Consummation: Death Will One Day Be No More

And yet, death remains part of our daily reality on this earth.

“Until Christ returns, all of us will grow old and die,” Wayne Grudem writes in Systematic Theology. “In His great wisdom, God decided that He would not apply to us the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work all at once.” In this fallen world, “the last aspect . . . to be removed will be death.”

There is, therefore, a sense in which death is already defeated and a sense in which we still wait for the full benefits of the victory.

Indeed, “the last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:26). But Christ’s defeat of death—demonstrated in His resurrection—is so sure, so certain, that the annihilation of death is an already-not-yet reality.

One writer compares death in its current state to a Canaanite king in the book of Judges who, having lost a battle with God’s people, was allowed to continue ruling. But the victors had cut off his thumbs and big toes, parading him as a conquered foe and preventing him from ever holding a sword or standing in battle again.

This is how we picture the enemy of death in light of the work of Christ who, “having disarmed the powers and authorities [of death] . . . made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Col. 2:15 NIV).

Where does this leave us? Resting in Christ’s victory—while also longing for its fullness to arrive. Some of the dearest passages in Scripture are those that whisper this promise over us, encouraging us to hold fast to the end, when “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces” (Isa. 25:8).

And, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

And so we say with the final words of Scripture – Maranatha, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).

Summary

Whether or not you’ve grown up with the tradition of Ash Wednesday, the symbolism has something to teach us all. It is good to pause and remember—in the crush of everyday life—that we will not live forever.

This does not render the days of our lives inconsequential. On the contrary, it makes them utterly precious. Living within the limits of our own bodies and lifetimes trains us to prioritize the worthy over the worthless, the eternal over the temporal.

It teaches us to fix our eyes not on the dusty outcomes of our limited days but on the eternal weight of glory, and to say with the Psalmist, “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” How much more so can we who know the Savior who conquered death say in Him, “Surely I have a delightful inheritance” (Psalm 16:15).

We would like to thank Whitney K. Pipkin, author of “We Shall All Be Changed: How Facing Death with Loved Ones Transforms Us,” for providing this plan. For more information, please visit whitneykpipkin.com/new-book or find the book at moodypublishers.com/we-shall-all-be-changed