How often do we stop and think about how powerfully death reigns in our world? In fact the most sure things in the natural world are taxes, the Dallas Cowboys choking in the playoffs, and death itself. Everything naturally inclines toward disorder. Scientists refer to this as the law of entropy: all material things, from planets to atoms to human bodies, inevitably fall apart and deteriorate into chaos over time. So until Christ comes again, nothing lasts forever—everything bows to King Death.
Or at least, that’s the normal way of things. But we instead have a greater king that has once and for all deposed death by resurrecting from the dead himself. Christ overcame death on Easter Sunday, and because of that, he is powerful to rescue all those whom he loves from the grasp of death as well. By his resurrection, all those who are in Christ get to have eternal life with him. In other words, our king is king even over entropy.
But as Paul indicates in these verses, there is a gap of time between when Christ enters eternal life and when Christians do, and for the past 2000 years we have been waiting in that gap. But the end of the story is worth waiting for! You can tell Paul gets excited whenever he writes about the end times when Christ the Son of God will take his rightful dominion over all the nations and mightiest forces in the universe. Even death itself, the strongest power in the universe, will ultimately be vanquished, and we, who are for now prone to death and surrounded by death, will be resurrected with our Redeemer. What a wonderful end to anticipate!
For now, though, the certain hope we have in Christ frees us from even the greatest despairs. Death still reigns, and we lose loved ones every day. But as painful as the separation is, we also know it’s not their end. Death’s power is only temporary, which is why Paul only ever refers to dying as falling asleep. But every sleeping Christian will one day wake and enjoy Christ’s kingdom for eternity. We are resurrection people, and in Christ, death has no hold on us!
