Will your death be precious to God?
God’s Word declares: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15). Does that passage apply to you? Will your death be precious to God? It sure can be, but first you must become a saint.
The Apostle Paul addressed his Epistle to the Romans “to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” (Romans 1:7). You see, everyone in God’s family is a saint. The word saint comes from the Greek word hagios, which means “consecrated to God, holy, sacred.”
When you were brought into God’s family by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ, you were instantly made a saint. You were immediately forgiven of all your sins and granted the free gift of everlasting life in Heaven. And you were set apart for the holy purposes of God.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
In writing “to the saints in Ephesus,” (Ephesians 1:1) Paul expressed his prayer “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).
This is the calling of every believer in Jesus. Knowing and growing in God’s love is a large part of what it means to be a follower of Christ. And the more you and I are filled with the love of Christ, the better equipped we are to fulfill our calling. One day the Lord will bring us home to Heaven. In the meantime, we are called to “keep our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) as we seek to do God's will during our few years on Earth.
The life and the death of every child of God is precious in His sight. Paul wrote, “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Romans 14:8). We simply cannot comprehend the glory and majesty of Heaven, but one day, we will experience it firsthand.
As a Christian, your death will be precious to God because He loves you dearly. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1). And if you do not yet know the Lord, you can meet Christ today. To be forgiven and become a saint in God’s eyes, it is necessary to receive the love of God by receiving Jesus as your Savior.
Jesus said, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). You and I do not deserve to be in God’s family because of our sin, and yet the Lord loves us so much that He laid down His life for our sins on the cross. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
No one looks forward to the process of dying. But thankfully for the Christian, “death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54). Believers have the promise of eternal life with God in Heaven. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
That, my friend, is the big question. Do you believe in Jesus as your Savior from sin? If not, today can be your day to enter the family of God through faith in Christ. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) pastored Westminster Chapel in London for 30 years. He said, “If a man is saved, it is because God has saved him. But if a man is lost, that is to be attributed to his own rejection of the Gospel and his own rebellion against God’s way of salvation.”
We are all rebels by nature. We do things our own way rather than God’s way. Paul wrote, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).
Are you going to turn away from the Lord today and reject His gracious offer to forgive your sins and save your soul? The alternative is to humbly accept God’s free gift of salvation as you bring your sins to Jesus in repentance and faith. Your acceptance or rejection of Christ will determine whether or not your death will be precious to God.
The Bible informs us: “God wants everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). That includes you my friend!
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:14). Knowing Jesus and then walking closely with your Lord and Savior on Earth will culminate on your “homecoming day.” And on that day, your death will be precious to God. You see, you won’t really die because your soul will be immediately ushered to Heaven.
This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:26).
But just remember: Your final day on Earth could come much sooner than you think. After all, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).
When your body expires, your soul will either be welcomed into Heaven, or dragged away to Hell (see Matthew 7:13-14). There is not a third option. And so, the sooner your name gets written in Heaven’s reservation book, the better.
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.
