Death is a Reality by John Talley III

For those who don’t know me, I’m a huge 76ers fan! Some of my friends make fun of me because ever since Allen Iverson left the team, we have been going downhill. But I’m still committed; that’s one of the reasons the tragic news of Philadelphia legends’ Darryl Dawkins and Moses Malone passing away strikes me now.

I think people have an infatuation with the reality of death. Countless books and movies have been produced to present a fictional or non-fictional perception of death. This refers to the cessation of life as we know it, and this takes on both physical and spiritual dynamics. Death has a negative connation because of the “first sin” in the Garden of Eden committed by our ancestors Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-24). But can death ever be looked at as a good thing?

Statistics show that 56.2 million people die each year, 154,000 people die each day, 6,420 people die every hour, 107 people die every minute, and almost 2 people die every second. Death is all around us! Michael Horton, Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary professor, writes, “Everyone, believer and unbeliever alike, experiences life as painful, difficult, disappointing, and finally, as death” (2006). We all will die one day because death is a reality.

Christ was the one who defeated sin and death through His shed blood on the cross and resurrection. It is true that Christ died, but death could not hold Him, thus He defeated death. He actually rose from the grave (1 Corinthians 15)! Therefore, anyone who is “in Him” knows that death has no hold on him or her.

Essentially, physical death will come for us all. But where will those individuals dwell or live for eternity? The Bible tells us that there are two places called heaven and hell (John 14:2; Matthew 10:28). Heaven is the place where Christians will spend eternity in the presence of God and hell is the place where enemies of God will spend eternity facing God’s wrath. For Christians, death is just a doorway to the glorious house of our Savior where we will remain forever.