psa 116v15 The Death of A
Believer
THE
DEATH OF A BELIEVER
"Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints." Psalm 116:15
This
statement is true only of the death of a believer. To die without Christ is a
terrible thing. For the unbeliever death is the wages of sin, the execution of
justice, the beginning of sorrow, the end of all hope, the end of all mercy,
and the end of all opportunity. To die without Christ is to enter into the
torments of infinite, inflexible, insatiable wrath. But for the believer death
is a far different thing. For us there is no penalty to be inflicted in death.
There is no sin to terrify us. And there is no law to condemn us. Christ, our
Substitute, has born the penalty of our sin, removed our guilt, and satisfied
every demand of the law and justice of God. To the child of God, it is not
death to die. Death for us is a covenant blessing. (1 Cor. 3:21-23), It is a
departure out of this world unto the Father. It is being unclothed that we
might be clothed upon. It is falling asleep in the arms of Christ. It is
entrance into the heavenly kingdom. Death to a believer is a happy home-going.
There is no limit in this statement: if a man, woman, or child who dies is a
believer, one of God's saints, that death is a precious thing in the sight of
God.
How can the death of God's
saints be precious to him? Why, because they are precious to him. They are the
objects of his eternal, electing love, redeemed by the precious blood of
Christ, and members of his body, the church. The death of God's saints is
precious, because then the precious blood of Christ will be satisfied. We are
"the fulness of him that filleth all in all." Without his body, every
member in tact, the Head cannot be complete. As members of his body, we must be
where our Head is, in glory. A believer's death is precious in the sight of
God, because it answers the prayer and satisfies the desire of God's well
beloved Son (John
Children of God, let us learn to
look upon our death and the death of our believing relatives and friends as the
Lord does. We may sorrow because we miss them and feel our need of them. But we
have no reason to weep for their sakes who die in the Lord. Death to a believer
is a precious thing. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the
Lord!"