Death is Swallowed Up In Jesus Christ

 

Death Is The End

Everybody’s wonderin’ what and where they all came from.

Everybody’s worryin’ ’bout where they’re gonna go when the whole thing’s done.

But no one knows for certain and so it’s all the same to me.

I think I’ll just let the mystery be.  

Lisa DeMent “Let the Mystery Be”

One definition of death shared by many who do not believe in a god or life after death is “The total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions of an organism.”

When I was eleven years old I thoughtfully concluded that god had no part in my life and I had no interest in him. At that time I did not think about death and did not care about it. On my thirteenth birthday, my dad passed away, causing me inexplainable grief as I realized that he was gone and I would never be with him again. Death was final to me. That grief affected me for quite a while. 

Death and God

CatholicCulture.org defines death as “The cessation of the bodily functions of a human being through the departure of the soul. ...”  

Protestant churches have a variety of beliefs about life after death.

Generally, Buddhist teaching views life and death as a continuum, believing that consciousness (the spirit) continues after death and may be reborn. 

Hindu beliefs about death are centered on rebirth and reincarnation – a person's physical body leaves, but their soul reincarnates into another life after eleven days. 

Death in Islam is the termination of worldly life and the beginning of the afterlife. Death is seen as the separation of the soul from the human body, and its transfer from this world to the afterlife.

Jews believe in a life after death - the immortality of the soul and the physical resurrection of the body at a time in the future.

What I believe about Death and Jesus Christ

My belief in life after death relies on teachings from the Christian Old Testament, the New Testament, The Book of Mormon (another testament of Jesus Christ), and words from modern prophets. Jesus’ promise of another comforter has been a reality for me that has brought assurance and enlightenment to the religious teachings I have received.

The following scriptural highlights have helped me gain a basic understanding of life after death.

Hebrews 11:

5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Hosea 13:

14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

Isaiah 53:

12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Mosiah 15:

7 Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.

8 And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men

Mosiah 13:

33 For behold, did not Moses prophesy unto them concerning the coming of the Messiah, and that God should redeem his people? Yea, and even all the prophets who have prophesied ever since the world began—have they not spoken more or less concerning these things?

34 Have they not said that God himself should come down among the children of men, and take upon him the form of man, and go forth in mighty power upon the face of the earth?

35 Yea, and have they not said also that he should bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, and that he, himself, should be oppressed and afflicted?

Mosiah 15:

20 But behold, the bands of death shall be broken, and the Son reigneth, and hath power over the dead; therefore, he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead.

John 10:

17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

1 Peter 3:

18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit:

Acts 2:

24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

1 Corinthians 15:

20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. ...

26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. ...

55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Mosiah 16:

7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

Removing the Sting of Death

Death is one more step on our eternal path. Without the grace of Jesus Christ that removes the band of death and atones for sin, we would go into an eternity of sorrow and misery. The “sting” of death disappears and as we die our spirit enters a world of spirits to await our resurrection. If we have chosen to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ, we will be freed from the estrangement caused by our sins. Although I have not experienced death and can only speak from what I have learned and gained through the tutorage of the Holy Ghost, I am confident enough in what I believe to die for that belief. 

During my high school years, I wrestled. 
During our matches, our coaches encouraged us by saying, “You’ve got nothing to lose!”, meaning, if you don’t try harder you will lose so give it all you have and you might win. If I do not believe in Jesus Christ, I will not have an eternity but if I take upon me the name of Jesus Christ I can gain all His Father has. I have nothing to lose by believing in Jesus Christ and everything to gain by doing so. My experience of believing in Jesus Christ started while I was a teenager and has been a joy-filled experience all along the way. I would not trade my faith-filled experiences for any other option.

Faith In Jesus Christ Is More Than Positive Mental Attitude - Learning How To Sow And Reap

“We’re not going to survive in this world, temporally or spiritually, without increased faith in the Lord—and I don’t mean a positive mental attitude—I mean downright solid faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the one thing that gives vitality and power to otherwise rather weak individuals.” This significant thought is from a 1986 talk by Elder A. Theodore Tuttle. A positive mental attitude is valuable, important, and often necessary. Faith is more powerful than the most positive of attitudes.

