ODJ: dying to live
June 23, 2011
While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh. . . . We want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life (2 Corinthians 5:4).
READ: Romans 8:15-30
How’s your dad?” a colleague asked me. “Struggling to die,” I replied. My 84-year-old dad has endured the painful debilitating effects of liver cancer for 2 years. Doctors have told me and my family to be prepared for his inevitable demise. So as he lies on that hospital bed, I feel his pain. In a weak voice, he recently said, “My time is almost up.” Dad isn’t struggling to live, but waiting to die.
I take comfort in what Paul said in Romans 8: “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are” (vv.18-19).
Dad may be helpless against some rogue cells that have attacked his body. But he is certainly not without hope. My father is God’s child (vv.15-17). He has entrusted himself to the One who is trustworthy (2 Timothy 1:12). He knows he’s finally going home to be with Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:8).
Yes, “we believers also groan, . . . we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us” (Romans 8:23).
God “chose [Dad] to become like His Son. . . . And . . . He called [Dad] to come to Him. . . . He gave [Dad] right standing with Himself. . . . He gave [Dad] His glory” (vv.29-30). My father may have cancer. But cancer doesn’t have him. God has him. And this is the glory that awaits Dad.
He’s not struggling to die. Dad is dying to live with God forever! —K.T. Sim
Read Romans 8:15-30 again. What assurances does God give to those who are suffering?
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