This graphic is... well, graphic. And doesn't do the reality of the situation a bit of justice.
As God blesses us with age, it seems like we begin spending more and more time at funerals.
This comment is one that I have heard many times. Someone dies, the room fills with grief, and eventually somebody offers the familiar words: "At least he’s in a better place now.”
We mean well. We are trying to comfort a hurting family. We want desperately to believe that death ended the suffering and that whoever died has stepped into peace.
But there is an uncomfortable question Christians cannot afford to ignore... What if he isn’t?
That question sounds harsh only because our culture has gradually turned heaven into the assumed destination of almost everyone who dies.
“He was a good man.”
“She had a good heart.”
“He would have given you the shirt off his back.”
“He believed there was a God.”
“He’s not hurting anymore.”
Those things may comfort us, but none of them are the Gospel.
Jesus never taught that death automatically takes people somewhere better. In fact, He taught almost exactly the opposite of our modern assumption.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” -Matthew 7:13–14
Read that carefully. Jesus said many travel the road toward destruction and few find the road leading to life. That should radically change the way Christians think about death.
Death Does Not Save Anyone
There is a strange theology that appears at funerals that we would never preach on Sunday.
A person may have wanted nothing to do with Jesus throughout his life. He may never have repented, never trusted Christ, never followed Him, and perhaps openly rejected Him.
Then he dies.
Suddenly we speak as though death itself reconciled him to God. But that isn't true. Scripture doesn't teach this, it is opposite. Jesus said:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” -John 14:6
And Jesus told Nicodemus:
“No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” -John 3:3
The biblical hope of heaven is not that someone died. That could be the worst thing that ever happened to a person. The real hope is that “they belonged to Jesus.”
Death is not the Savior. Jesus is.
ONLY Jesus is.
“But He Was Such a Good Person”
This may be the most dangerous justification of all.
We compare people to other people and conclude that someone was certainly good enough for heaven. But that assumption misunderstands why Jesus came.
If decent people could simply live respectable lives and eventually enter heaven, the cross, and the sacrifice that He made, becomes unnecessary. Scripture says:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -Romans 6:23
Christianity does not divide humanity into 'good people who go to heaven' and 'bad people who go to hell.' It tells us something far more unsettling... We are all sinners in need of a Savior. And we MUST accept that Savior.
The difference is not that Christians managed to become good enough. The difference is Jesus.
This Is Why the Gospel Is Urgent
This article isn't about hastening Christians to stand over grieving families announcing who might be now residing in hell. The truth is, that's not our position or pay grade.
We don't know everything that happened between a person's heart and God in his final moments. The thief beside Jesus is powerful evidence that grace can reach someone remarkably late. Jesus told a dying criminal who turned to Him:
“Today you will be with me in paradise.” -Luke 23:43
So we should be extremely careful about declaring the eternal fate of a particular person when we do not know. But neither should we manufacture certainty where Scripture gives us none. The point of this being that we should not manufacture something that isn't truthful or scriptural, in an effort to offer hope or comfort. And there is an even bigger reason for. this, and that is those who are still people alive who are listening to us.
If every funeral teaches them that everyone eventually ends up somewhere better anyway, why would they ever feel the urgency of the Gospel?
Why repent or surrender? Why be born again? Why did Jesus endure the cross? Why did the apostles risk their lives preaching about Jesus? Why did Jesus tell us to go into all the world and make disciples?
Listen very carefully here... eternity is real. Judgment is real. Salvation is real.
And because Jesus really does save. But this is the only way to be saved.
Maybe We Should Say It While They're Still Here
The greater tragedy here is that while they were alive, we never told them how to get there.
We may have attended events with them, ate with them, laughed and worked with them... We talked about sports, politics, weather, family, work, and everything imaginable. But we were afraid that talking about Jesus might make things uncomfortable. Then one day there was no more time. That should wake the Church up.
The Gospel is not something cruel Christians threaten people with. It is extraordinary news offered to people who desperately need it:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16
Our confidence is not found in being nice, being religious, having good intentions, attending church occasionally, or having somebody say beautiful things about us at our funeral.
Our confidence is Jesus Christ. So maybe instead of waiting until someone dies to say “I hope he's in a better place,” we should love people enough while they're still alive to tell them that “There is a better place. There is a Savior. His name is Jesus. And while you still have breath, the invitation is open.”
Eventually, for every one of us, the question will no longer be hypothetical. And by then, what people say at our funeral won't be what matters.
~Devin
Devin Osborne
The Early Church