Death's Paradox

Recently I was at work on a particularly boring day, and my mind began to wander onto the topic of death. (Something which I seem to have an unhealthy interest in!!!). And I was struggling with how I, as a young Christian man should view death.

In it's most basic form death is separation. It is separation of the dead from the living. Once we have crossed that boundary there is absolutely no way back. In the Bible, Man's spiritual separation from God is seen as being spiritually dead. In the same way as our spiritual separation from our bodies defines our physical death.
However death, no matter how terrible it is from our perspective here, is something which has come about by the will of God. He purposefully took eternal life away from us following the fall. "'The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live for ever'". He then assigned an engel to guard the tree of life so that mankind could not live for ever. And whether this is factual history or picture language, the meaning is the same. Once sin had entered the world, God declared that we would die.

What I find very interesting about this was that death was not simply a means of punishment, but was also sowing the seeds of our later redemption. God was instituting a means by which the rest of humanity could be saved. Not to mention a punishment which He himself would undergo for our salvation!

Therefore as a young Christian man, how should I view death. Death is something which hangs over us and as the book of Ecclesiastes makes out, bring everything we do to nothing. It is something which one day will separate me from all I know and everyone I know, not to mention my physical body. However by death Christ has saved us, and it is only by going through death that I can be resurrected into eternal life in heaven.

And so in answer to my question. I fear death, but I also long for eternity. I fear loosing my loved ones. I fear the experience of dying. I worry about how it will happen and when. But I long for a time when death shall be no more. When I will finally be able to stand face to face with Jesus and thank him personally for a life lived with him. A time when I will finally be as he always wanted me to be.

This is clearly a subject which at times will fill me with dread and at other times will excite and encourage me. So for the moment it seems, death will continue to be a paradox. At once a door which separates me from all I know and love in this world and at the same time, a door which allows me to become the man God wants me to be.