All Die and All Live

       Funerals are very emotional to me whether or not I know the person who died.  I go through a general sadness in that no man should have to die, and a specific sadness that no one should have to suffer the loss of a loved one.  Yet, we all must die (2Sm. 14:14).  Even when the person is in Heaven and there is hope for seeing them again, that does not stop the ache of missing them here and now.  There are many I miss in my own life; I’m confident some were saved and are waiting for me in Heaven, and others I am unsure about because they may have been saved in the last few moments of their lives.

       So it was after the funeral yesterday that I sat reading Scriptures and was astounded by the end of a verse that indicated something I simply never considered.  We experience the loss of a person, their touch, their voice, their laughter, their love, their wisdom, etc. while we remain living on this earth.  But God, who is eternal and knew us before we were born (Jr. 1:5; Ps. 139:16), is not the God of the dead but of the living…

But that the dead are raised, even Moses pointed out at the Bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not God of the dead, but of the living. For all live to Him. Lk. 20:37,38

       Now, this could mean God is the God of the spiritually living (saved) and not those spiritually dead (unsaved), but proper interpretation of the Bible is to take it literally when at all possible.  “For all live to Him.” (Mt. 22:32; Mr. 12:27 omit these 5 words).  God IS the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because they are not dead in spirit but in body.  “…to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2Cr. 5:8 Web) 

All live to God.

       To God, we don’t die.  There is no loss in the respect that our spirit lives on, so our physical death (in my mind) probably doesn’t affect Him like we are affected by the death of a loved one.  I think for Him it would be worse if our spirit was dead to Him due to rejecting Jesus Christ and His work on the cross.  God doesn’t want one to perish (2Pt. 3:9), not one, but all to repent and turn to Him.

All live to God.  It is our choice how we live after our bodies die…

     Will it be eternal life or torment?  Choose wisely…

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Dn. 12:2

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life. Mt. 25:46

as Sodom and Gomorrah… undergoing vengeance of everlasting fire. Jude 1:7

He who believes on the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him. Jh. 3:36

And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night, those who worship the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name. Rv. 14:11