Morning Devotional

August 31, 2003

"Life After Death"  

by Don Emmitte

Home

When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to pay their respects and console Martha and Mary on their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus told her, "Your brother will rise again." "Yes," Martha said, "when everyone else rises, on resurrection day." Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again. They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?" "Yes, Lord," she told him. "I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God." (John 11:17-27 NLT). 

Ancient Egyptians fervently believed in an afterlife. So much so that Egyptian burial rituals are the only custom familiar to most moderns. For thousands of years their misguided faith motivated them to build immense tombs with an ingenuity of design, as well as a cost in labor, money, and blood, that still astonishes people. Over the centuries the Egyptians prepared each other for eternity by mummifying countless people, animals, and even insects. Within a few centuries, Egypt had a critical excess of mummies reverently wrapped in joyful anticipation of the afterlife. With mummies showing up everywhere, later Egyptians got creative. Nineteenth century European travelers exploring Egypt sent home reports of household roofs thatched with mummies or ground mummies used for fertilizer. Hustling Egyptians sent mummies by the ton to Americans who used their linen wrappings to make paper. Even more bizarre, millions of mummies were used in place of scarce timber for Egypt's wood-burning locomotives--a far cry from the destiny that the original embalmers imagined for their beloved departed and a reminder of the fallacy of holding to a well-intentioned but baseless belief.

Ancient Egyptians were right to believe there's life after death, but it's downhill from there. Almost every world religion, in fact, teaches that death is not the end. They go wrong, however, with their belief that we can prepare for eternity through our own efforts. Many current false religions, cults, and New Age philosophies offer elaborate schemes for achieving eternal life or for managing your reincarnation. The Bible teaches that there's only one way to gain eternal life, though, it's through believing that Jesus Christ gives eternal life to those who have faith in him. 

Life after death is real. What happens depends on your decisions now. Give your life by faith to Christ and the life you experience after death will be more than your mind can imagine!