All the Brokenness is Gone
By Ryan Dawson
There’s something about death that has a way of putting life into perspective. Death reminds us how fragile life is, how quickly the years pass, and how important it is to consider what really matters. It also has a way of reminding us of the hope we have in Jesus, a hope that reaches beyond this life and carries us into eternity.
My Dad passed away a couple of weeks ago. This was the father who raised me, coming into my life when I was just three years old. His health had been failing for years as Parkinson’s gradually took over his body. In the end, it was merciful that the Lord finally took him home. My father came to trust in Christ at 60 years of age, and his faith grew stronger with each passing year until his death. I’m incredibly grateful to know that my father is now with Jesus, experiencing the fullness of life in His presence.
My father was not a perfect man, far from it. In fact, he was incredibly hard to live with when I was growing up. I came to understand later in life that much of his brokenness came from his own difficult upbringing, and while that doesn't excuse everything, it certainly helped me understand him with greater compassion. Yet, despite his faults, he had many good qualities, and I have many fond memories with my father. I'm thankful for all that he invested in me through the years.
The day after my father died, I was reading a sermon by Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan pastor and theologian from the 18th century. His sermons can be dense, but they are incredibly rewarding if you're willing to work your way through them. Incidentally, reading Edwards' sermons has been my "Hard Thing Rule" this year. Each year I deliberately choose something that is difficult but ultimately worthwhile.
I was reading Edwards’ sermon entitled Absent from the Body, based on 2 Corinthians 5:8, where the Apostle Paul declares that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Paul is writing about the extraordinary hope we have as followers of Jesus: death does not separate us from Christ; rather, it brings us into His presence.
I was particularly struck by Edwards' description of what happens when a believer leaves this earthly life and enters the fullness of life with Christ. He writes:
But while the saints are in the body, there is much remaining distance between Christ and them. There are remainders of alienation, and the vital union is very imperfect, and so consequently is the communications of spiritual life and vital influences. There is much between Christ and believers to keep them asunder, much indwelling sin, much temptation, a heavy-molded frail body, and a world of carnal objects, to keep off the soul from Christ, and hinder a perfect coalescence. But when the soul leaves the body, all these clogs and hindrances shall be removed, every separating wall shall be broken down, and every impediment taken out of the way, and all distance shall cease. The heart shall be wholly and forever attached and bound to him, by a perfect view of his glory. And the vital union shall then be brought to perfection. The soul shall live perfectly in and upon Christ, being perfectly filled with his spirit, and animated by his vital influences, living as it were only by Christ’s life, without any remainder of spiritual death, or carnal life. — Jonathan Edwards, Absent from the Body, preached at the funeral of the Rev. Mr. David Brainerd, missionary to the Indigenous Peoples, 1747.
It was the second part of Edwards' description that really captured my imagination. My father is now experiencing the perfection of Christ as he lives in unbroken, vital union with Jesus. All the brokenness is gone! All the struggles with sin, all the physical limitations, all the frailty of his earthly body, all the things that made life difficult and relationships complicated have passed away. He is now experiencing the fullness of life in the presence of Jesus. What an incredible thought!
As Christians, we have this great hope: there is True Life after death because Jesus lives! Our hope is not simply that we will one day escape the difficulties of this world, but that we will be fully restored in the presence of the One who made us, loves us, and gave His life for us. The resurrection of Jesus changes everything about how we understand death. Because Jesus lives, death does not have the final word. Because Jesus conquered the grave, those who belong to Him have the promise of eternal life.
I want to live with this reality in the forefront of my mind. I don't want the hope of eternity to be something I think about only at funerals or when someone I love passes away. I want eternity to shape how I live every ordinary day. I want to hold the things of this world more loosely, love people more deeply, forgive more readily, live more faithfully, and invest my life in the things that have eternal significance.
Perhaps one of the greatest gifts that the reality of death gives us is the opportunity to reconsider how we are living. We can become so consumed with the demands of today, the pressures of work, the pursuit of success, and accumulation of things, that we lose sight of the bigger picture. We can forget that this life is not all there is.
So let me encourage you to live with eternity in view. Remember that your greatest hope is not found in having a comfortable life, a successful career, good health, or even a long life. Our greatest hope is found in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, rose from the grave, and promises eternal life to all who put their trust in Him.
As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:17–18 (NLT): "For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."
