The Benefits of death

We never stop to think of the benefits of death do we? You might find it strange that I have even chosen sucha title. What benefits could there be?

When a loved one passes away,we cannot help but be sad and reminiscent of the life that was past, and we pause and consider that such a person is now in a better place. We don’t see death as beneficial at all; we hate death, for it takes life, the essence of existence.Death steals life...or does it?


Have you considered what you eat? Have you considered that the food we eat brings us life? Without it we ourselves would die. But in the same thought, consider that all the food you eat for nourishment and growth is dead. All forms of food, whether animals, plants or seeds first have to die, or die in our stomachs to bring us life. So in a very real and beneficial way, the death of animals and plants provide and sustain us with life.

This example is not only seen in nature but nature itself speaks of a greater truth that was demonstrated by Jesus Christ. He lived, and died, and His death brought life to the entire cosmos. Without him dying, we would not be able to experience real life.

Death has a purpose and it is beneficial to us and essential for new life.

We can experience death at various levels in our lives - emotional, mental, spiritual and physical. A severe marital disappointment might kill you on the inside; you might eventually become spiritually dead because you keep on disobeying the voice of God deep within you, or you might become mentally dead after severe trauma, stress, overexertion and the like. The last death we are to experience is physical death – when we have come to the end of what our bodies can endure...

But for those who are believers in Christ, death has very liberating purpose.

In Paul’s own attempts to live as a devout Jew he found death:

Rom 7:9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

Here we can see that the law brings death.

In essence the law is attempting to perform in your own capacity and strength.

But this death that the law produces has a definite purpose and that purpose is to bring us to a new kind of life.

Gal 2:19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Here Paul says the through the Law he died. In other words, it was the Law that killed him - His own attempts to live righteously towards God. It killed Him spiritually, so that he might be dead to the law but ALIVE to God.

You see, as natural men and women we are born in a sinful state. We are self-willed, self-pleasing, and most importantly we strive to be self-righteous. In our natural state, we are self-centered beings. And when you bring a self-centered being to God, that being naturally wants to be self-justified and become even more self-righteous.It seems to be the disease of human nature. We seem to want to do things ourselves and be proud of it. But in this we don’t at first realize the fallacy of it all.

The Law takes us from a false, self-righteous and empty state of living to an eventual guilty,self-loathing, and ashamed state. This then leads to an inner death if fully pursued. An eventual death to self-attempts.

But for us, Believers inChrist it does not stop there. This death is to bring us to the end of ourselves so we can take hold of the rope already passed to us.

God knows this deprived way of life and provides a way out, into the true nature of who we really are made to be. God’s intention is not that we should live in our fallen state of depravity, emptiness and failing self efforts but he wants to give us life, the life of His son, the Zoe breath and life of the Creator of the Universe pulsating through and filling every area of our minds, hearts, spirits and bodies.

But how do we get from our fallen state into this glorious, true way of being? We cannot do it ourselves,for that would once again amount to self-effort...It is something that cannot be attained, earned, or bargained for. The only way to inherit this Zoe Life of God is to die.

Col 3:3 - For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Rom 15:35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed


42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There isa natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.”The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

We died Spiritually with Christ and were already raised to new life with Him. Those who believe the Gospel find their inner selves dead in it’s own attempts to follow and please God as they realize how incapable they are. But in that death, the “self” died and conceded to Christ’s life through us. We were raised on the inside to New Life. We now find that Christ indeed lives within us.

Our salvation is not yet complete, for we have not yet died off all forms of old life. You might have died and be resurrected in your spirit and heart but your body is yet hindering the fullness of salvation...

In this day our salvation will be complete – Where we will be saved wholly at all levels as well as physically.

We as can look forward and embrace death as the catalyst for eternal life!


1 Cor 15: 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”


55 “O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”


56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.