The Fear of Loss
Living in Uganda, I was made painfully aware of possible threats to the life and health of my children. Some of the deadliest snakes loved the nearby river. Accidently imbibing tap water or eating out could mean bacterial infections. Driving continually reminded me of my finitude. I prayed daily, sometimes hourly that God would keep my kids alive and well. I thought moving back to safe and sanitary America would change that. It didn’t.
Though I worry less about if my children will have to take yet another round of antibiotics or get hit by a motorbike. I still worry about them. What if they contract cancer? What if they get into a car crash? What if they buy into cultural lies and it destroys them?
What if I lose my kids?
How many of us fear losing something, the death of something? Our spouse, mental abilities, close friendships. Previous losses, hearing about those of others, and our awareness of the brokenness of this world leave us wondering if our turn is next. And we dread it.
Why do we look toward loss with fear and horror? Isn’t death a natural part of life? Aren’t we all just part of a natural cycle of birth and death? On the contrary. Death is utterly unnatural. As Sinclair Ferguson writes, “It’s disruptive of the created order. It’s an enemy of the life that God created human beings to enjoy. And because of that, it’s quite natural for us to hate death because it leads to disintegration.”1 Death is a rending of that which was meant never to be torn asunder; that includes all manner of death, from the passing of a parent to miscarriage to mental decay to destruction of relationships. Death means loss, and death is inescapable.
The chapters after Adam and Eve’s fall are a record of this reality of death (see Gen. 4–5) and mankind’s consequent sorrow. We see this sorrowing over death throughout the Bible, from Abraham grieving over the death of Sarah (Gen. 23:1–2), to Saul lamenting the loss of his kingdom (1 Sam. 15:24–34), to Jesus weeping at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:33–35). The Bible does not shy away from the reality and horror of death—be it the death of a person or the death of a thing: trust, friendship, unity. Nor does it leave us in the hopelessness death brings. Rather, it offers both the reason and the solution.
Back to the Beginning
Adam and Eve had but wiped the juice of the forbidden fruit off their greedy lips when the searing reality of loss shot through them. “They knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (Gen. 3:7b, English Standard Version). They now knew themselves as corrupt, depraved, and disordered.2 Their sin sliced through their relationship, creating a rift: they were ashamed to disclose themselves fully to the other, choosing rather to futilely cover their sin and shame with their own creations. Worse than these was the loss of their relationship with God—they hid themselves from Him with whom they once joyfully communed (Gen. 3:8). How does God respond to their losses, their death?
God enters into this place of sorrow and agony. He does not wait for them to come to Him. He confronts them. Coming in judgment, yet not ultimate judgment. God comes in the cool of the day, rather than terror of night. He comes walking, not on horseback or on the thunderclouds. He softly calls to Adam before appearing before them in terrifying glory. God comes calling Adam and Eve to humility and repentance.3
Adam and Eve, rather than repent, shift blame. God has none of their excuses but makes it clear that their loss, their pain, their impending death is not because of His sin but theirs, and they must eat its bitter fruit (Gen. 3:16–19, 24). In the same way, when we are confronted with death and loss, God testifies to His innocence and our sin, though we often put God on the dock as did Adam and Eve: “it was the woman you gave me,” “It was the drunk driver you allowed on the road,” “It was the disposition you gave him.”
True, it is not always our personal sin that caused the car accident that took our brother, or the apostasy of our child. However, all such deaths are a result of the fall, which is a result of our sin. For in Adam’s fall, we fall all.4 Adam’s sin—our sin—brought the world under a curse (Rom. 8:22). In this world cursed, we have earthquakes, miscarriages, brain damage. Because of our sin, we die—as God promised we would (Gen. 2:17). “That’s why Paul says in a magisterial statement in Romans 5:12 that sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin. That’s why we all die: sin—Adam’s sin, others’ sin, our sin, my sin.”5
The picture is bleak. Death and loss are the promised consequences of our sin. Since the fall we have all been choked by the bitter taste of our autonomy, and we will continue to experience the horrifying consequences of it. But the Bible does not end with the fall.
The Solution
Before God utters one curse or declares one dreadful consequence to Adam and Eve, He speaks to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). Yes, Adam and Eve will suffer, sweat, and die; but from the womb of the woman who sated her lustful belly and the loins of the man whose lips were stained with poison passion will come a Son. This Son will destroy Satan and death. This Son will break the choking bonds of death by breaking sin’s hold over us (1 Cor. 15:54–56).
