Death is the Way to Life

John 12:20-26

Some Gentiles had been observing Jesus and wanted to meet Him. They approached Philip who through Andrew arranged for them to meet. I’m sure the entire conversation is not recorded but we know that Jesus made this comment to them: “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit.”

We can see this concept demonstrated in several ways. Jesus speaks of a grain of wheat and I’m reminded of a kernel of corn. One kernel of corn produces a large plant with several ears of corn. Each of those ears of corn contains about 650 kernels. Consider how fast that multiples. Consider how many acorns an oak tree produces every year with each one of them capable of producing a tree.

From the animal kingdom we know that a caterpillar builds a cocoon and dies and becomes a beautiful butterfly which I think is a beautiful picture of what happens to us. We are living on earth in our sin racked bodies and are certain to die. Hardly anyone lives to be over 100 years old. But that is not the end of our existence for we are created to be eternal beings.

The Psalmist says in Psalm 116:15 “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.” That is so because when Christians die we enter into an even greater relationship with our Lord. The fellowship we enjoy with Him is even greater than what we experience in our earthly lifetime. We are not burdened with the sin nature any longer.

While death is a rather scary process, because no one has been on the other side and come back to tell us about it, we as Christians can have a completely different attitude because we know our eternal destination.

It is good to be reminded, however, that the ability to trust Christ as our Savior ends at our physical death. Remember the story in Luke 16:19-31 of the rich man and Lazarus. That story reminds us that our eternal destiny cannot be changed after our physical death. This truth should lead us to share the wonderful story of our relationship with Jesus as our Savior.