Where Death Lurks

Ray Ortlund, Jr.:

...death casts a shadow over on this side, on us today. Death is encroaching on life right now in the forms of sickness, aging, suffering, fear, guilt, anxiety, confusion, boredom, and above all, sin. Any weakening of our vitality is death even now. Real life is more than a beating heart; real life is the vitality only God can give. And he does give it, gladly and freely, through the finished work of Christ on the cross. We receive it as we press the gospel into our hearts by faith. ...

We sinners stray into the territory of death every day. But in the book of Proverbs God is counseling us, alerting us to where death lurks. When the sage warns his son against sexual sin, for example, he says, "The dead are there" (Proverbs 9:18). There is a hell before Hell. But there is also a heaven before Heaven. Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). ...

This is what God wants for every one of us today: to die less and live more through Christ.

Proverbs: Wisdom that Works (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012) 181-182, emphasis added.

Mark 8:34-35:

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it."