The means by which He will accomplish this Herculean defeat are foreshadowed just a few verses later. Before God drives Adam and Eve out of the garden, He clothes them. This time, not with fig leaves of their own contriving—fig leaves that serve only to solidify their inability to cover their sin (Isa. 64:6). This time, blood is shed, a life is taken. “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). This shedding of blood was a necessary requirement of the law—the broken law. “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22).
But the slain animal does more than symbolize the satisfaction of justice. That animal slain points forward to Jesus’ washing away the sins of untold multitudes and whose righteousness covers these sinners turned saints (John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:21). The animal slain depicts how Jesus took on the consequences of our sin—the loss, pain, death—the very wrath of God. The animal slain illustrates how He lived in our broken world as an ordinary man who felt the sting of rejection, the pain of the whip, the heartrending sorrow of death (Isa. 53). What the animal slain fails to show is that not only did Christ take on the curse of sin but also He conquered it by bursting out of the tomb, never to die again.
What does this mean for us? Our personal salvation and sanctification are clearly accomplished through Christ, but what difference does Jesus’ sacrificial life, death, and resurrection make to the deaths we face?
First, death no longer has the last word. Its power was broken by Christ’s broken body. For those who have died in Christ, eternal life awaits (John 3:16). We will again see our loved ones who have died in the Lord. But there is also hope for this life. By Christ’s blood poured, there is hope for broken relationships—He is able to redeem and restore the bleakest situation. As Christ forgave His enemies, so a husband can forgive his once unfaithful wife because the Holy Spirit is applying Christ’s work to him. Christ’s blood transforms abusive addicts into loving fathers—bringing life out of death.
Second, because Christ knows from firsthand experience the pain of death and loss, He is able to sympathize with us. Like us, He grieves the horror of death (John 11:1–37). He weeps in the face of separation (Matt. 26:36–46). So when we are experiencing the same trials, He walks with us through them. Not as one defeated, but as one who has passed through them and seen the other side. Yet, not as one superior and removed, but compassionate and tender (Heb. 4:14–16).
Third, Christ’s death and resurrection herald a glorious future. On the cross, at the empty tomb, Christ began the process of restoration. One day, He will return and restore all things to Himself. He will destroy sin, the devil, and death once and for all (Rev. 20:10). He will release the earth from the curse of sin (Acts 3:20–21). Those clothed in Christ’s righteousness pass through death as through a gateway to everlasting life where Christ will shine as the sun, and, at the last trump, our bodies will join our souls in glory (see WSC Q/A 37–38). For just as God did not abandon Christ to the grave, neither will He allow our physical bodies to lie forever in the grave (Ps. 16:10).
So to us who fear death and loss, may we look away from our fears to our risen Lord who has conquered death, creating from it life. Instead of walking in dread, may we walk in confidence that when we face death and loss, Christ will walk with us through it and make from it something beautiful. May we entrust our loved ones to the only one able to give them all they need in this life and the next. May we live life joyfully and hopefully with our eyes on heaven and its eternal glories. May we sing the words of an old hymn:6
Who trusts in God, a strong abode
in heav’n and earth possesses;
who looks in love to Christ above,
no fear his heart oppresses.
In you alone, dear Lord, we own
sweet hope and consolation:
our shield from foes, our balm for woes,
our great and sure salvation.
Though Satan’s wrath beset our path,
and worldly scorn assail us,
while you are near we will not fear,
your strength shall never fail us:
your rod and staff shall keep us safe,
and guide our steps forever;
nor shades of death, nor hell beneath,
our souls from you shall sever.
In all the strife of mortal life
our feet shall stand securely;
temptation’s hour shall lose its pow’r,
for you shall guard us surely.
O God, renew, with heav’nly dew,
our body, soul, and spirit,
until we stand at your right hand,
through Jesus’ saving merit.
……………….1. Sinclair Ferguson, “Death,” https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts/things-unseen-with-sinclair-ferguson/death.
2. Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (New York: Revell, n.d.), 25–26.
3. Ibid., 26.
4. WSC Q16. Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression? A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression.
5. Ferguson, “Death.”
6. Joachim Magderburg, “Who Trusts in God, a Strong Abode.”
……………….Mrs. Elisabeth Bloechl is a pastor’s wife and homeschooling mom living in Minnesota.