How To Deal With Grief And Loss Part 2 by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

God's Final Plan: The Destruction of Death

1 Corinthians 15:53-54 — "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory."

That is the trajectory. Death swallowed up. Not reduced. Not delayed. Swallowed up in victory. That is why Paul could taunt it: "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" He was speaking from the hope of resurrection — the glorified body that awaits believers at the return of Christ.

Revelation 21:4 — "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, no more sorrow, nor crying."

Two commitments are visible in that verse:

• God is committed to comforting his people.
• God is committed to the final destruction of death.

If the gospel is truly believed — if heaven is real, if the believer who has died is now in the presence of God, clothed in a glorified body, in joy beyond what earth could offer — then mourning as those without hope is not consistent with what has been received. Nothing better can happen to a believer than to transit into glory. Death, which was designed by the enemy to be the end, has been turned into a beginning.

The grief is real. The loss is real. The pain is legitimate. Jesus himself wept. But grief and hope are not opposites. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 that we should not mourn like those who have no hope — not that we should not mourn at all. The difference is in what the mourning is oriented toward. For the believer, it is oriented toward reunion, not permanent separation.