We are all going to die! It is not just a line from some movie script. It is a basic truth: No person will escape death. Unless Christ returns first, you will die, I will die, and everyone else will die as well. We are made from dust, and we will return to dust (Gen 3:19). It is appointed for men to die once (Heb 9:27 KJV). We can try to avoid the topic and act as if we will not die. We can take expensive supplements and follow strict diets and designer exercise routines, but death will one day catch us all. So what do we do? What should we think? How should we live if we know we will die? Matthew McCullough tackles the topic of death and related questions in his book, Remember Death: The Surprising Path to Living Hope. Remember Death is not an exciting page turner, but it is an excellent resource that discusses death from a biblical and Christ-centered perspective.
Remember Death consists of six chapters. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of what the Bible teaches about death. But this volume is not just a summary of the Bible’s teaching on death. It also interacts with unbiblical thinking about death and gives solid Christian application about what it means to live in light of death. In other words, it helps the Christian prepare to die in light of eternal life.
In the first chapter, McCullough gives four ways in which our culture often denies the reality of death. In some detail, this chapter talks about how we try to keep death away by putting dying people in “sanitized, professionalized institutions that most people rarely visit” (20). We fight death tooth and nail by throwing dollars and doctors at it. When we do talk about death, we make it palatable by using alternative words: “expired” (not died), “interred” (not buried), “memorial parks” (not graveyards), etc. (28). This chapter also gives various reasons why people are so adamant about denying and avoiding death. I appreciated McCullough’s insights in the first chapter. Many of his observations are quite true, and they helped me think about death in a more realistic way.
The second chapter is about identity and the gospel. Death humbles us. We are not too important to die. Death disorients us because it will not let us have the last word. McCullough shows from the creation/fall stories in Genesis where death originated. But death does not have the last word either, because there is a last Adam: Christ. “The gospel offers a liberating, life-giving alternative to denial and despair” (60). In Christ, believers are justified by God and adopted into his family. Those truths form the Christian’s identity, which includes life after death because of Christ’s work.
If I am going to die someday, is it impossible to find meaning in life? What does it all matter if I will die? McCullough answers those questions in chapter three (“The Problem of Futility and the Promise of Purpose”). This chapter is a brief walk through Ecclesiastes, including the topics of work, pleasure, and wealth. I appreciated how McCullough wove the topic of idolatry into the discussion. He notes that when we try to find satisfaction and purpose in work, pleasure, or wealth, we are idolizing those things. When that happens, futility and vexation come. Thank God that because of Christ, the Christian life has meaning and purpose. This chapter ends with a focus on Christ’s resurrection and the wonderful truth that in him our labors are not in vain (1 Cor 15:58). I was encouraged by McCullough’s emphasis on meaningful work in Christ. This truth helps kill apathy and cynicism.
Chapter four is about the loss that death brings. Death is “a siphoning process that separates us from what we love so that, in the end, everyone loses everything” (107). It is very true that nothing lasts. Everything changes. Death will one day take away everything we have, and its effects are already affecting us. We age. Relationships come and go. Life is winding down. But the gospel responds with words of life. Jesus gives eternal life, which is “life beyond the reach of death” (125). Although we lose some things because of death, we do not ultimately lose in Christ, because in him, to die is gain (Phil 1:21). In this chapter, McCullough also discusses how we can enjoy life and everyday blessings even though we are going to die. We receive blessings in this life for this life and remember they are gifts of God. And, of course, we are to love the Giver more than his gifts.
The fifth chapter is called “The Problems of Life and the Promise of Glory.” In this chapter, McCullough talks about the teaching of 2 Corinthians 4:16–18. We do face affliction, but we do not lose heart because there is eternal glory awaiting us. We do suffer. But a future of glory awaits followers of Christ. McCullough also discusses discontentment and envy in this chapter. When we suffer, we often become discontent and envious of others who do not suffer. But when we remember death and the fact that the life to come is one of eternal glory, it helps us fight discontentment and envy. The main emphasis of this chapter is to keep our eyes on the glory to come—the glory that is ours in Christ.
Death brings grief, but Christians can grieve with hope. Those twin truths are the topic of the final chapter. Because of what Christ has done for his people, death is not the end. So we do not grieve about death as if there is no hope. There is, in fact, hope because Christ has been raised from the dead, and he will one day raise his people from the dead. “In Christ our grief gains an aim, a new direction: grief gives rise to hope” (169). The book ends with a wonderful reflection on the biblical theme of the first fruits from the dead (1 Cor 15:20). The gospel truth is this: Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of the resurrections of all his people. This truth takes the sting of death away and gives rise to hope even as we face death.
Remember Death is a book about a topic that most people want to avoid. Many Christian books written today cover the same sorts of popular topics. But not many have tackled the tough topic of death. Yet the reality is this: We will all die. We should never think that we are too strong or too healthy to die. I will die. You will die. We must not avoid the topic just because it is unpleasant. But when we think about death, we must do so with the truths of Scripture leading the way. And we must think about death with our eyes fixed on Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. Remember Death is a unique and wonderful resource on the difficult topic of death. But it is not a morose, morbid volume that focuses on darkness. Quite the opposite. McCullough does talk about the darkness of death, but his main focus is on the light of life, the risen and exalted Christ. Death does not have the final word. Christ does: “He who believes in me will live even if he dies” (John 11:25 NASB).
©Shane Lems. All Rights Reserved.
Matthew McCullough, Remember Death: The Surprising Path to Living Hope (Crossway, 2018).
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Shane Lems
Shane Lems is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California and has a DMin from RTS Orlando. He has been a church planter and pastor in the URCNA. Since 2013 he’s been serving as pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Hammond, WI. He is married and has four children. Shane has written numerous articles for Modern Reformation, New Horizons, and other publications. He is also the author of Doctrines of Grace: Student Edition and manages a book blog, The Reformed Reader.
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