Lesson 87: Fear of Dying
The thing most of us fear and dread more than anything is death, being separated from families, friends and all that pertains to the life we have come to love. No ordinary person has ever come back to tell us what is on the other side. We fear and dread the unknown and judgment. But Jesus, being both God and man, was the first to die, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, rise from the dead never to die again. It was necessary for Him to die, because in His incarnate flesh, though He Himself was perfect, He took on the sins of man and so had to die as the punishment that was due us, for death is the penalty for sin. But after He had paid the penalty, God through the Holy Spirit, raised Him up. We too will die because in our mortal bodies we are filled with sin. But once we have accepted Jesus as Savior, the Holy Spirit fills us and will also raise us up as He did Jesus, because we are united with Jesus by our faith. And we need not fear going through it alone because Jesus promised to be with us, even when we walk through the shadow of the valley of death.