Death is something our culture hides from. We hide our dead bodies. Our society moves the body of the deceased from our homes within minutes after death and places them in “funeral homes.” We hide the places where bodies are buried. Cemeteries that used to be right next to the church, where people were reminded weekly of the reality of death, are now located far away from church and isolated.

Yet the Bible is full of talk about death and the related discussion of our eternal destiny. The Bible says death is a result of the fall and sin (Genesis 2:17; 3:19). Paul makes this clear in Romans 5:12, “sin came into the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” Physical death is not normal or natural; rather it is the result of sin (Romans 6:23).

Approaching death is not a happy place. Psalm 23:4 says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." Physical death is described as a shadow, as a deep valley, not a sunny mountaintop.

We must face it—we are mortal creatures and we will all face and experience physical death (Hebrews 9:27); unless Jesus Christ returns in our lifetime. While the ultimate result of sin is death, the effect of sin is made known to us in the familiar causes of physical death: heart disease, cancer, respiratory illness, accidents, stroke, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, pneumonia, and so on.

We can take comfort as believers, even in the midst of hard diagnosis or bad news, this is under the control of our sovereign God, as Job declares concerning the temporary nature of life on this broken world, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Even in the midst of trial and tribulation the LORD promises his presence with us and his comfort as we see when we look at all of Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 of the victory over death that is ours in Christ. Christ’s victory over death in his own resurrection from the dead provides the living hope for believers who will be with Christ upon death and will ultimately receive resurrected glorified bodies fit for eternity like Jesus. It is because of what Jesus has done that we have a certain and living hope of eternal life.

This victory over sin and death in the physical realm is a reflection of Jesus’ victory over spiritual death where Christ takes us from being dead in our trespasses and sins, and makes us spiritually alive; and saves us by God's mercy and love through Christ (Ephesians 4:4-5).

On the night before Jesus was crucified, he comforted his disciples with these words, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3).

Jesus has prepared a place for those who believe in him.

This is the comfort Paul shared with the Thessalonians who were worried about their loved ones who had died before Christ’s return, ^“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep (physically dead), that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep . . . Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, 18).

Yes, it is true, Christians grieve at the death of those they love. Jesus did this too, but we do not grieve as the world does, for we have a living hope of life everlasting in the presence of the LORD in glory. May we take comfort and rejoice in Christ, in the midst of the shadow of death when our day comes.