With the advent of the COVID-19 crisis coupled with the diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease, I cannot help but have moments where death comes to mind. I know that every person born will one day die. That is why faith in Christ has become my bedrock. In Christ I have come to the realization there is nothing that can ever separate me from His love - even death.

36 Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:36-39 NASB

The basic reality of the life of a new creation in Christ as that we die to ourselves daily!

The Apostle Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:31 NASB, “I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.”

Jesus put it much simpler terms in Mattew 16:24 NASB. Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

We are putting to death the old things we used to think defined us - a sort of death - and replacing them with the truth of who our Father says we are…which leads to life…abundant life!

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB

On November 7, 1981, I was born again. All the old me was crucified with Christ and buried with Him in the grave…and I arose with the Risen Savior calling me forth from the grave and into the identity and life of being a new creation in Christ.

God did a mighty work in my life…and continues to do so. It seems like I get saved from myself more every day! I know this is the truth because God desires to conform me to the image of Jesus! During the years following my deliverance, God has not ceased to reveal to me who I am because of Who He is! Isn’t that wonderful?!?

As I came to realize more and more just how much God loves me…no matter what my past may have been….I was overwhelmed to think that there is absolutely nothing that can separate me from His great love for me. And you know what else? That only makes me love Him more and makes me hate the old life even more. I really am a new person…the person I used to be is dead!

Now that I am getting up there in years - as of this writing I am 61 years old - this song has taken on a whole new meaning…especially in regard to my diagnosis of Parkinson’s. I am reminded daily of the reality of the fact that I will die a physical death some day…but even physical death cannot separate me from the magnitude and massiveness of God’s love for me. I find great solace in that truth.

2 Corinthians 5:1-8 NASB says it like this: 1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this [house] we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. 6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord-- 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight-- 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

Let us proclaim and receive this truth today: Nothing can separate us from the love of God…not even death…

Romans 8:35-39 NASB says, 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That declaration of God’s love for us should bring peace in the midst of any storm we encounter in life. Even though the weakness of my body reminds me daily of what I will one day face, I do not dwell on death. I dwell on the life I have with Father God in the here and now and I rest in knowing that when the time comes for me to step across death’s door into eternity, God will be with me dispensing grace through the process. Even though my body is daily attacked by disease, I hold on to the truth that my God wastes nothing. How do I know this?

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose. Romans 8:28 NASB

Do you love God? Are you called according to His purpose? Then you have no reason to fear! WE have no reason to fear! Not even death! Let’s live like we believe that today!
Dennis Jernigan

To listen to The Dennis Jernigan Podcast and a song relevant to this teaching, go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/not-eveb-death/