How Am I Going to Die If I Don’t Get Sick?

Psalm 91:16 (ASV)
¹⁶ With long life will I satisfy him,
And show him my salvation.

The question above was asked by a man after his son and daughter-in-law had shared with him what the Bible has to say about healing. Actually, it was a legitimate question.  When you consider that the world and much of the Church believe in the old adage, “Seeing is believing,” it makes total sense. What they see is that in life, we grow up and grow old, and at some point in the “old” stage, life ends when a sickness leads to death. So, it is a question that needs answering.

As always, the Bible has the answer. First, we must remember that death for a believer is quite different than death for an unbeliever. When we made Jesus the Savior and Lord of our lives, we stepped into the Kingdom of God. Colossians 1:13 (TPT) says,^13 “He has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule^[a] of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of his beloved Son.” We basically did all the dying we are going to do when we were born-again.  In the natural we continue to live in a fallen world where we can experience the same things the world does; however, we can expect different results. Hebrews 2:9b said that Jesus tasted death for all men. The only thing we will experience at death is a separation of our spirit and soul from our bodies. Believers should replace the word “death” with the word “departure.” Many who have had near-death experiences note that there was no sensation of pain when their spirit and soul separated from their bodies. One person even related that as his departure began, he found himself looking down on a person in a hospital bed and was surprised when he realized it was his body that was in the bed. Yes, death will come, but for the believer, the experience will be a separation, not a painful severing.

It is interesting to note how death is referred to more than once in the Bible.  There are multiple references made of people who had died, which used the words “sleep or sleeping.” Four times in I Kings, there are references to different kings who “slept with their fathers” – a reference to their deaths. In John 11, Jesus told those who had come to mourn Lazarus that he had fallen asleep. In Acts 7:60, it is recorded that Stephen fell on his knees and asked for forgiveness for those who stoned him and then laid down and fell asleep. Stephen did not appear to have experienced a painful separation from his body, even though what he was going through in the natural would have been excruciating.

Clearly, the most important factor in the discussion of sickness and death is the Truth that sickness was defeated at the Cross along with sin. The picture we tend to focus on in our minds is that of Jesus hanging on the Cross. Yet before he was even placed on the Cross, He endured unimaginable suffering by being tied to a scourging post, where He was beaten beyond recognition. The stripes he suffered there were to redeem us from the curse of sickness and disease. Isaiah 53:5 (KJV) says,^”5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV) says, “²⁴ who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose ^[a]stripes you were healed.” Note that the New Testament reference uses the past tense, “you were healed”, indicating healing has been accomplished. Based on the Word, sickness should not be a factor in departing from this earth.

Granted, the above information will be new to many and quite frankly, a lot to swallow. The beginning point in getting the revelation that you don’t have to get sick to die starts with a process called “unlearning.” In next month’s post some practical tips will be given on how to engage in that process, thereby making way for the embracing of yet another facet of God’s amazing GRACE!

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