Why does the Lord not abolish physical death for His faithful in this world?

Some might ask: Why does the Lord not abolish physical death for His faithful here, so that death cannot work in them after they have risen from the dead through the Lord’s death and His resurrection, and thus they would live forever without their souls separating from their bodies?

First: God does not permit us to remain in this body forever, so that we might not focus our eyes on earthly things , but instead, raise our hope to eternal things. For “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” (1 Cor. 15:19). The Lord ascended to heaven draw our gaze upwards, that we might look forward to our personal encounter with God, for God Himself, by Him, and in Him, that He may be all in all [1 Cor. 15:28].

Second: So that our freedom to choose faith may be apparent. St. Macarius the Great says, “If the man were immortal, and his body exempt from corruption, the whole world, beholding the strange fact that Christian men’s bodies were incorruptible, would come over to the good by a kind of compulsion, not by a voluntary decision. In order that the freedom of will which God gave man at the beginning might once for all be shewn and might abide, providence orders these matters, and bodily dissolution takes place, that it may be at the man’s discretion to turn to the good or to the bad.”¹¹⁷⁴

Third: So that we may not be concerned about the death of the flesh but rather about the death of the spirit. According to St. Ambrose , “The Lord said concerning St. John the Apostle: ‘If I will that he remain till I come’ (John 21:22). We do not think that this refers to John alone, but it is an invitation addressed generally to many. The Lord does not rule out the death of the body, but that of the spirit. For there are dead people who live, and there are living people who are dead. For example, the woman who lived in pleasure and was dead while she lived (1 Tim. 5:6). And those about whom it was written: ‘Let death seize them; let them go down alive into hell’ (Ps. 55:15). There are some who go down alive into hell, for by sin they go and dwell in the place of death. Conversely, the living are those whose life does not end with physical death, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; whom we know are alive by the authority of the divine word: ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob … God is not God of the dead, but of the living’ (Matt. 22:32).”

Fourth: Our Lord Jesus has not cheated us. According to the martyr St. Cyprian , “For he who [spiritually] wars for God, dearest brethren, ought to acknowledge himself as one who, placed in the heavenly camp, already hopes for divine things, so that we may have no trembling at the storms and whirlwinds of the world, and no disturbance, since the Lord had foretold that these would come. With the exhortation of His fore-seeing word, instructing, and teaching, and preparing, and strengthening the people of His Church for all endurance of

1174 St. Macarius the Great, Fifty Spiritual Homilies of St. Macarius the Egyptian , trans., A. J. Mason (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1921) 15.39–40: pp. 125–126.

things to come, He predicted and said that wars, and famines, and earthquakes, and pestilences would arise in each place; and lest an unexpected and new dread of mischiefs should shake us, He previously warned us that adversity would increase more and more in the last times. ‘Behold, the very things occur which were spoken; and since those occur which were foretold before, whatever things were promised will also follow; as the Lord Himself promises, saying, But when you see all these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand’ (Luke 21:31). The kingdom of God, beloved brethren, is beginning to be at hand.”¹¹⁷⁵

Fifth: So that the body may be formed again without sin. St. Gregory of Nyssa is of the opinion that the body must die if it is to be formed anew and restored to its original state without any of the sin that accompanied it during its life on earth. He likens the human body to an earthen vessel into the very material of which poison has infiltrated. It must be shattered and treated to remove all traces of the poison, and then re-molded if it is to be restored to its original state when it was safe to use and devoid of poison. This is all through God’s immense love for us, here in this world, through the blood of the Lord Christ. We are sanctified in our entirety; although the war of the flesh with sin remains, which is why we remain in need of being completely remade through the merits of the precious blood.¹¹⁷⁶

Sixth: The Lord has changed the very concept of death. Once our Christ willingly accepted death for the salvation of the world, it became no longer a punishment that terrifies the believer, but rather a sign of the love that he desires. A believer accepts death for the sake of God, for the salvation of his fellow believers, for his own growth (going through it every day as a communion with the crucified Christ), and as a living promise of the eternal life. According to St. John Cassian : “Not in fear and terror, but with a spirit of hope, awaiting eternity, without dejection but with the eyes of the spirit does the believer look upon the exercise of dying daily in order to live. Thus, he sees with every breath that his spirit is being constantly renewed, as though his body is being gradually transformed from flesh into spirit … longing to behold the last day … he moves into a state of perfect knowledge when he sees God face to face.”¹¹⁷⁷