Death Is Of No Avail

O grave! Bring on your peace and solitude!
I welcome your healing silence as balm!
From life's frantic charade, this interlude,
Your Stygian*dark does my being becalm!
Let not scoffers denounce your lonely cell;
Or thick walls rebuff some-day entrants there;
Your chimes, in place of joy, more oft do knell,
For those backs yet burdened with weight of care!
But hold! What spreading light is that I see,
It's cheerful glow a lift to my still heart?
His loving Presence warmly welcomes me;
It is the Lamb, His arms widespread apart!
Who needs you, grave? In you I will not stay;
To the child of grace, you're but empty clay!

*Stygian = total darkness

"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues, where, O grave, is your destruction?" (Hosea 13:14)

Yes, dear friend, believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord, and you have defeated death and the grave. The poem above is an allegory; things do not happen exactly as portrayed. The Bible says every man must die once; however, believers will not face the "second death", which is being condemned for eternity to dwell in the Lake of Fire, or hell. The flesh that makes up our bodies must die, and it will return to dust and mingle with the elements of the earth. When Jesus Christ returns to earth, He will resurrect the bodies of all those who believe in Him; He will make a new body for each, though, which will be imperishable, like the angels. The non-believers will be resurrected at the end of time, also with new bodies which will live forever in torment.

God is all-powerful; He raised the man Jesus from death to life on the third day after His crucifiction, thus, He is more powerful than death. The believer has assurance that, though his body dies on earth, he will be resurrected as Jesus was; he is promised eternal life in heaven. Why should Christians fear death? Families grieve over the loss of a loved one, but a Christian family has hope and faith that the deceased will live again. The greater the faith in the promises of Jesus, the less grieving takes place. If a non-believer dies, his family has more reason to grieve, because according to the Bible, the deceased also faces "second death"---eternity in hell (Revelation 20:14).