The Race to Death

Happy Monday! How about some good words to start your week: “We’re all dying!”

I know, that's not what you wanted to hear coming off a great weekend with family and friends, but as we put our feet in the starting blocks of a fresh seven days of good work, big projects, and future joys, this IS the bigger race – and how we adjust will better prepare us for today, this week, and the run to eternity.

For the last year and a half, I have enjoyed working my way through Augustine’s City of God. Each week, a friend and I read five chapters and interact via text. City of God is no easy tome. We’ve been at it for over a year and are only halfway through this masterpiece. Last week's reading found us in Book 13, Chapters 6 – 10, in which Augustine begins with these words, “Wherefore, as regards bodily death. . .”

Hmmm! At first glance, not exactly what I wanted to hear, but upon greater contemplation, exactly what I needed to hear! Augustine writes,

“For no sooner do we begin to live in this dying body, than we begin to move ceaselessly toward death. . . . So that our whole life is nothing but a race towards death, in which no one is allowed to stand still for a little space, or to go somewhat more slowly, but all are driven forwards with an impartial movement, and with equal rapidity.” Book 13, Chapter 10

These words hit home, in particular, because Shannan and I have a family member who is navigating his own challenges late in life, and we also have a dear friend who recently passed and, on whose behalf I’ll bring a message at his memorial service this Saturday.

Death is a paradox. The Scripture calls it, “an enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26), but also “precious” (Psalm 116:15) and “gain” (Philippians 1:21). Most of us see the enemy; the one who tortures our last days, cuts short our dreams, snatches loved ones from our grasp and leaves us with all the words we never said. But what of the precious gain? Augustine writes:

“For what is more precious than a death by which a man’s sins are all forgiven, and his merits increased an hundredfold?” Book 13, Chapter 7

“Precious, therefore, is the death of the Saints, to whom the grace of Christ has been applied with such gracious effects, that they do not hesitate to meet death themselves, if so be they might meet Him. And precious is it, also, because it has proved that what was originally ordained for the punishment of the sinner, has been used for the production of a richer harvest of righteousness. Book 13, Chapter 7

I appreciate the way Augustine highlights both Death the enemy (death is “good to none while it is being actually suffered”), and for the believer in Christ (who is “the way and the truth and the life”) death is the gateway to meeting God, to eternal life, and avoiding the second death. In that sense, “Death is good to the good, and evil to the evil.”

What’s more, before death we are always “in life and in death,” since like taxes, none escape it. But after death we are only “in life” never to be subject to the enemy again.

Today, you and I are both “dying and living,” and yet it seems we pay far more attention to the living and less to the dying. And yes, while I know that in the sweet by and by we will meet on that beautiful shore, I am in no hurry to get there. Lord willing, I have much to accomplish and enjoy this side of the pearly gates. So how do I apply these words of Augustine while I am “in life and in death”? How do his words help me in my own race to death?

1.  Don’t ignore death. As my friend noted in our text stream, “our culture tries to deny the reality of death by not talking about it.” That’s like refusing to step on the scales because I don’t want to see what I already know, i.e. I am putting on pounds. Remember what Augustine said, “Death is good to the good,” not while “it is actually being suffered,” but in what it ultimately brings about, a life never subject to death again and the full merits of our redemption in Christ.

2.  Contemplate life “after death.” On many of my reading days, Augustine’s logic has my head spinning. I have to work hard to keep up. He writes, “For when the whole of life has been consumed, the expression ‘after death’ would be meaningless, had that consumption not been death.” So . . . we are not “in death” but “after death,” that is, only subject to the fullness of life and no longer even tinged with death. As it is, today you and I are dying a little for as Seneca notes (and Augustine quotes): “We die every day; for every day some part of life is taken away.” But “after death” there is only life for the believer. This is encouragement for the darker days of life.

3.  Pray the prayer of Moses. Moses too was in the race towards death. And he understood the fragility and brevity of life. Pouring out his heart to God in Psalm 90, he cries, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10 ESV). But he doesn’t stop there. He knows that the same God who promises life “after death,” empowers us this side of it. So his prayer continues:

12 So teach us to number our days
    that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord! How long?
    Have pity on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
    that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
    and for as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be shown to your servants,
    and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
    and establish the work of our hands upon us;
    yes, establish the work of our hands!

Augustine wisely notes, “For he whose life is short spends a day no more swiftly than he whose life is longer.” So yes, even in this race towards death, we pray with Moses, ”Lord, wake us up! Teach us to number our days! Let your favor be upon us and establish the work of our hands!”

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Notes:

• All quotes from Augustine are found in City of God, Book 13, Chapter 6-10.

• “Death is good to the good” from City of God, Book 13, Chapter 8.

• “For when the whole of life has been consumed, the expression ‘after death’ would be meaningless” from City of God, Book 13, Chapter 10.

• “We die every day; for every day some part of life is taken away.” Literally in Latin, “Quotidie morimur, quotide enim demitur aliqua pars vitae” from Seneca, Epistulae, III, 24

• “For he whose life is short spends a day no more swiftly than he whose life is longer” from City of God, Book 13, Chapter 10.