From my forthcoming book . . .

Wisdom decrees that while we should plan on living to a ripe old age, we must simultaneously be ready to die every day. Fools do neither—they neither plan for the future nor are they ready to die every day. Rom 14:8 instructs us “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” Ironically, as we shall see, it is when we are ready to die that we experience true freedom to live. Augustine wrote in The City of God “They, then, who are destined to die, need not be careful to inquire what death they are to die, but into what place death will usher them.”1 Unfortunately, most people tend to ignore death until it comes knocking on their door. Lutzer reminds us that we will die as we have lived.2 A life well lived is solid preparation for death. Living well indicates a readiness to embrace death in God’s timing. In contrast, a life lived in selfish abandon flaunts a disregard and even a disdain for death. For an unbeliever, death will not be mocked. For a believer, death is already destroyed.
1Augustine, The City of God, 23, Kindle
2Lutzer, Vanishing Power of Death, 1536