The Believer's Easy Passage Through Death to Glory

Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The LORD shall reign for ever and ever. - Exodus 15:16-18

    I have seen people die without Christ, without faith in him, and without hope. I have seen the terror of hell on their helpless, hopeless faces as they gasped for their last breath of life. I pray that I will never see that pitiful expression again. However, I have also seen some of God’s saints die in faith, with the smile of God upon their souls and the peace of God radiating through their words. I cannot imagine a more delightful or more glorious thing to behold on this earth. Balaam spoke well when he said, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his” (Num. 23:10).

    Exodus 15 records Moses’ song of redemption and salvation. In verses 1-13 he sang praise to God for the redemption, grace and salvation Israel had just experienced. In verses 14-19 he praises God for the sure hope of a peaceful and glorious entrance into the land of promise. Specifically, in verses 16-18, the prophet of God speaks of the safe, peaceful passage of Israel across the Jordan river into the land of Canaan. This prophetical song was written for us. Typically, prophetically, it declares that God’s saints will pass through death into glory safely and peacefully, by the greatness of his arm. “Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, 0 LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, 0 LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, 0 Lord, which thy hands have established. The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.” Viewing these words as a picture of every believer’s easy passage through death into heaven, they teach us four great spiritual truths.

    A purchased people

    The lord Jesus Christ has a people in this world whom he has purchased. Moses spoke of the Lord’s people as those whom he has purchased? Who are these people? They are the people of God’s choice, his peculiar people. Those purchased people are those men and women with whom Christ’s delights were from everlasting. They are peculiarly and distinctively his (Deut. 7:7-9). — Chosen in electing love (John 15:16). — Redeemed by his precious blood (1 Pet. 1:18)..- Called by almighty grace (Psa. 65:4). — Given faith in Christ by the operation of his Spirit (Col. 2:12). If you are a believer, you are one of his people whom he has purchased!

    Christ alone is the Purchaser of his people. He alone was able and willing to do it, as the God-man, our Mediator. He alone has the lawful right to do it, as our Kinsman Redeemer. He alone has done it. Christ did not try to redeem anyone, or merely make redemption available for everyone. He effectually redeemed all his people by his sin-atoning sacrifice at Calvary (Gal. 3:13; Heb. 9:12). When the Word of God talks about redemption, it is talking about something that is finished (Dan. 9:24; John 19:30. The thing is done, not provided, but done. "Thou hast purchased!” “Ye are bought with a price!” (1 Cor. 6:20). The price by which the Son of God purchased his people is his own precious blood (1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rev: 5:9; Acts 20:28). How this glorious subject ought to thrill our souls!

    It was a special purchase

    The redemption accomplished by Christ at Calvary was a special purchase. He has purchased a special people, with a special price, because of special love, to enjoy special blessings of grace and glory forever.

    It was a proper purchase.

    We sometimes use the words “buy” or “purchase” in other ways (Isa. 55:1). We purchase grace and mercy, without money and without price, by faith in Christ. That is not the case here. Christ made a real, proper purchase of God’s elect by the price of his own blood.

    It was a legal purchase (Isa. 43:1).

    The people were named. He died for and purchased “his people” (Isa. 53:8; John 10:11, 15, 26). The price was agreed to (Rom. 3:24-26). The purchase was made (Rom. 5:8-11). It cannOt be invalidated (Rom. 11:29).

    It is a full and complete purchase.

    Here is the greatest purchase ever made. Christ has redeemed and purchased a great multitude which no man can number, who could not be redeemed by any other price than his precious blood (Psa. 49:7-8; Job 36:18). We rejoice to know that Christ has a people in this world he has purchased.

    Nothing so comforts dying saints as the knowledge of effectually accomplished redemption by the blood of Christ. Several years ago, I visited a dying friend. His last words to me, as I started to leave him were, Brother, my hope is in that Man in heaven whose blood has washed away all of my sins and given me perfect righteousness before God. Thank God for Christ. I thank God for the blood of Christ! I am thankful to know that there is a Man in glory who is my Substitute. My hope is him!” Our hearts are overwhelmed with joy to know that we are among those people for whom redemption is accomplished. I say, with my brother, “Thank God for Christ! Thank God for the blood of Christ!”

