Why do people have to die?

That is a very awesome question! And, to find the answer, we have to go all the way back to the first book of the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis. Here’s the deal, when God first created the earth and created Adam and Eve, they were in a perfect relationship with God and they had no fear of dying. Life was fairly simple back then with very few rules…except one BIG rule:

“And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17)

Well, we all know what happened. Eve was tempted by the serpent and took a bite of the apple and then Adam took a bite of the apple and sin entered the world. And God was not happy about it. In fact, God puts a curse on the serpent and on Adam and Eve. To mankind God says this, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you are returned to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19)

Our perfect relationship with God was broken and we were condemned to die. Even the New Testament reaffirms this curse in Romans 6:23 when it states, “For the wages of sin is death…” BUT, and here’s the good news!!! The rest of that verse says, “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus.”

Even though our physical bodies will eventually die, we are promised eternal life in Heaven WITH JESUS by accepting God’s gift of grace and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Probably one of the most quoted and well-known Bible verses is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son and whoever shall believe in Him shall not perish (die) but have eternal life.” But don’t forget the next line, which to me is just as important, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”

Even though every person will eventually die a physical death based on the sin that came into the world, those of us who are saved will have eternal life with Jesus in Heaven. While no one wants to die and we don’t want to see loved ones die, I want you to know that I am not scared of dying because I know where I am going. I just want to be able to stick around for a little while longer so that I can see my kids grow up, get married and maybe become a grandpa someday.

I want to tell you a funny story. A friend of mine’s grandmother loved Jesus so much and she knew, without a doubt, what awaited her when she died. So, when she was on her deathbed she was so happy that she was going to see Jesus soon that that’s all she could talk about. The she fell asleep, a little catnap so-to-speak, and then woke up. Here’s the funny part: She looked around the room, looked at my friend and actually said, “Oh, darn! Still here!” Can you believe that???

You know, even though he was sad when she eventually died, he knew that she was in heaven with his grandfather and with Jesus and it made him happy and gave him great comfort to know that she was there.