The sixth principle is to plan like you will live to a ripe old age, but live like you will die tomorrow. Be willing to die whenever Christ calls you into his presence. Jesus described this eternal mindset as daily dying for Him: “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it” (Luke 9:23–24, NLT).

1 Cor 15:26 – “The last enemy to be destroyed is death”
Heb 2:14-15 – “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death–that is, the devil– and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
John 11:25-26 – “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

“How you view death is closely connected to your concept of God. For atheists and agnostics, the 70 or 80 years we have in these bodies is all there is. Most people in the Western world are functionally atheists. They live as if there is no God, even if they say that they believe in one. They desperately want to prolong life and grab all of the short-term pleasure they can. The longing to appear young and healthy drives a massive market of diet products, fitness programs, and cosmetic surgery. Some very rich people seek to cheat death by having their bodies frozen at death, hoping that future medicine can revive them and cure their disease.” – Harry Hahne, Professor of NT Studies, Gateway Seminary

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” ― Deitrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

“because we do not know when we will die, we must always be prepared to die well” – Pastor Sean Michael Lucas. Tragically, many Christians are not ready to die

Jesus reminds us that it is possible to die young and yet to have fulfilled the will of God. In the early centuries of the church, the Christians were distinguished from the pagans by their astonishing attitude toward death. When the plagues came, the Christians accepted death with tranquility, knowing that they would be reunited in the world to come. In contrast, the pagans refused to be comforted. They said of believers, “They carry their dead as if in triumph!”

Physical death is actually a grace for the Christian since it frees us from a fallen world and sinful state. The Resurrection is proof that death need not terrify; the grave has been emptied of its power. Death is nothing less than an encounter with God in the presence of the One who came to save us.

When we fail to address death, theologian J. I. Packer says, “we part company with the Bible, with historic Christianity, and with a basic principle of right living, namely, that only when you know how to die can you know how to live.” But perhaps we are beginning to notice that our cultural obsession with avoiding death doesn’t serve us well.

I have a friend who was recently at a funeral recently for a young woman, Christy, who had auto-immune didease and who died of heart failure. My friend sent me this:
“Christy insisted on DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) orders for every scenario the doctors presented her with. The nurse had been working in his profession for 10 years, and he said he had never seen a death that was as peaceful as Christy‘s. As Pastor Ray said at the funeral today, Jesus came to Christy and said, “I’ve got your room ready,” and Christy said, “What are we waiting for?”

Christy died well. Very well.

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:25) ESV Study Bible note: loves his life means “delights in his life in this world more than in God,” and hates his life in this world means, by contrast, “thinks so little of his life, and so much of God, that he is willing to sacrifice it all for God.” Following Christ entails self-sacrifice, shown supremely at the cross.

“We all must answer the question, “Am I ready to die?” And not until we’re ready to die are we truly ready to live. We acknowledge that death is the last thing we want to think about, but thank You for bringing us face-to-face with reality. Thank You for the gift of living on earth and the reminder that our days are fleeting. Make us ready for the harsh moments that are before us, calm our spirits, and remove our fears. Thank You for Jesus Christ, who is the answer beyond the grave.” – Chuck Swindoll

The Christian musical group Mercy Me produced a powerful song entitled “I Would Die For You”. Some of the lyrics go . . .

“My life has never been this clear
Now I know the reason why I’m here
You never know why you’re alive
Until you know what you would die for”
Mercy Me, I would Die For You

The blackest day in all of human history—the day of Christ’s death—came to be called Good Friday. The very valley that we fear most becomes the mountaintop from which we walk into the glory of God.

John Harper was a Scottish Baptist pastor who died at age 39 in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. He was a widower and had a 6 year old daughter with him on Titanic. He was travelling to Chicago, 2nd Class on the Titanic, where he had been invited to speak at Moody Bible Church. Titanic’s unsung hero put his daughter and sister into a lifeboat but gave his spot to another child. Survivors later reported that as Titanic began to sink, Harper admonished people to be prepared to die. He continued to share the Gospel with whoever would listen. As the water began to submerge the “unsinkable” ship, Harper was heard shouting, “women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats.”
One report says Harper, knowing he could not survive long in the icy water, took off his life jacket and threw it to another person with the words, “You need this more than I do!”.

When he found himself in the icy water, floating near another man, Harper asked, “Are you saved?” “No, I’m not saved!” the desperate man replied. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!” Harper shouted. Moments later, Harper disappeared beneath the water.

Four years later, when there was a reunion of the survivors of the Titanic, the man to whom Harper had witnessed told the story of his rescue and gave a testimony of his conversion. George Henry Cavell was picked up by the only lifboat to have gone back for survivors after Titanic sank, and was ultimately rescued by the Carpathia. He was John Harper’s Last Convert.

God is sovereign over the day of your death, not us. In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Ps 139:16)

“The truth is that there are no precise ways of telling accurately when a patient is in the last days of life, or how many those days may be.” – Dying Well: Dying Faithfully by John Wyatt, MD

The future is unpredictable to us, but not to God.

And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:60) Unbelievers are spiritually dead, destined for the Second Death unless they exercise repentant faith. At the moment of repentant faith, people become new creations, indwelt by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 5:17) and are released from their fear of death (Heb 2:14-15).

If our hope in Christ is all about solution to earthly problem, then we are of all men most miserable ( 1 Corinthians 15:19). When Christ gave conditions necessary for following Him, He included the death condition for us to grasp what is involved in following him. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it’”(Mathew 16:24-25)

In the movie “The Terminator”, Kyle Reese goes back in time, saves Sarah Connor just before she is killed by the Terminator, and says those famous words to her: “Come with me if you want to live.” Sarah has a clear choice — to stay and die, or go and live.
Christians have a similar decision to make: save your own life, or lose your own life.
Yes, Jesus calls us to come with him if we want to live. But he also in essence, says, “Come with me if you want to die”. We must die to live.

“Jesus forever changed the way we view death. Read these words carefully: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2: 14–15). The mission of Jesus, to put it simply, was to free us from the fear of death! Jesus came to turn an enemy into a friend, a terrifying journey into the anticipation of a welcome reunion.” — The Vanishing Power of Death: Conquering Your Greatest Fear by Erwin W. Lutzer

Jesus bids us, “Come with me and die.” Be willing to to die for it is your glorious entrance into another realm of existence that is beyond imagination. “We will pass through the curtain according to God’s clock, not the timetable of random fate.” — The Vanishing Power of Death: Conquering Your Greatest Fear by Erwin W. Lutzer

In summary, here are six principles for a Christian to die well:

• Resist the medicalization of death
• Live well to die well
• Die to the world
• Regularly partake of the Lord’s Supper
• Relieve your loved ones of difficult decisions
• Be willing to die

This final video is here.