Most people associate California with its beaches and mountains. However, it’s also home to Death Valley and the Mojave Desert. Having traversed these landscapes many times by truck, street bike, and dirt bike, I can attest that you would never suggest someone “have a nice walk” if they were forced to hike miles across that geographically barren furnace. With average temperatures reaching 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius) in the summer months, it’s certainly no place for cardio exercise.
Yet, we symbolically tell the deceased to “have a nice walk” with our well-intentioned “RIP.” I’ve done it, and I’m sure most others have as well. Whether it’s personal or job-related, “RIP” is expressed to show respect and admiration for the deceased. It seems like burying another murdered cop is a weekly occurrence. As of this writing, there have been thirteen killed in 2016, an average of one per week. Everything within me wants to write “RIP” as a comment to each tribute.
But death is something to be conquered, not a hammock beneath a shade tree in the backyard. I do not wish to be insensitive, but death is the enemy to life, and there is no peace without knowing the Author of Life—God—and placing your trust and faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of his Son—Christ Jesus. Eternal peace is dependent upon your earthly response to the love of the Father through his Son.
Allow me to briefly explain from the creation of Adam to the cross of Christ. Sin brought about death as described by many biblical authors, beginning with Moses in the book of Genesis. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin entered the equation, and death became the result. God offered the first sacrificial lamb to pay for human disobedience, a practice that became part of life from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses to David etc. Finally, the Lamb of God in the form of Jesus was offered to permanently pay for the sin of all people because we all need a Savior since we have all sinned. When Jesus was crucified, his final words, “It is finished,” meant that sin had been permanently defeated. Faith in the resurrected Christ will make us unblemished and blameless before God.
Well, that takes care of sin, but how about death? Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians sums it up much better than I can. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55) “ The sting of death is sin, … But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57).
Yes, we lose friends, colleagues, and loved ones, to physical death. But my hope is that all who read my words find assurance in God’s promises. Death is the last enemy, and it will be defeated. There awaits a fantastic reunion for all who know Christ Jesus in a heavenly banquet. And death will be no more!
Speaking the truth in love, I need to declare, all that decline the Master Creator of peace reject the ability to “RIP.” The eternal consequence of permanent separation from God will make a hike through Death Valley in the zenith of summer look like a walk in the park. I want to extend “RIP” to all who pass away, but it is only available to people who’ve made a decision to accept Christ as Savior and Lord. God does not condemn others; they condemn themselves by rejecting him, and there will be no RIP in eternity outside of his presence. This is not my declaration, but God’s revelation to humanity!
-Jim