When it comes to speaking about our final departure we are often lost for words. We are heavily influenced by our culture which either denies or fears the reality of the 'D' word.

Woody Allen says, "I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens."

Men who delighted in their earthly riches, such as Louis XIV or William Randolph Hearst, forbade the mention of the word 'death' in their presence.

The young do not want to think about death because it seems too far off. The elderly do not want to think about death because it is too close at hand. They think that they might delay it if they don't think about it. But it is only in coming to grips with the significance of death that we are truly prepared to live.

• Death is a CERTAINTY. Unlike religions that deny or try to escape the reality of death, the Judeo-Christian revelation faces it head on. In one of the oldest books in extant literature, the Book of Job, Job cries out to God. "I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living." Death is an unavoidable, irresistible power (Psalm 89:48). It is life's one certainty and yet it is least prepared for (Luke 12:16-21).
• Death is a CONSEQUENCE. We were originally designed to live forever in fellowship with our Creator until death made an entrance as the promised penalty for human disobedience (Romans 5:12, Genesis 2:17). God's original intention was for us to have life, but disobedience brought about its forfeiture. Death is the legal compensation for our sin against God (Ezekiel 18:4, Romans 6:23). Sin and death are not illusions obscuring spiritual realities, as taught in most Eastern religions, Christian Science and New Age philosophies. We need to 'get real' and learn how sin is dealt with from God's point of view. We need to learn how the power of death is overcome.
• Christ's death is a CURE. Through Him the power of death is destroyed. God in His foresight made us of dust, that death and resurrection of a sinless substitute might be possible as the means of our redemption. If we had eternal bodies, as do the angels, we would not be able to be redeemed, as death and resurrection would not be possible. "Since the children have flesh and blood, he (Jesus) too shared in their humanity so THAT BY HIS DEATH HE MIGHT DESTROY HIM WHO HOLDS THE POWER OF DEATH--that is, the devil--" "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit" (Hebrews 2:14, 1Peter 3:18). Death has lost its sting (1Corinthians 15:55).

When the spirit-body separates from our material body of dust, our earthsuit, we are transported to await the realities of heaven or hell. The experience of Death, in itself, is not to be feared. It is like a skipped heartbeat and an entrance into a different room. What we need to prepare for is the judgment. The Bible tells us that "man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment." Death is not to be feared. The judgment is what is to be feared. Heaven and hell are real. Jesus referred to hell more than he did to heaven.

Some people mistakenly believe that nothing more is required to go to heaven than to be relatively good; if their good deeds outweigh the bad, heaven is their due. Jesus told us that there is none good but God (Mark 10:18). Good in God's book is 'perfect'. The summary of His sermon on the Mount is that we "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48). Good people don't go to heaven, because in the truest sense, there aren't any. The good news of the gospel is that bad people can go to heaven. The righteousness that God demands is provided in the person of Christ. His death is a sacrificial payment for sin that perfectly satisfies the just requirements of the law. Through trusting Jesus Christ as the Leader of our Lives and the Forgiver of our sins, we are given the assurance that our sins have been legally paid for and our full acquittal has been granted. Jesus died and rose again so that we might be partakers of His deathless life. This life becomes our power for holy living. Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

• Death is a CORRIDOR. For the believer death is an open door to a better place, a place Christ has prepared for us (John 14:2-3). Victor Hugo once wrote, "My tomb is not a blind alley. It is a thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight to open in the dawn."