A TB outbreak and a more dangerous bird flu strain

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A TB outbreak and a more dangerous bird flu strain

How God redeems death for an even greater good

January 29, 2025 -

Cemetery in the fog to illustrate how God redeems death for an even greater good. By Karen Perhus/stock.adobe.com

Cemetery in the fog to illustrate how God redeems death for an even greater good. By Karen Perhus/stock.adobe.com

Cemetery in the fog to illustrate how God redeems death for an even greater good. By Karen Perhus/stock.adobe.com

Is it good news or bad news that the yearlong tuberculosis outbreak in the Kansas City, Kansas, area is not the largest in US history? Though health officials say there is no threat to the general public, it has killed two people so far. And one expert warns, “This outbreak is still ongoing, which means that there could be more cases.”

If you’re not worried about tuberculosis, what about bird flu? A new strain of the virus has been identified in the US for the first time, worrying officials that it is evolving in ways that could make it harder to contain. A version of this strain that appeared in China more than a decade ago was “highly pathogenic”; if it becomes widespread in humans, scientists would likely have to start from the beginning with researching the virus and developing vaccines.

While bacteria such as tuberculosis and viruses such as bird flu commandeer headlines, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the US. But humans are just as susceptible to tragedies no one saw happening, such as the eighteen-year-old Eagles fan who climbed a light pole to celebrate his team’s Super Bowl-clinching win last Sunday, fell backward, hit his head on the concrete sidewalk, and died two days later.

Mortality knows no borders: a swimming pool-sized sinkhole swallowed a truck in Japan, trapping the driver inside. Teams were pumping air into the hole to give him oxygen as they tried to rescue him. There is no word at this writing on his status.

Nor does celebrity protect us from reality: famed actress Meryl Streep had to borrow wire cutters from a neighbor, then cut a hole in her fence through which she drove her car to escape the recent wildfires in Los Angeles.

And there’s Scottie Scheffler, world No. 1 golfer who cut his hand making Christmas dinner and is only this week returning to the tour after missing two events.

But there’s good news on our topic as well: a Parkinson’s patient says he feels “cured” after a computer-controlled brain implant is working so well he is sometimes able to forget he has the condition.

Why does God permit physical death?

Mortality is not anyone’s favorite topic. Even morticians, I suppose, would rather not think about the day they will need such services personally. This only makes sense: God created all life with an innate survival instinct that drives us to steward our days on earth well.

Then came the Fall: “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). But then came grace: “If many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (v. 15).

Now God redeems physical death by using it as the gateway into his eternal presence. At that moment, Jesus comes to “take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). When we take our last breath here, we take our first breath there. When we close our eyes in this world, we open them in the world to come. This is why Paul could testify, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). 

Jesus could assure a sister grieving the death of her brother, “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26).

But here’s my question: Why does God still permit physical death?

It’s not as if our loving Father wants us to have to go through this. In fact, he assures us, “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone” (Ezekiel 18:32). Or as if he couldn’t do something about this: “Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death” (Hebrews 11:5), and the prophet Elijah likewise “went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11). One day, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26).

So, why doesn’t he take all believers to heaven in the same way? Why doesn’t he transport us directly to heaven without having to go through physical death?

Three insufficient answers

I can think of three answers to our question.

One: I noted recently that physical death reminds us of the finitude of life (James 4:13–17) and the urgency of turning to Christ as Lord today (2 Corinthians 6:2). Charles Spurgeon observed, “To be prepared to die is to be prepared to live.”

But this finitude and urgency would presumably be just as real if the Lord instantaneously took us from this life to the next, whether in heaven or in hell. If bodies suddenly disappeared without warning, the rest of us would soon learn that the same could happen to us. In fact, since we would not have the warning that dying (apart from sudden death) often provides, we would conceivably be even more aware of our finitude and the urgency of being ready to meet God.

Two: Perhaps physical death is a punishment for sin. We are told that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and that “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). However, some very bad people die painlessly in war, sudden accidents, or hospital wards, while some of the best people I have known have died in terrible pain.

Three: Perhaps physical death is a gift to our loved ones as they bury our bodies as memorials to our lives. If we vanished into the next life, they would have no such markers. However, not everyone dies in this way: some are lost at sea, consumed in fires, or even eaten by predators.

So if physical death is not necessary to transport us to the next life (cf. Enoch and Elijah), warn us of our finitude, punish us for our sins, or provide our families a memorial for our lives, why does God permit it?

“I shall be more alive than I am now”

For me, the fact of physical death is paradoxically one of its most redemptive factors.

I know that unless the Lord returns, I will face the demise of my body someday. However, I can hopefully prolong its life by stewarding my health well, a fact that would be less compelling if I were simply to disappear into the next life. Since our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16), such stewardship is both biblical and rewarding as we seek to “glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20; cf. 3 John 2; 1 Corinthians 10:31).

In addition, physical suffering can often be spiritually redemptive:

  • Paul learned through his “thorn in the flesh” to “boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:7, 9). Spurgeon testified, “I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain.”
  • Our impending death clearly illustrates the reality of mortality to others. I have known Christians on their deathbeds who urged others to prepare for eternity, winning many to our Lord.
  • When we trust and glorify God in our pain, others take notice. It’s one thing to worship Jesus when life is easy, but another when it is hard. Some of the most powerful testimonies I have ever experienced have come from believers who died praising God even in their pain.

And then, one day, all who know Christ as Lord will experience what the famed evangelist D. L. Moody predicted for himself:

Some day you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal—a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned like unto his glorious body.

What if it were today?

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