COVID-19
How many people
do you think are going to die from this virus?
How much worry does that cause you?
I have another question. How many
people on this earth do you think are going to die? How much worry does that cause you?
Have you ever thought about the fact that every person you
run into is going to die? Every single
one. And so will you. In a weird sense, every one of us is a
ticking time-bomb. Each one of us is one
heartbeat closer to our demise than we were before that last heartbeat. This Is not morose language. It is biblical language.
Psalm 90:3–6 (NKJV)
3 You turn man to destruction, And say, “Return, O
children of men.” 4 For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when
it is past, And like a watch in the night. 5 You carry them away like a flood;
They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: 6 In
the morning it flourishes and grows up; In the evening it is cut down and
withers.
The Psalmist says that we are like grass that grows up in
the morning and then that evening is cut down and dies. Your life is a wisp, a mist, it is as little
as a bit of fog on the road that slips by and is gone.
God also tells us why this is so.
Psalm 90:7–10 (NKJV)
7 For we have been consumed by Your anger, And by Your
wrath we are terrified. 8 You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret
sins in the light of Your countenance. 9 For all our days have passed away in
Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. 10 The days of our lives are
seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their
boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Death is all around us because sin is all around us. Secret sins in the light of God’s perfect,
all-seeing countenance. And He hates our
sin. His wrath is stirred up by it and
He will judge it with a perfect, holy anger that is eternal, righteous, and
good. Death is the penalty for our
sin. It is the wages of sin (Rom
6:23). COVID-19 has not increased the
number of people who are going to die.
COVID-19 has only reminded us that everyone is going to die.
Hebrews 9:27 (NKJV)
27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after
this the judgment,
There is nothing after death but judgment. There is nothing but the penalty for your sin
for which you will be bankrupt to pay. You
will have nothing to offer God to satisfy His holy wrath for your sin.
But God. God, in His
infinite mercy, sent His Son to be the propitiation for that sin. That holy wrath has been fully and justly
satisfied in the death of Jesus where He took upon Himself the sins of the
world that all who believe on Him would have eternal life.
This does not only mean that if you are in Christ that your sins are paid for and you will receive no judgment from the Father’s throne. It means that when you die, you will enter into a communion and delight with God the Father, Your Father, by way of the Son and in the life and power of the Holy Spirit. This is why, when facing death, Paul could write, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).
As we fight the corona virus, as we should, we must remember
that we are not fighting so that mortal people won’t die. We all will die. We are fighting the corona virus because death
is an enemy. But for all in Jesus Christ,
that enemy has been defeated. We have nothing
to fear when it comes to death. Christ
defeated death in principle when He rose from the dead.
Let this present distress remind you, or teach you, or open
your eyes to life that is yours in Jesus Christ.
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he
shall live. And whoever lives and believes
in Me shall never die. Do you believe
this?” (John 11:25-26).
