After God has led the elect in all the ways enumerated in the preceding, and they have fulfilled the Lord’s counsel in their time, He then takes them to Himself into eternal felicity. However, this translation from time to eternity, from this sinful life to perfect holiness, from sorrow to joy, and from strife to the crown, takes place by way of the dark valley of the king of terrors, which is death. Only Enoch in the first, and Elijah in the second world have entered heaven without seeing death. With the exception of these two, however, no one will enter heaven except through this disagreeable way. Even though there is an incomprehensible difference between the final destiny of believers and the ungodly, they nevertheless have the experience of death in common. It is “the way of all the earth” (Josh 23:14); “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?” (Ps 89:48). Regardless of whether one is a child, young man, or grown man, one must die. The end of everyone will be, “And he died.” This is the certain and immutable injunction of God: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27). This is the sentence: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen 3:19). This is confirmed to all men by experience, so that there is no need for proof, but rather that it be brought to remembrance. Temporal advantages are of no avail here. Wise Solomon dies as well as foolish Nabal; the strong Samson as well as a tender woman, the beautiful Rachel; Dinah as well as tender-eyed Leah; and the rich man as well as poor Lazarus. A king is removed as suddenly from his throne as a beggar from his hut. “There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master” (Job 3:17- 19).
Not only is it true that man must die, but between his birth and death there is but a small season. “Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been” (Gen 47:9); “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1); “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow” (Ps 90:10). Man’s life is spent as a “tale that is told” vs. 9, and “we fly away” vs. 10. Our life is swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, which in one swift motion traverses the breadth of the loom (Job 7:9). Life is as grass and as a flower of the field, which endure but for a short season (Ps 103:15). It is but as a “handbreadth,” and a handbreadth of sun prior to sunset is but one hour (Ps 39:5). Life passes by swifter than a post, swifter than ships and an eagle that hasteth to the prey (Job 9:25-26). It is as a vapor James 4:14, and as smoke that arises as a straight pillar but readily disappears (Ps 102:4). It is as the tent of a shepherd which is removed quickly, and is cut off like the loom of a weaver which occurs in a moment (Isa 38:12).
The Death of Believers is Not a Punishment
Even though dying is an experience common to all men, there is nevertheless a great difference between the death of the ungodly and of a believer. The ungodly face death as their prosecutor, and as a punishment upon sin. Death is the way whereby they are translated to eternal death. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Believers are also subject to death. It is only a chastisement, however, for the Lord Jesus has borne the punishment for all their sins and has delivered believers from them. “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin” (Rom 8:10). Death is for them a passage to eternal life. “And it came to pass, that the beggar (Lazarus) died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22); “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth” (Rev 14:13).
The following question needs to be addressed: When it is not the cause of Christ which subjects believers to temporal misery and temporal death, are not these then punishments inflicted by God as an angry and righteous Judge?
Someone has come to the foreground in our days who, while advocating other soul-damning and Socinian-like errors, also proposes that the misery and temporal death of believers are punishments in the literal sense of the word. We maintain on the contrary that they are but paternal chastisements upon them. This is evident for the following reasons:
First, Christ is a complete Savior, and He has left believers with neither guilt nor punishment. Death is therefore not a punishment in the literal sense of the word. For if God were not entirely and fully reconciled with the elect, and were to punish believers as an angry and righteous Judge, then Christ would neither be a complete Savior nor would He have removed all guilt and punishment for believers. This sentiment is therefore a public denial that Christ is a complete Savior.