.
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