Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

emoved the penalty of sin. But if this is so, why does God still deem it necessary to lead
them through the harrowing experience of death? Why does He not simply transfer
them to heaven at once? It cannot be said that the destruction of the body is absolutely
essential to a perfect sanctification, since that is contradicted by the examples of Enoch
and Elijah. Neither does it satisfy to say that death sets the believer free from the ills and
sufferings of the present life, and from the trammels of the dust, by liberating the spirit
from the present coarse and sensual body. God might effect this deliverance also by a
sudden transformation, such as living saints will experience at the time of the parousia.
It is quite evident that the death of believers must be regarded as the culmination of the
chastisements which God has ordained for the sanctification of His people. While death
in itself remains a real natural evil for the children of God, something unnatural, which
is dreaded by them as such, it is made subservient in the economy of grace to their
spiritual advancement and to the best interests of the Kingdom of God. The very
thought of death, bereavements through death, the feeling that sicknesses and
sufferings are harbingers of death, and the consciousness of the approach of death, —
all have a very beneficial effect on the people of God. They serve to humble the proud,
to mortify carnality, to check worldliness and to foster spiritual-mindedness. In the
mystical union with their Lord believers are made to share the experiences of Christ.
Just as He entered upon His glory by the pathway of sufferings and death, they too can
enter upon their eternal reward only through sanctification. Death is often the supreme
test of the strength of the faith that is in them, and frequently calls forth striking
manifestations of the consciousness of victory in the very hour of seeming defeat, I Pet.
4:12,13. It completes the sanctification of the souls of believers, so that they become at
once “the spirits of just men made perfect,” Heb. 12:23; Rev. 21:27. Death is not the end
for believers, but the beginning of a perfect life. They enter death with the assurance
that its sting has been removed, I Cor. 15:55, and that it is for them the gateway of
heaven. They fall asleep in Jesus, II Thess. 1:7, and know that even their bodies will at
last be snatched out of the power of death, to be forever with the Lord, Rom. 8:11; I
Thess. 4:16,17. Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live.”
And Paul had the blessed consciousness that for him to live was Christ, and to die was
gain. Hence he could also speak in jubilant notes at the end of his career: “I have fought
the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid
up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to
me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing,”
II Tim. 4:7,8.
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