According to Martin Luther, to contemplate death is to prepare oneself for the time of death, but it must be done at the right time - "invite death into our presence when it is still at a distance and not on the move.” He stresses that we must not banish the thought of death out of our minds when we are far away from it, this is the time that we must prepare our selves for it, as we will not be able to contain the thought of death at the last hour of our lives. He says, at the time of death, “[the devil] fills our foolish human nature with the dread of death while cultivating a love and concern for life, so that burdened with such thoughts man forgets God, flees and abhors death, and thus, in the end, is and remains disobedient to God.”
I think a lot of people (especially those who are ignorant to the Gospel) would be afraid of death and would rather not think about it. I think it is important to be content with it as death is a certainty for every living being. I think the most common reason why death is a terrifying thought is because we hate the thought of losing all the things that we love in life. That would be my first fear. It isn’t the fear of judgment for my sins, the fear of a painful death (maybe a little… ha ha), or the fear of not having an afterlife. The kind of fears you have are determined by what stage you are in life. In my life I am more in danger of being consumed by materialistic gain and a comfortable lifestyle. I’m not quite comfortable with the idea of all my achievements in life going to waste. It is easier to be at peace with death when you have nothing to lose. But even if one was completely careless of losing his possessions, he may possess a fear of there not being an afterlife or possibly going to hell, for example. As people become more and more experienced in life (or get older in other words) they become more solidified in their beliefs. Therefore, if one has a reasonably open approach to death most of his life he may be more at ease at the time of death, compared to one that has shunned the thought most of his life.
We all know that this life is only temporary. However, not everybody is certain that there is such a thing as “life after death”. I think a lot of people would like to believe there is an afterlife, but my question is “is it important to know this now?” I personally believe there is a life after death through what I have read in the Bible (e.g. Genesis 1:1; Matthew 13:42-43, 25:30, 34; Luke 23:43), but many interpret these things in different ways. If you find these things important you may want to take a look at this Q&A page. It may help you in your searching for the truth in this matter. But if it were so important for us to know about what exactly happens once we die then maybe Jesus would have spelled it out to us word for word. Jesus told us all that we needed to know (John 15:15). The important thing to know is that through Christ’s blood that was shed for us we are free of judgement, saved from the wrath of God. We will be saved from “hell” (which is basically a place that NO ONE wants to be – a place of complete separation from the loving Father) if we surrender our lives to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This raises another question. As much as it is true that we are saved by the blood of Christ, are we incapable of losing our seal of salvation after gaining it once? I personally find it a little un-easy to accept this kind of theology, as it would mean that once we were saved we can do whatever we pleased… and this does not sit right with me. I would like to think salvation is something that is as fragile as a relationship. Although God is all-merciful and our sins cannot hold us back from Him, we are absolutely capable of walking away from God, through our free will. God will not force His salvation upon us. Therefore, if we do not want to live with God we do not have to. But only a fool would seriously want to walk away from God by his own free will… I would go as far as to consider this a curse, and only by this curse can one surely go to hell.
However, it is not by fear that we must live but by the Joy that we are Children of God (Romans 8:16). We have no need to fear death as Christ has promised us salvation from eternal damnation (John10:9). We will never be parted from God if not by our own free will. So we must pray and build our relationships with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Pray that we may learn to love Him more everyday, and He will allow us to overcome death, just as He did.
“With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.” Romans 10:10
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