 

Faith in Jesus Christ ensures survival

A story from Elder Tuttle’s talk illustrates that power. This was a conversation between a Primary teacher and the 11-year-old class.

“Suppose the Lord asked you to build a spaceship big enough to take you and your family and provisions off this planet? Could you do it?”

Steve spoke up and said, “Yes.”

And the teacher said, “Have you ever built a spaceship?”

“No.”

“Have you ever built a model spaceship?”

“No.”

“Have you ever seen one?”

Steve said, “Yes, on TV.” But then he declared, “you said the Lord told me to build it. If the Lord told me to build it, I could do it.”

The faith of Nephi

When the Lord told Nephi to go up to the mountain. he obeyed and he described what happened there., “And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.” Nephi’s faith-filled response was, “Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me?” Instead of questioning whether he could build a ship, he began reviewing his resources and recognized that he lacked some key items. He knew that the Lord could help him get those resources so he asked for help.

Nephi’s faith came from a lifetime of learning, hoping, believing, and acting.

When Nephi returned from the mountain and told his brothers what he had been instructed to do, they scoffed at the idea. Nephi’s response to his brothers’ reaction to him teaches how this type of faith is developed. He reminded them of several examples where faithful followers exercised faith and accomplished seemingly impossible things. He started with the parting of the Red Sea as the Egyptians were closing it. He mentioned manna in the wilderness, water from the rock, the pillar of fire at night, and the cloud during the day, the stopping of the river Jordan as the priests’ feet touched the water. He also reminded them about the brazen serpent that required only faith to look at it and be healed of the attacks of the fiery flying serpents.

Trial of our faith

Remembering history is one way to gain assurance that develops faith. To the many people anciently, people today, and people in the future who have not and will not believe and exercise faith because they did not personally witness the miracles, Moroni taught, “And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith” Faith proceeds the miracle and we can expect miracles as we learn how to exercise faith.

The Mustard Seed

The biblical promise that if we “have faith as a grain of mustard seed,” we can move mountains is usually thought of as the amount of faith. A mustard seed is very small and even with a small amount of faith we can accomplish great achievements. That comparison is certainly true.

Consider the faith exhibited by a mustard seed. Its mother plant produces it and the wind or birds or some other means take it to the soil. Many of these seeds never become mustard plants but all do everything they can to germinate and grow. They never stop exercising their faith that they will succeed. We do not need a large amount of faith to act, we only need enough to act. When Alma was teaching the Zoramites on the hill called Onidah, he encouraged them to exercise a particle of faith even if they could no more than desire to believe. God is waiting for us to make even a slight movement toward exercising faith in Jesus Christ so He can begin to work with us.

The destroyer of our faith

Satan plants thoughts and images in our heads that affect our thinking, talking, and actions much like the malware that our devices get. When we use our devices to view, listen to, or play content on the Internet, our devices download data. Malware can be added to the data our devices download. We may even choose to intentionally download data. Those are the most common times when we add malware to our devices.

The malware Satan puts into our memories is the same as the malware from the Internet, He can use it to influence our thoughts and eventually our words and actions. His malware can have us doubt the words of the Prophets or those of our parents and teachers. They can cause us to ignore the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. Only through faith in Jesus Christ and relying on His grace, His enabling power, can we have the effects of Satan’s malware cast out of our hearts but not our memories. Removing malware from our memories is impossible because memories can be recalled.

Overcoming Satan's influence

To avoid recalling improper memories we must choose to avoid exposing our minds to the same influences that placed the thoughts and images in our memories. Choices to avoid rekindling old memories also require the enabling power of Jesus Christ because this is also a miracle that we cannot do on our own.

From Alma 32 we learn three significant points about faith:

Faith is hope for things that are not seen but which are true

Faith is a desire to believe

As faith grows it becomes knowledge

Hope that the promise of eternal life can be ours is the first act we do that starts us on the path of faith in Jesus Christ. The desire to believe is a choice not a condition of mortality. As we hope, desire, and act with faith in Jesus Christ, we gain knowledge that He lives and that His promises are real.