    The believers passage through death

    Though redeemed by blood and saved by grace, god’s purchased people must pass through death into glory. As Israel must pass through the Jordan river to reach the land of Canaan, so God’s pilgrims in this world must pass through death to reach their home in glory. Notice two things in this regard.

    1. Death for the believer is just a passage. Death is passing from this world to another world, from time into eternity. It is to depart from this world and be with Christ, which is far better (Phil. 1:23). It is a passage through a low, lonesome valley (Psa. 23:4). (This life is the valley of the shadow of death.) The Puritan, Thomas Brooks, wrote, “Death to a saint is nothing but the taking of a sweet flower out of this wilderness, and planting it in the garden of Paradise.”

    Moses compared death to passing over a river, crossing from this shore to that shore. For the believer that is all death is— A passage from this foreign, condemned land to our homeland in glory!

    2. It is a necessary passage. Death must be. This is the way of all the earth. There is no avoiding it. The grave is the house appointed for all living. Your grave may be a stately mausoleum or a pit in the earth; but to the grave you must go, and so must I, at the time appointed of God (Heb. 9:27; Job 30:23; Gen. 47:29). Just as “the time drew night that Israel must die,” so the time draws near when each of us must die. As there was no other way for Israel to get to Canaan, but by going through Jordan, so there is no other way for us to go to heaven but by the grave. Even Enoch and Elijah, though they escaped death, did not escape the change that all must undergo before we can enter glory. Even those saints living at Christ’s second advent must be changed. Someone said, “Were it not for sin, death had never had a beginning, and were it not for death, sin would never have had an ending.” We must die. Yet, in reality, the believer never dies (John 11:25). Christ has taken the sting out of death for us. He has delivered us from death’s penal aspect. He has delivered us from the second death. Soon, he will deliver every believer from sin and all the consequences of sin. We ought never to look upon that deliverance as death. At death, we begin to live!

    We may not presently think so, but for the dying believer, death is a friend, a welcome, long-expected friend, who brings with him great relief and comfort. It is necessary because of sin. It is welcome because of grace. This body of flesh is our greatest enemy. Death will be a welcome relief.

    A safe passage

    The believer’s passage through death into glory is always safe and usually peaceful. My primary reason for writing these studies is to assure the children of God that there is nothing in death that should cause them fear, either for themselves or for their departed friends and loved ones who sleep in their Savior’s arms. When Joshua and the children of Israel came to the river Jordan and passed over it, not one was lost, missing, or hurt by it. So it shall be with God’s elect. Every one of the Lord’s purchased people shall pass through the Jordan and come safe at last into the heavenly Canaan. You who were ordained to eternal life shall possess it. You who have been purchased by Christ’s blood shall see the Lamb for sinners slain. You who are united to Christ shall be with Christ in glory. You who have the earnest of the Spirit shall have the full inheritance of glory. You who have faith in Christ shall be found with Christ. You who are under Christ’s care and in his hands shall be presented by Christ to your heavenly Father (Heb. 2:13). You to whom God has given grace, he will give glory also. As Israel lost nothing by passing from the wilderness through Jordan into Canaan, so God’s saints lose nothing by passing through death into glory. They go immediately into heaven (2 Cor. 5:1-4, 8). As we have seen, all their most earnest and constant prayers are answered in an instant. They shall be first in the resurrection (1 Thess. 4:16).

    Moreover, generally speaking, God’s saints pass through death into glory peaceably, with quiet, comfortable confidence. I do not say that every believer will be absolutely free of fear and trouble in the hour of death; but generally they are. I do not suggest that we are freed from the fear of death as we think about it. Yet, I do say, generally, when a believer is faced with death, he is filled with peace. God does not give dying grace until it is needed. However, when it is needed, he does not fail to give it. ln that hour your enemies shall be “as still as a stone.”

