What is there to fear in death? In means no more and no less that the end of our testing period here on earth; it is a return, a going home, to the God and Father who first created us. It is not the end of life; the fact of the resurrection proves that beyond a doubt.
Death itself is not a thing we fear. It is a homecoming, the return of the prodigal son, perhaps, to the welcoming arms of a loving father. We expect it, as everyone must, but we expect it in confidence and even joy, buoyed up by our faith in Christ and his victory over death.
Christ has risen, and our faith is not in vain. The Resurrection is a fact, a fact of recorded history and of what the theologians call “salvation history.” So death for us is not an enemy, a thing to be dreaded, a word we prefer not to think about or play down as do the communists. We think and speak about it not as an end to everything but as the end of our probation. We can anticipate it daily, and even eagerly, because of our faith. We can yearn for it, prepare ourselves for it, and embrace it gladly, in joy and in peace, when at last we are called home to our heavenly inheritance. This we believe; this essentially is what it means to be a Christian – one who believes in Christ, the promised Redeemer and Victor over sin and death.
Source: He Leadeth Me, pp. 151-152.
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