What I Would Say About You if I Preached Your Funeral (Christian Version)
Brethren and friends…
The Bible has much to say about why we are gathered here, today. Death has come for our brother, and we must understand why his body of death no longer holds the life it once did. This is a very old story that pre-dates God creating the heavens and the earth.
In eternity past, God determined each one of us and the lives we would live. In His foreknowledge, He predestined some to the life of adopted sons. Others were created for a different purpose. The children of God, chosen by God the Father, were given to God the Son. Each of their names was written in what is called, “the Lamb’s book of life.” God’s election of His chosen people, a people for His own possession, would have representatives from every nation, tribe, and tongue. Our brother was one of those who received the right to be called, “child of God.”
All of us here, today, and around the world and across history have our origin in the first man, Adam. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, but they had an adversary in the serpent, who deceived them into disobedience to God’s instruction. They did not obey God’s Word because they did not believe God’s Word of warning to them.
The day of disobedience was the death of their souls. They were spiritually dead in sin and dead to God. This is Adam’s inheritance passed down to each one of us. Not only was each of us conceived with a dead soul, but our bodies also have a biological life that ends in death. Simply stated, sin kills us…body and soul.
The natural, sinful man is without God and without hope in the world. He merely waits for his dead body to join with his dead soul. This is not the end, however. The Bible teaches us that the one-time death of each person is followed by God’s judgment of sinners. The sentence of guilty sinners is eternal punishment in the lake of fire. This is bad news.
All of us deserve God’s just punishment in fiery hell, but there is a Savior. This is very good news, which is made known to all people. Not all people believe the Gospel of God, however. Those who do believe, like our beloved brother did, have been given eternal life, instead of the eternal death they deserved.
What happed to our brother and why do we call him, “brother”? Simply put, God saved him, by having mercy on him. The salvation of God is eternal. His elect are chosen for eternal life before the foundation of the world. Next, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save His people from their sins. Sins are like a criminal debt that must be paid-in-full. No one has the will or ability to pay his or her own debt of sin.
Jesus Christ, who was conceived, born, and lived without sin, offered Himself as the unblemished substitute sacrifice for the sins of His people. As the high priest of His holy nation, His church, the Israel of God, Jesus laid down His life for the sheep of His pasture. In love, He gave Himself for His bride, His church, bearing our sins in His body on the cross.
In His death on the cross, Jesus shed His precious blood, which served as the currency of atonement, whereby He bought back, or redeemed His people for a price, from the slave market of sin. Held hostage by the Law, Jesus paid the ransom for many. He set His captive people free.
Our dear brother often told his testimony of how he lived in the dark domain of sin. He was a lost sheep, prone to a multitude of sinful displays. Some of you knew him in those days of disgrace. But God came to seek and to save him, by giving him His Holy Spirit. Here was the catalyst of change in his heart, then, visibly in his words and deeds.
The Holy Spirit made our brother alive, spiritually. His dead soul now had the life of God abiding in both his heart and his mind. The Bible tells us that what God did in our brother was to cause him to be born again. He became a new creation with a new life. The Spirit of Christ took up permanent residence, and His promise was to never leave nor forsake this one, whom He loved from the beginning. What now you may ask…because this scene does not appear victorious.
The living soul, our dear brother, has gone to be with the Lord in glory. Soon, we will lay his dead body in the ground. God has appointed a day, in the future, when King Jesus will return with His angels and saints. He will judge the living and the dead, for all the dead will be resurrected, some to judgment, noted earlier, and others resurrected to life.
The living souls of those who died in Christ will be conjoined to the glorified bodies of the resurrection to life. In other words, our departed beloved will live again, in the glory of the new heavens and the new earth, where righteousness dwells. There will no longer be a place for sin, Satan, decay, and death. He will forever be with the Lord and with the whole family of God.
This glorious hope is the treasure, in the hearts of those who received the gift of God’s Spirit and His Word, by the will and work of God. The result of this salvific work is the manifestation of faith, granted to those who were appointed to life by our gracious God. Our brother had this hope in him, as many of you heard from the confession of his own lips.
The wrath of God is coming upon all sinful men and fallen angels. The day of reckoning looms. Who will deliver you? Who alone is mighty to save? As the one afforded the privilege to speak to you, on behalf of our cherished departed, I assure you that his last will and testament is for you to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior of sinners and our only hope. Follow our brother, as he followed Christ.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
November 30, 2020
