‘What is to become of us?’ There are two sides to the question: what is to become of us individually, and what is to become of us collectively, as a species.1Peter van Inwagen, ‘Human Destiny,’ in William E. Mann ed., The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell, 2005), 245.
Any vision of human being which fails to deal with death is superficial and ultimately superfluous.
The One Thing Everybody Can Be Sure Of
The Gospels set forth Christ’s resurrection as the conclusion of his earthly career, against a background of human death in general and Jesus’ own death in particular.
Death is the great universal certainty. ‘For we must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up again’ (2 Sam 14:14). ‘This cruel and fierce sergeant, death, is strict in his arrest.’2William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2; paraphrase.
Death’s certainty is matched by its peril. It destroys relationships, and God has made us to be formed by and enjoy relationships with each other, and him. It is horrible, wholly unavoidable, completely unfixable — and its outcome is a total unknown, since it is impossible to discover first-hand what happens after death without dying.
Bound up with that is peerless pain, dread, loss, and separation, producing a constant underlying crisis in human life. The loss of a spouse, a child, or parents is agony akin to amputation. Any vision of human being which fails to deal with death is frankly superficial and ultimately superfluous.
Why the Subject Is So Fiercely Contested
Death’s horror makes both Christ’s resurrection and the resurrection of all the dead matters of colossal importance. Death’s cruelty is also what makes resurrection so contested.
If resurrection is real, God is there, hope is real, everything is changed and in some way lasting. If not, all is lost, hope is empty, and the present life — existing ‘in magnificent isolation’ and therefore ‘magnificently insignificant’ — is plainly absurd.3These phrases are coined by Professor Brian Cox, in various television programmes. E.g., The Human Universe: Are We Alone?, 14:17 [2014]; Human Universe: A Place in Space and Time, 59:43 [2014]; Human Universe: What is Our Future?, 58:02 [2014]. See also: https://twitter.com/ProfBrianCox/status/352535011427221505?s=20&t=FsUrWKIQCVtMep2x9lCjLA [accessed 220214].
The controversy is heightened by exclusivity. If Christ was raised in the manner the New Testament states, that places him in an incomparable category, implying the exclusion of all competing claims. Because it confirms his identity so absolutely — as God the Son, Saviour of the world, Judge of all the earth — Christ’s resurrection undercuts and denies every other interpretation of reality conceived apart from him.
Expecting Extinction
The idea that there is nothing after death finds expression in both ancient and contemporary thought. Death is then the ultimate calamity, the extinction of individual life, a total irretrievable loss. Cormac McCarthy captures it: ‘Your world — the only one that matters — will be gone. And it will never come again. The extinction of all reality is a concept no resignation can encompass.’4Cormac McCarthy, The Counselor: A Screenplay. Movie Tie-in Edition (Vintage International, 2013), 160.
Here is one atheist philosopher near the end of his life, expressing deep despair at death as an absolute end:
‘[T]he mental night that has descended upon me … promises no awakening after sleep. … No dungeon was ever constructed so dark and narrow as that in which the shadow physics of our time imprisons us … There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendour, no vastness, anywhere; only triviality for a moment, and then nothing. Why live in such a world? Why even die?’5Bertrand Russell, Autobiography (Routledge, 2010 [Orig. 1975]), 374.
If this is true, death marks the end of earthly existence and the termination of human hope.
Anticipations of an Afterlife
But the idea of death as an absolute end is atypical. Absolute atheism is an anomaly in the architecture of human belief; most worldviews assume survival of the self in some afterlife, however vague.
Aristotle and Hinduism hold that both the world and human beings are eternal, persisting in an endless cycle. The Pythagoreans and Nietzsche expected ‘eternal return’ based on infinite chance. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam agree that the world and human beings have an embodied eternal future, undergoing an ultimate change at the end of time, after which all face Divine judgment in a transformed eternal state.6Van Inwagen, ‘Human Destiny,’ 246-47. Our future is related to the past and present, but will not be like them.
Death Is a Judicial Sentence
According to Scripture, death does not lie outside God’s intention, nor is it the inevitable outcome of a natural process. Though inescapable and universal, death is essentially unnatural to created human existence. It is the penalty and effect of sin.
Because God in his essential goodness is the source of all being and meaning, turning our backs on him puts us on the pathway from life to death. Death in all its forms — relational, bodily, spiritual, eternal — is elemental to fallen human existence, decreed by God himself as the penalty for sin (Gen 2:17; Rom 6:23).
The terror of death resides here: not merely in its aberrant nature, but because it is a Divine judgment upon human wrongdoing — that final prospect before which every sinful person proves helpless.
A Death Deliberately Undertaken
From one angle the crucifixion revealed the depth of human sin; from another, the justice of God’s judgment upon it. In both respects Christ’s death was quite deliberate — in line with God’s counsel, ‘predestined to take place’ (Acts 4:28). It was to deal with sin, and with death as sin’s appointed consequence, that Jesus was determined to die ‘according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God’ (Acts 2:24).
On several occasions Jesus foretold that his violent death would be followed by his being raised (Matt 16:21; John 2:19; 10:17-18). According to his human nature, Christ’s anticipation of his resurrection kept him from despair.7Jones, Knowing Christ, 162. It was the joy set before him (Heb 12:2) that enabled him to endure, keeping him calmly confident in obedience to the Father’s will (Luke 22:42).
What the Resurrection Reveals About Jesus’ Death
Two observations follow.
First, the predictions were set by Jesus himself in the context of his death being a sacrifice to atone for sin. His resurrection demonstrated that this sacrifice was accepted by God, confirming that his death — in suffering ‘the same death that other men naturally die’8Calvin, Institutes, 2.14.13; 522. — achieved its objective: satisfying God’s law by serving the judicial penalty for sin. His resurrection reveals his death to be an atoning death, reconciling us to God. ‘The very essence of the saving effect of Christ,’ wrote Warfield, resides ‘in the power of his resurrection.’9Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 538; slightly amended.
Second, Jesus’ predictions fall within his broader teaching that all people are destined to be raised. His resurrection demonstrates that resurrection itself is actual and certain. Because he was raised, a general resurrection at the end of time is not only possible but assured. It happened to him; eventually it will happen to each of us. Christ’s resurrection is the original prototype, and in that way the guarantee.10Calvin, Institutes, 3.24.3; 989.
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- 1Peter van Inwagen, ‘Human Destiny,’ in William E. Mann ed., The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell, 2005), 245. ↩︎
- 2William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2; paraphrase. ↩︎
- 3These phrases are coined by Professor Brian Cox, in various television programmes. E.g., The Human Universe: Are We Alone?, 14:17 [2014]; Human Universe: A Place in Space and Time, 59:43 [2014]; Human Universe: What is Our Future?, 58:02 [2014]. See also: https://twitter.com/ProfBrianCox/status/352535011427221505?s=20&t=FsUrWKIQCVtMep2x9lCjLA [accessed 220214]. ↩︎
- 4Cormac McCarthy, The Counselor: A Screenplay. Movie Tie-in Edition (Vintage International, 2013), 160. ↩︎
- 5Bertrand Russell, Autobiography (Routledge, 2010 [Orig. 1975]), 374. ↩︎
- 6Van Inwagen, ‘Human Destiny,’ 246-47. ↩︎
- 7Jones, Knowing Christ, 162. ↩︎
- 8Calvin, Institutes, 2.14.13; 522. ↩︎
- 9Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 538; slightly amended. ↩︎
- 10Calvin, Institutes, 3.24.3; 989. ↩︎