The Beauty of Death

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

-Romans 8:28

Is this true? If so, do we believe it? To investigate the validity of this statement let us consider the two greatest evil this world has known: the passion of Christ and the curse of death.

God, the creator of all living things, became man and lived perfectly amongst his creation. Perfect light filled the darkness, but the darkness hated the light because its deeds were evil. In the greatest crime of all history the men of earth killed their creator on a cross. Truly there has never been such a great evil.

And yet, in the ashes of this evil arose good. God used this evil to provide salvation for mankind. In this great evil lies the greatest example of sacrifice and love. In it lies our hope.

What about death? Surely death is an evil; it is the curse for our sin. It separates loved ones and brings more pain than any other event on earth. How can any good come out of this?

In one sense death is a gift. We have sinned, we are not whole men. We are filled with rage, depression, hate, and lust. All too often we make this world a hell for ourselves and others. Death protects us from evil men. Think if Hitler, Napoleon, and Caesar were immortal? What mischief would be beyond their power? Death opens the door for redemption and new life. Our disease is that we live disconnected with God and our fellow man; woe to us if this existence was eternal! God in His grace cursed us with death so that we might live a life whole and complete, redeemed and free from the consequences of sin.

The fairy tales of old demonstrate the finite power of evil. A witch comes and curses a princess. The curse is evil and brings much pain. But the evil is temporary and always brings about the exact result the witch had hoped to prevent—it was an evil that Sleeping Beauty slept for one-hundred years, but had she not she would have never met her prince charming.

The power of evil works the same way in real life. Satan motivated evil men to kill Christ to prevent Him from carrying out His mission. But God used His death as a means for the salvation of men. Satan did this evil, but in doing it brought about the precise result he hoped to prevent. In the same way our deaths are evil, but they free us from a fallen world in which we would otherwise be trapped for all time.

Romans 8:28 is truer than we realize: there is nothing evil on this earth that God will not redeem and use for good.