The fear of death is something every human will experience. This fear might grip us, when we consider, or are confronted with death. This week, Stephen Hawking, the great theoretical Physicist passed away. From all accounts he did not profess to believe in God. He didn’t know what death would bring. This is a common human experience. Hamlet called death, the undiscovered country, convinced that a fear of what we do not know must make cowards of us all. Is this true? Many leaders of the ancient Church (the church fathers) taught that sin is a reaction to the fear of death. Our culture certainly struggles with a fear of death. We try to deny it, mask it, or control it. But we very rarely face it.
Are you struggling with a particular sin? Or, are you afraid of the dangers of life? Do you find yourself anxious about aging, or death? God’s Word has a message of comfort for you. What Hamlet, and Hawking did not know, we know.
2 Corinthians 4:13-18
13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:13-18 ESV).
What Hamlet Didn’t Know
