Hope in grieving

When it comes to grieving with hope, there are many good Christian books that will offer excellent counsel—both in the grieving process for yourself and also in ministering to others. It is a good thing to look into. But the point that Paul makes here should not be neglected—that our knowledge of the Bible’s teaching, the promises of God about believers in death, and the death and resurrection and the return of Christ is able to sustain us with hope in all the trials of grief.

I mentioned earlier the grief of the famous theologian Robert L. Dabney after the death of his sons—again, a very brilliant teacher of the very doctrines Paul is writing about here—and yet he admitted that he struggled to apply them and to feel them in his own experience after his two little boys died, one after another. And he grieved the death of his first son, Jimmy, through a poem that had the title Tried but Comforted. And that is what Christians will experience in grief—tried but comforted. Let me just read a portion of this poem, which shows the progression that he followed—so many of us will as well:

Five summers bright, our noble boy  Was lent us for our household joy. Then came the faded, wintry hour  Of death, and blighted our sweet flower.
They told me, Weep not, for thy gem 
Is fixed in Christ’s own diadem. 
His speedy faith, his speedy feet, 
The race have run, the foe escape, 
The goal has been won. 
Then thus I heard their anthem flow: 
Praise him, all creatures here below; 
Praise him above, ye heavenly host; 
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
But how, I said, can this sad heart 
In joyful praises bear its part? 
It hath no joy. It naught can do 
But mourn its loss and tell its woe. 
And then I thought: What if thy lost 
Is now among that heavenly host, 
And with the angel choir doth sing 
Glory to Thee, eternal King? 
O that for once mine ear might hear 
That tiny voice, so high, so clear, 
Singing Emmanuel’s name among 
Those louder, strong, that mightier throng. 
Oh, that but once mine eyes could see 
That smile which here was wont to be, 
The sunshine of my heart made bright 
With Jesus’ love in heaven’s light. 
Then would my burdened heart, I know, 
With none but tears of joy overflow.

You see what he is doing? It is not easy for him. He is not getting on with it. He is not getting over it. He is wrestling with the truth of God in all of his humanity and his Christianity. And he is allowing God to lift him up by the truth—to see, in his grief, the truth. And yet the struggle continues. Here is what he goes on to say:

’Tis not for sight and sense to know 
Those scenes of glory here below. 
But be it ours to walk by faith, 
And credit what our Saviour saith. 
Let patience work till we be meet 
To dwell in bliss at Jesus’ feet. 
Then death, once dreaded, friendly come 
And bear us to our lost one’s home. 
Then shall that glorious hour repay 
The woes of all that dreary way. 
And I shall hear forevermore 
My seraph boy his God adore. 
Yea, he shall teach this voice to raise 
As angels taught him heaven’s lays. 
And I, who once his steps did lead, 
Shall follow him to Christ the Head.

Oh, what a comfort there is in the knowledge of the truth—that we will be together in the presence and glory of Christ. And those in Christ who have departed from us are there now, prepared for us to join them in the day of Christ’s own timing. And yet, there is a caveat to all of that. Paul has made it very clear that there is a hope that will comfort you in the worst grief of death—but it comes one way, and one way only. We see it in 1 Thessalonians 4:14, in two words: through Jesus. You see, it is those who have died to sin who are now alive with God in Christ, having confessed their sins, having come from their guilt through the cross of the Lord Jesus—there to have their sins put away. I might put it this way: that it is those who, like Dwight Moody—who were nobodies in the eyes of the world—but put their faith in the Son of God, in Jesus Christ, committed their present to him, lived in faith for him here, and trusted—and died in faith with a hope of glory when death came. Those are the ones who can rejoice with hope and comfort in death. Not those like Robert Ingersoll. We grieve to know that though he was famous and wealthy and beloved in this world, he lived without faith, and he died without hope.

It is through Jesus that God brings back souls from heaven for a resurrection into glory. My friends, how urgent it is now, therefore, that we should trust in Jesus—that we should be in Christ, for there alone do we find hope of eternal glory. Now here is how Jesus put it in his words of consolation and hope. He made a statement, a promise, and he followed it with a question. He said, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. What was the question he asked? Do you believe this? Do you believe this? is the question Jesus puts before you. And if you will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and Son of God, if you will believe in his cross alone for the forgiveness of your sins—my friends, it is going to change your life now. And yet, in eternity, how much greater will be the consequences. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says, and you will be saved.¹

Richard D. Phillips