Author: Gary Witcher

Characters Four

	There is a battle that each one of us must face sooner or later.  As the old saying  goes, two things  in  life  are  certain:  taxes  and death.  We all know that some are able to cheat their way out of paying taxes, but there is  no way to avoid death.  We can look  to  Bible characters, though,  for examples to  help  us  face  the inevitable moment that awaits us all.
	One special group of Bible  characters  is composed of two men, Enoch and Elijah.  Genesis 5:24 informs us that Enoch  "walked  with  God; and he was not, for God took him."  In 2  Kings 2 we read that Elijah is taken to heaven in  a chariot of fire.
	We can learn a lot from the lives of these men.  But, when it comes to dying,  they  have little  to  teach  us.   They  cannot  help  us approach a battle that  they  themselves  never fight.
	A second, slightly less select  group,  is made up of eight people.   The prophet  Elijah raises a boy from the dead  as  recorded  in  1 Kings 17:17-24.  His  successor  Elisha  raises another boy, as we find in 2 Kings 4:18-37.  A man is revived when his body touches the bones of Elisha, as we note in 2 Kings 13:21.  Jesus raises three people from the dead: the widow's son (Luke 7), the daughter of Jairus  (Matthew 9) and Lazarus (John 11).  In Acts  9:36-41 we read  that  Peter  raises  Dorcus.   And   Acts 20:9-12  provides us with the account of Eutychus being raised by Paul.
	Like the two in the first group, these eight have unusual experiences with death.  But they are still of little use to us.  Although they are given the possibility to return  from death, they still die at a later date.  So, in the end, they still lose the battle.
	Those who never die are of little help to us.  Those who are raised but who  die  again have little to offer.  What we need is someone who wins the battle.  We need someone  who  dies and is raised to never die again
	Paul  writes about such a One in Philippians  2:8-11.   "And  being   found   in appearance as a  man, "  he  says,  "He  humbled Himself by becoming obedient to  the  point  of death, even death on a cross.   Therefore  also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every  name,  that  at  the name of Jesus every knee should bow,  of  those who are in heaven and on earth, and  under  the earth, and that  every  tongue  should  confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of  God the Father."
	Hebrews 12:1-3 encourages us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.  Thus  we  will  be  able  to  run  with endurance that race  that  is  set  before  us. 
"How shall we escape if we neglect so  great  a salvation?" Hebrews 2:3 asks.  Verses 9 and  10 of that same chapter mention the suffering that Jesus endured, adding that,  by  the  grace  of God, He tasted death for everyone.  At last  we find help in facing death.
	"For it was fitting for Him, for whom  are all things, and through whom are  all  things," verse 10 states, "in bringing  many  sons  to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings."
	In Jesus we have someone in whom we can believe as we face death.  In Him we can  walk, even run, as we approach this moment.  This is because, in Christ, we find someone with whom we can be saved, be set free.
	Our example is not of someone who never dies, nor is it of someone who dies and is raised, only to die again.
	Romans 8 describes the One who gives us hope.  "For I am  convinced," Paul writes in verses 38-39, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come,  nor  powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the  love  of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"He is also head of the body, the church;" Paul says of Jesus in Colossians 1:18, "and  He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might  come  to  have  first place in everything."
In Jesus, we have the only One who  fights the battle with death and wins.
	Would you like to have the help of Jesus not only in facing death, but also in confronting life?  You can't have either if you don't know what the Bible teaches.   Are you willing to open the  pages  of  God's  Word  to understand. . . and to follow. . . what it says?
His teaching is the Bible.  Only by knowing the truth can you be free.