+ Bethel E. Tice +

Psalm 116:1–15 ESV

1 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. 2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” 5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. 6 The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. 7 Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; 9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. 10 I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”; 11 I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.” 12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. 15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

Romans 8:31–39 ESV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 14:1–6 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Living and Dying in Faith in Christ Jesus—That Is the Truly Good Life and Good Death.

Christ has ascended to prepare a place for you.

Dear family and friends of Bethel: Sometimes people will say about someone who died, “She had a good life.” There’s a problem with that. The world’s understanding of a good life is at best inadequate, compared to God’s understanding of what constitutes a good life. Now there could be several similarities. A person who has a good, God-pleasing life might be blessed with a loving and caring spouse, loving and respectful children, a job or vocation that brought meaning and fulfillment to his or her life, enjoyable hobbies and interests. By those definitions, I think you could say that Bethel had a good life.

But from God’s perspective, there are even more important ingredients that make a life good and pleasing to him. Christians look to the goodness, kindness, and compassion of our Lord for the key to a truly good life. To begin with, Christians give God the credit, honor, and glory for all of the good gifts and blessings we enjoy. By faith in Christ, we can say with the psalmist in our text, “The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. . . . [And] he saved me” (Psalm 116:5–6).

Christians know that there is no higher calling in life than to walk in step with the Lord and his purposes, following him and serving him all the days of our life. Christians know that our true meaning and fulfillment in life is found not in money or the things that we accumulate, but rather in the love, kindness, and forgiveness that our Lord moves us to share with others, in the midst of our daily life and daily relationships. Christians know that the motivation for our life of Christian love and service to others comes from the love of Christ living in us. As the Bible tells us, “We love because [God] first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Christians also know from our faith and life experience that when we are confronted with struggles, sickness, and sorrow—which are an inevitable part of life in this world—we have a sure source of comfort, strength, and hope in Jesus Christ, his Word, and his promises. When we live by faith in our Good Shepherd and Savior, we know that he will lead us through all the valleys and shadows of life, until that blessed day comes when his angels will welcome us to our eternal home in heaven. Then we will finally grasp the full meaning of the words of our text, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15).

That is what constitutes a truly good life—living with Christ and for Christ, living each day in his love and the forgiveness he earned for us on the cross, sharing his grace and mercy with those around us every chance we get, and living always with the assurance that nothing in this life, not even death, “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Christ’s work of bringing us to that place is clearly pictured in the Old Testament.

There’s another phrase I’ve heard much more in recent years, probably as a result of the hospice movement: “She had a good death.” People might mean various things by that phrase, not all of which would be in conformity with God’s will and purposes. As Christians, we might mean by that phrase some of the following: Despite a long and difficult illness, toward the end of his life, the person’s pain was largely under control. The person was able, during his final days, to be alert enough to communicate with his family or to know that his family was there with him. The person was able, if he wished, to die at home in familiar surroundings. The person had the opportunity to say good-bye to loved ones. The person was able to die rather peacefully, gradually slipping away from the struggles of this life to the glories of God’s eternal peace.

I think that, by those definitions, Bethel had a good death. But from God’s eternal perspective, as well as in the eyes of those who live by faith in Christ, there are even more important things that would make it a good death. As we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, either by ourselves or with a loved one, what counts is knowing, with great assurance, that our Good Shepherd walks with us every step of the way. What matters is knowing that we have a Savior who on the cross paid in full for all our flaws, faults, and failures, and continues to love us and forgive us unconditionally. What counts, when the going gets tough, is to know we can count on God’s sure promise that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” in heaven (Rom 8:18).

What matters most of all is to be able to live—and to die—with the sure confidence that when our Lord calls his people to their eternal home, the Good Shepherd himself “will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17).

Living and Dying in Faith in Christ Jesus—That Is the Truly Good Life and Good Death.

That is the sure and certain faith Bethel confessed. “Therefore,” as St. Paul encourages us, “encourage one another with these words” (1 Thess 4:18).