Is God sovereign over death?

This thought is closely connected with the question of life and death: "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up." Not only is our coming into the world completely under God's control, but when born, our life is in His hand; death, too, is amenable to His will. This is the sobering declaration of the prophet Daniel before the impious king Belshazzar: "The God in whose hand thy breath is." He is "the sovereign Lord of life and death." He killeth; death is His black-winged messenger. It is He who "turneth man to destruction, and says, Return, ye children of men" (Ps. 90:3), and who in "the last day" will cause His voice to be heard by all that sleep in the grave. He "maketh alive," and "bringeth up" from the grave. Resurrection is the sovereign act of His power.

Ans. — Death was God's appointed penalty for sin, as Adam was forewarned (Gen.2:7), and sooner or later it comes to us all as sinful children of Adam (Heb.9:27). The time, the means, and circumstances of it are entirely in God's hand. In the cases of Enoch and Elijah, God intervened that they should not see death. In Abraham's case and many others, they “died in a good old age, satisfied with years.” In the New Testament, salvation having been accomplished by our great Redeemer's death and resurrection, death is spoken of for the believer as “asleep in Jesus” (or “put to sleep through Jesus,” New Trans.; see 1 Thess.4:14; Acts 7:16, etc.); for by Christ's atonement, the sting of death, sin, has been taken away for the believer.

God has not only rights over the living, but also rights over the dead. The living may refuse to give God His rights, but men cannot do this when they are dead. Moreover, God has the right to raise from the dead whom He will. There are those whom He will raise at the resurrection of the just, and those whom He will raise for the resurrection of judgment. As the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He has the righteous dead with Him above, and He can speak of them as if they were already before Him in their resurrection state.

"Behold, I am alive unto the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades." The succession of these words in the common text is a mistake. Hades follows death, and does not go before it. (Rev. 6) See also Rev. 20 where we have "death and hades" mentioned several times in their regular order. And so in the best authorities it is here. When the Lord says that He has the keys of death and of hades, He intimates that He is the absolute master of all that might threaten man whether for the body or the soul. Satan's power in this respect is annulled; Christ has it all.

On earth the Lord had said, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do" (Luke 12:4). Men may take the lives of others, or even take their own lives, but only One has the keys of hell and of death; only One can both kill and cast into hell; and He only can bring out of death those who have entered there. Man has not the right to kill, not having been given this authority, saving as under divine instructions in the government of God given to Noah in Genesis 9:6, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man".

Death is here viewed in immediate connexion with its procuring cause. "It is appointed unto men to die." Death is, indeed, "the way of all the earth." But the feet which find reluctantly the passage out of life, are guided by a stronger will than that of nature. Man's death is a judicial ordinance of God. It entered at His bidding as the unwelcome consequent of sin. Yet it is not in this natural decease of life that God declares His judgment on the ways of men. For death is the term and limit of corrupted human life, without all reference to personal transgressions. Mankind are born to die, because of sinful origin and birth. By a general appointment men die once. Judgment comes after this. Death, to the natural man, is but the closing of a life, the quality and ultimate results of which have yet to be determined. Eternal judgment will award, in righteousness, a worthy sentence to the man who meets death's stroke with no acknowledgment of Him who has appointed it, and who turns away his ear, while mortal breath remains, from the word of reconciliation and eternal life. To such as close their earthly days in willing ignorance of Christ, another death remains (Rev. 20) to be encountered in that day of fear, when Christ shall search the pages of the book of life, and find no names there but of those who knew Him, and confessed Him, ere their former life was passed.

Now, if you are speaking of those that are born of God, is that all you could say? Surely not! To depart is no doubt gain, but to live is well worthwhile; particularly when Christ is the object; and such can say in their measure, in spite of all their weaknesses and all their faults, "To me to live is Christ." Yes, it is full of blessing; but here it is merely man born of woman, never born of God — not yet, till we come to a later chapter — not one of these is supposed to be born of God. "He comes forth like a flower" — for they are all pretty much the same when they are born, so far like a flower — no doubt, an interesting object, but how soon developed and made perfectly plain. "He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow, and continues not." You know very well — we all know — that there is great mortality among the children; it is particularly there that we have death so frequent. "And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." It does not mean, "not one person," but "not one thing." I merely make that remark in order that it may be understood. "Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass." It is all therefore an uncertainty — a precarious condition as far as man is concerned — but all settled of God.

The pestilence, or famine, or war, sweep o'er the earth. The wave of Death rolls in upon a man who is in nature; it finds him in nature, with nothing in him which is beyond nature. It takes its course (say), and he dies: it comes next to a believer. But here another question arises, viz., not only who is it that has the power of death (that is, the devil), but "that one," says Christ, "is one of my sheep, I gave my life for it." Has Satan — has death — any title which is above Christ's? No; none. Suppose, however, that the time be come for that individual to glorify God by being stoned to death — by being nailed to a cross head downwards. If he that has the power of death is hailing a storm of stones on Stephen, He that has the power of life is there too. A saint is not like an ordinary man; he cannot be killed till Christ, as Prince of Life, acts. Death may roll in, under a general and a particular providence, among men as mere men. But a saint has to go on high; the life — well-spring of life, eternal life — in him, opened there by Christ, and fed by Christ every moment, can neither be stopped up by the enemy, nor can the thread of life be cut off by him. Satan cannot do it. It needs Christ to gather up the life to Himself.

He uttered but three words and the mighty sign came to pass. Death and corruption disappeared and Lazarus, still bound in grave-clothes, came forth. Now again human instrumentality came into play and Lazarus was freed from his bonds; just as today the servants of God may so preach the word as to remove spiritual obstructions and release souls from bondage while the life-giving work remains altogether in the hands of the Son of God. In this great sign, the sixth that John puts on record, the glory of God had been manifested, since the giving of life is His glorious prerogative. Brutish man can kill all too easily: only God can "kill and make alive" (see 1 Sam. 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7). In it, too, the Son of God had been glorified, for His oneness with the Father in the wielding of this power had been displayed.

For it is the Lord Himself who is able to kill, and able to make alive: He knows how to bring one down even to the grave; but is no less able to bring up. Hannah had learnt something of this resurrection power of God in her own body, and she recognizes that it is only God's work that accomplishes anything. Some He makes poor, others He makes rich. He will often bring one down with the object of later lifting him up.