Did anyone ever tell you, “You were made to last forever?”
Many of my hospice patients answered “No” in response to this question. Imagine a man getting ready to die and I tell him that he was made to last forever. My promise gets his attention. A 92-year-old woman named Dot asked me, “Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?”
Each one of us exists as our own unique person, going through three successive phases. The first phase is in the womb, the second is in this world, and the third is in eternity.
Before being conceived, we each existed in the mind of God, who said to the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” (Jeremiah 1:5) The same is true for you and me. We are all made in God’s image and descended from Adam and Eve. Usually for nine months, a pre-born baby grows, being nourished from the world he or she unknowingly is being prepared to enter.
The second phase of our existence is here in this beautiful-but-broken world. Our first father, Adam, sinned and separated us from the God who made us. Brokenness is not only outside us, the brokenness is inside us as well. “The hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.” (Ecclesiastes 9:3) On their deathbeds, patients have confessed to me war atrocities, cruelty to animals, adultery and more. They had consciences that condemned them long before they ever met me. A dying professional woman told me, “I am scared to death.”
What is the answer to sin and death? The two most important people you need to know about are Adam and Jesus Christ. Adam gave us physical life but also a sinful nature. Jesus Christ died on the cross and was raised from the dead to give forgiveness and eternal life to anyone who trusts him to be their savior. Jesus said in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” We need physical generation to exist and spiritual regeneration to know God.
Adam gave us physical life that brought us here; Jesus offers us spiritual life to know God and live with him forever. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father, but through me.” (John 14:6) The Apostle Paul wrote, ” Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.” (I Corinthians 15:49)
The third and longest phase of any person’s existence is based on his relationship or lack thereof with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
At 92 years of age, Dot trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as her personal savior and rejoiced like a little girl going home to her heavenly father. The younger professional woman also called on the Lord for salvation from sin and death. Are you likewise prepared so that, whether you live or whether you die, you are the Lord’s? (Romans 14:7-9)
Richard Fisher served as a hospice chaplain for 11 years and now is assistant pastor of visitation at First Presbyterian Church.