First Principle of the Gospel

Faith is the first principle of the gospel and does not stand alone as a saving principle. Repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost are also our first steps on our paths to eternal life.

In 1 Corinthians 13:2 we learn that “though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” The pure love of Christ does not come naturally but requires nourishment and constant attention.

We can consider faith as our doorway to knowledge, power, and miracles. Once we exercise the courage to act on faith in Jesus Christ and not our own knowledge and power, we enter through a portal to eternal joys beyond our imaginations.

In Hebrews 11 several examples of people who exercised faith are described and explained with the statement” Now faith is the substance (assurance) of things hoped for, the evidence (proof) of things not seen.”

To know the truth, we must do as Moroni instructed in Moroni 10. “Ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ,”

Each of us must measure our own sincerity. If we need to improve our sincerity, we can ask for the enabling power of Jesus Christ to help us achieve a more sincere heart, Real intent is similar to sincerity with additional emphasis on taking thought before we ask much like Oliver Cowdry when he wanted to translate.

To have faith in Christ we must learn to set aside our pride and vain ambitions, allowing us to rely only on Christ for the blessings we seek.

Faith in us or faith in Jesus Christ?

Elder Wilford W. Andersen, of the Seventy, shared insight into a faith that distinguishes between faith in ourselves and faith in Jesus Christ. He suggested two levels of faith—first, the faith to thrust in our sickles, and second, the faith to reap. When they went to get the brass plates, Laman and Lemuel had the faith to try (sow or thrust in their sickles). Nephi had the faith to reap because he relied on the Lord to accomplish the task. Elder Anderson stated, “First, unlike the faith to thrust in our sickles, the faith to reap is not faith in ourselves. It is not the same as self-confidence or positive mental attitude. The faith to reap is faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It is faith in His power, not ours.”

Having faith to reap means we must align our desires and objectives with the will of God as explained in Moroni 7:31 “And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me” James taught that “faith without works is dead.”

In his article, Elder Anderson related the following.

“I heard a story about a father who noticed his young daughter kneeling beside her bed, praying that Heavenly Father would protect little birds from entering a bird trap her brother had built and placed in the backyard. Later that day, the father grew concerned. He knew the trap was a good one. He had helped his son build it.

‘I heard you praying this morning that Heavenly Father would protect the little birds from your brother’s trap,’ he said to his daughter. ‘But sometimes sad things happen even when we pray that they won’t.’

She responded, ‘I just know he won’t catch any birds, Daddy.’

‘I admire your faith, sweetheart,’ the father said. ‘But if he does catch some birds, I hope that won’t hurt your faith.’

‘He won’t, Daddy,’ she said. ‘I know he won’t.’

The father asked, ‘How can you have such great faith?’ ‘Because after I said my prayers,’ his daughter replied, ‘I went out back and kicked his bird trap all to pieces.’

We cannot expect the Lord to guide our footsteps if we’re not willing to move our feet.”

What Shall I Do?

Elder Bednar shared the following. “True faith is focused in and on the Lord Jesus Christ and always leads to righteous action. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that ‘faith [is] the first principle in revealed religion, and the foundation of all righteousness’ and that it is also ‘the principle of action in all intelligent beings’ (Lectures on Faith [1985], 1). Action alone is not faith in the Savior, but acting in accordance with correct principles is a central component of faith.” While speaking of Joseph’s prayer in the Sacred Grove, Elder Bednar also taught, “Joseph’s questions focused not just on what he needed to know but also on what was to be done! His prayer was not simply, “Which church is right?” His question was, “Which church should I join?” Joseph went to the grove to ask in faith, and he was determined to act.”

Conclusion

While these few words about faith in Jesus Christ illustrate how essential it is for our benefit now and throughout eternity, they are mere introductions. To come to know Jesus Christ we must learn to exercise faith in his promises and rely on his grace and not our own abilities to cause the miraculous changes we need. I pray that we will all better learn not only how to sow but also how to reap.