Well indeed, the value of having spiritual blessings safe in the heavenly realms is especially seen in the face of death. For unbelievers, death is nothing but an unmitigated disaster. Queen Elizabeth I, speaking on her deathbed, said to her lady in waiting these words:
It is over. I’ve come to the end of it; the end, the end! To have only one life and now to have done with it.I think more poignant were the dying words of the French philosopher Voltaire, who you may know had so mocked Jesus in his life. But in death, he felt a panicked despair. Voltaire’s physician recorded his last words:I am abandoned by God and man, I will give you half of what I am worth if you can give me six months life, but then I shall go to hell and you with me. Oh Christ! Oh, Jesus Christ!Thus died the atheist Voltaire.And yet, faith in Christ enables believers to face death differently, yes, to face it triumphantly. One of the blessings of being in the church with multiple generations is that we know the sorrow of death, but we know the triumph of death of believers. Why? Because of the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm, which are safe there. And that is why Paul could say,
For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain(Philippians 1:21).I mentioned the dying words of Elizabeth I and of Voltaire. What about Paul’s? Well, when he realized the Emperor Nero was soon going to put him to death, he wrote a letter to his disciple Timothy. In 2 Timothy 4:6, he said,
the time of my departure has come,and yet his response was one of joyful anticipation:I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness [spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms, absolutely safe and to last forever], the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, (2 Timothy 4:7–8).
You see, it will make all the difference in life, but how much more in the face of death that we possess blessings from God in the heavenly realms. No tyrant can deny them, no thief can take them, and no corruption will mar them.1
Dr. Richard D. Phillips
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,