Good Morning,
It’s not often that death can bring joy, but in today’s chapter from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Ch. 32, “Of the State of Man after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead”, there is true felicity to be found. The reason for this is quite plain. Death is not natural. It is not like taxes, destined to always be with us. In fact death is an interloper, something that the Lord Jesus Christ came to destroy and to, pardon the expression, put to death. It is important for Christians to remember that for us the end of the physical life of the body is not the conclusion of reality. It is the beginning of glory. The start of unbounded delight as we go into the perfect presence, no longer limited by sin, of God Almighty. In today’s look at this portion of our Confession we are going to answer one misnomer about death and think a little bit more of the wonderfulness of the gospel. We consider this not just in light of what has been accomplished by Christ in His death, but why believers can approach their own with peace.
So much of the fear and anguish we see today in the way our culture thinks of death (very much illuminated by this past year and a half) is because they have no hope. They woefully miss the promised truth of life to come, and in this regard not only lose the life they have here on this Earth, but they have much to lose in the eternal day which is to be in their future.
As noted one part of this that I want to touch on for our brief time today is what our Confession teaches us about our physical bodies. Too many times at funerals I’ve heard well-meaning clergy say something to the effect of “Aunt Lily is not here, this is just a shell” or something of the sort. We believe that the Bible teaches that our flesh will be redeemed as much as our spirit. This is why it is important for us to remember what Shorter Catechism #37 says:
What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.
God when He formed us from the dust of the Earth was not making a vessel to carry a soul. Our body is good. It is central to our identity and who we are as human beings. Our physical features express who we are as much as our spirit. This is part of the reason why traditionally the Christian Church has spoken against cremation as a lawful way of caring for a person after death. What we do with our physical person matters. As section 2 of our Confession of Faith Ch. 32 says, “…all the dead shall be raised up with the self-same bodies…”. We are to care for our departed loved one’s flesh as much as we would our own, for when Christ returns our Confession states in section 3, “The bodies of the unjust shall, by the power of Christ, be raised to dishonour: the bodies of the just, by His Spirit, unto honour; and be made conformable to His own glorious body.” This is not to say of course that those men lost at sea or other extraordinary cases where the body cannot be recovered, or for whatever reason the flesh is destroyed that the Lord who made it cannot put it back together on the Last Day. We do not operate in the exceptions, however. Another aspect of this worth considering is that Christian burial is act of testifying to our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just as His body was laid in the tomb and prepared for the life to come, so to do we do so with the dear departed folks who we love. Likewise consider the witness of the Israelites as they carried the bones of Joseph through the Wilderness so that they could be laid to rest in the Promised Land. Amidst the sadness of committing the body of our brother or sister to the ground we have the assurance of resurrection life in the midst of it. We know that this exact grave where we place our loved one is where they are going to rise up on the day in which Christ returns.
Hear these words from the Book of Common Prayer:
Unto Almighty God we commend the soul of our brother departed, and we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and the sea shall give up their dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like unto his own glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.
Notice the way the words work here. In the service of Christian burial there is the promise that we who trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation, and believe in the promises will see that faithful child of God again in the flesh. Our gracious Heavenly Father has covenanted with us to care for our loved one in the grave and to raise them up on the last day in incorruption. One of my favorite parts of the section of the BCP quoted above is the language of “sleep”. We don’t of course refer to soul sleep or some such heresy, but it is meant to give off the savor of rest. Our bodies which went through so much in life because of Adam’s sin are now given peace because of the great and wonderful labors of the Second Adam, Jesus Christ.
This again is the great beauty of death in light of the gospel and why the Apostle Paul spends so much time hurting over the idea that anyone would preach as if the resurrection is not real. If there is no resurrection, then we of all men are to be most pitied. But this is not so. Our friend and brother has laid down His life for ours, and because of that His being raised from the dead are the first fruits which show us what is the believers to behold in their future.
For more on what we are to think about at death here is a helpful piece by Rev. Patrick Ramsey:
https://www.reformation21.org/blog/the-christians-hope-at-death
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church