    When israel went out of Egypt, not a dog was allowed to move its tongue against them. No enemy molested them. No foe gave them any disturbance. They left Egypt with a high hand, triumphantly! When they passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, though they had many enemies, not one was to be seen or heard. They were, as Moses said, “As still as a stone,” until God’s people had passed over. So it is with God’s saints in the hour of death. As a general rule, those spiritual enemies, who have given you so much uneasiness in life, will not be allowed to distress you in your last moments on this earth. Your inward sins and corruptions of nature will not be able to rob you of peace when certain deliverance is at hand. John Gill said, “The believer perceiving his dissolution drawing nigh, spies deliverance from it through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 7:23-25).” This confidence and peace arises from “a comfortable view of the free and full forgiveness of his sins through the blood of Christ; and of his justification before God, and acceptance with him through his pure and perfect righteousness.” Thomas Watson wrote, “He may look upon death with joy who can look on forgiveness with faith!” When the Puritan Thomas Goodwin was on his death bed, in his dying hour, he referred to his inward sins as “croaking toads,” and said, “Thank God, in a short time I will hear no more their croaking language!”

    An evil heart of unbelief shall not likely distress the soul that is about to leave the realm of unbelief forever. Nothing makes God’s children more uneasy in life than an evil heart of unbelief; but in the hour of death, God graciously drives this monster from the hearts of his children, even as he did with David (2 Sam. 23:5) and Paul (2 Tim. 1:12; 4:6-8). It is written of God’s saints, “These all died in faith” (Heb. 11:13), because “the righteous hath hope in his death” (Pray.

    14:32). When he knew he was dying, God’s faithful servant, John Gill, said to a friend standing by, "I have nothing to make me uneasy.”

    Your adversary the devil will find it hard to overwhelm you when you are about to tread him beneath your feet (Rom. 16:20). Satan is a very busy adversary. His temptations are many and great. In the hour of death, I am sure, he will come against us with all his force like a flood; but our Comforter, the Spirit of God, will lift up a banner against him and put him to flight (Isa. 59:19). The banner he shall lift to defend us is the gospel of Christ, his Person, his blood, his intercession, and his righteousness. I do not doubt that believing saints, as they leave this world and soar through the heavens into glory cryng, "O Death, where is thy sting?’~ do so with the same bold challenges raised by the Apostle in Romans eight: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” “Who is he that condemneth?” “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. 8:32-39). “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace” (Psa. 37:37; Cf. 1 Cor. 15:55-57).

    An easy passage

    This safe and peaceful passage of god’s saints through death into glory must be ascribed to the greatness of his arm. “Fear and dread shall fall upon them; greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, 0 LORD, till the people pass over which purchased. Thou Shalt bring them in, plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, 0 LORD, which hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, 0 Lord, which hands have established. The LORD shall reign for ever and ever” (Ex. 15:16-18). Read Joshua the third chapter. There we find many things by which God made Israel’s passage through Jordan into Canaan comfortable and peaceful. These are the very things that shall make our passage out of this world into heaven comfortable and peaceful. The presence of the Lord sustained them (Josh. 3:10; Ps. 23:4). The ark of the Lord, the symbol of accomplished redemption, of satisfied justice, of blood atonement, went before them (v. 11). The priests of God led the way, even as Christ has gone into heaven, leading the way before us (Josh. 3:11; Heb. 6:20). As the priests stood firm upon dry ground (Josh. 3:17), so God’s faithful servants, standing firm upon the gospel, inspire God’s saints with confident hope of eternal life in and by Christ (Heb.13:7-8). The sight of the waters divided before them (Josh. 3:13) was a picture of salvation accomplished by the hand of God. With that confidence of faith, we may well die in peace. Our passage through death into heaven shall be both safe and easy, being assured that Christ will have his purchased people.

    ‘And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isa. 35:8- 10).