Let's not waste the life we've been given. Let's live with our eyes fixed on Jesus, our hearts anchored in eternity, and our lives invested in what matters most. And when the day comes for us to leave this earthly body, may we do so with the same confidence Paul expressed, knowing that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
With love in Christ, Ryan
There’s something about death that has a way of putting life into perspective. Death reminds us how fragile life is, how quickly the years pass, and how important it is to consider what really matters. It also has a way of reminding us of the hope we have in Jesus, a hope that reaches beyond this life and carries us into eternity.
My Dad passed away a couple of weeks ago. This was the father who raised me, coming into my life when I was just three years old. His health had been failing for years as Parkinson’s gradually took over his body. In the end, it was merciful that the Lord finally took him home. My father came to trust in Christ at 60 years of age, and his faith grew stronger with each passing year until his death. I’m incredibly grateful to know that my father is now with Jesus, experiencing the fullness of life in His presence.
My father was not a perfect man, far from it. In fact, he was incredibly hard to live with when I was growing up. I came to understand later in life that much of his brokenness came from his own difficult upbringing, and while that doesn't excuse everything, it certainly helped me understand him with greater compassion. Yet, despite his faults, he had many good qualities, and I have many fond memories with my father. I'm thankful for all that he invested in me through the years.
The day after my father died, I was reading a sermon by Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan pastor and theologian from the 18th century. His sermons can be dense, but they are incredibly rewarding if you're willing to work your way through them. Incidentally, reading Edwards' sermons has been my "Hard Thing Rule" this year. Each year I deliberately choose something that is difficult but ultimately worthwhile.
I was reading Edwards’ sermon entitled Absent from the Body, based on 2 Corinthians 5:8, where the Apostle Paul declares that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Paul is writing about the extraordinary hope we have as followers of Jesus: death does not separate us from Christ; rather, it brings us into His presence.
I was particularly struck by Edwards' description of what happens when a believer leaves this earthly life and enters the fullness of life with Christ. He writes:
But while the saints are in the body, there is much remaining distance between Christ and them. There are remainders of alienation, and the vital union is very imperfect, and so consequently is the communications of spiritual life and vital influences. There is much between Christ and believers to keep them asunder, much indwelling sin, much temptation, a heavy-molded frail body, and a world of carnal objects, to keep off the soul from Christ, and hinder a perfect coalescence. But when the soul leaves the body, all these clogs and hindrances shall be removed, every separating wall shall be broken down, and every impediment taken out of the way, and all distance shall cease. The heart shall be wholly and forever attached and bound to him, by a perfect view of his glory. And the vital union shall then be brought to perfection. The soul shall live perfectly in and upon Christ, being perfectly filled with his spirit, and animated by his vital influences, living as it were only by Christ’s life, without any remainder of spiritual death, or carnal life. — Jonathan Edwards, Absent from the Body, preached at the funeral of the Rev. Mr. David Brainerd, missionary to the Indigenous Peoples, 1747.
It was the second part of Edwards' description that really captured my imagination. My father is now experiencing the perfection of Christ as he lives in unbroken, vital union with Jesus. All the brokenness is gone! All the struggles with sin, all the physical limitations, all the frailty of his earthly body, all the things that made life difficult and relationships complicated have passed away. He is now experiencing the fullness of life in the presence of Jesus. What an incredible thought!
As Christians, we have this great hope: there is True Life after death because Jesus lives! Our hope is not simply that we will one day escape the difficulties of this world, but that we will be fully restored in the presence of the One who made us, loves us, and gave His life for us. The resurrection of Jesus changes everything about how we understand death. Because Jesus lives, death does not have the final word. Because Jesus conquered the grave, those who belong to Him have the promise of eternal life.
I want to live with this reality in the forefront of my mind. I don't want the hope of eternity to be something I think about only at funerals or when someone I love passes away. I want eternity to shape how I live every ordinary day. I want to hold the things of this world more loosely, love people more deeply, forgive more readily, live more faithfully, and invest my life in the things that have eternal significance.
Perhaps one of the greatest gifts that the reality of death gives us is the opportunity to reconsider how we are living. We can become so consumed with the demands of today, the pressures of work, the pursuit of success, and accumulation of things, that we lose sight of the bigger picture. We can forget that this life is not all there is.
So let me encourage you to live with eternity in view. Remember that your greatest hope is not found in having a comfortable life, a successful career, good health, or even a long life. Our greatest hope is found in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, rose from the grave, and promises eternal life to all who put their trust in Him.
As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:17–18 (NLT): "For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."
Let's not waste the life we've been given. Let's live with our eyes fixed on Jesus, our hearts anchored in eternity, and our lives invested in what matters most. And when the day comes for us to leave this earthly body, may we do so with the same confidence Paul expressed, knowing that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
With love in Christ, Ryan