Audio Transcript
We’re talking about aging today — the fears that come with aging. We hear from an older Christian who opens up to us in complete honesty. They’re terrified — terrified of growing old, terrified of feeling useless, terrified of the indignities of a failing body. They’re terrified of death too, even though they believe in heaven. So, here’s the struggle: How do you finish life — finish out the final, unknown stretch of this race — while being increasingly humbled, and do it without becoming fearful or bitter?
It’s an anonymous question from a listener to the podcast on the radio: “Pastor John, hello to you and thank you for this program that I listen to every week on the radio. Pastor John, what would you say to someone who is terrified of aging and who feels increasingly useless as their strength fades, or panicked about death, even though they believe in heaven? That is my struggle. How can an older Christian finish their life not with fear or bitterness, but with joy, dignity, and hope in Christ?”
Into the Unknown Country
Let’s begin with Abraham. Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
We don’t know whether we will be totally alone on the day of our death, with no loved ones around us. We don’t know whether we will have lost so many powers and resources that we will be professionally useless. We don’t know if it will be a moment of great suffering and pain. We don’t know if our faith will be restful or terribly embattled by the evil one. We don’t know if our finances will have run out, or if some crisis in the market will have caused our resources to vanish. We don’t know whether dementia will have robbed us of all of our Christian memories, and even our Scripture memory. We don’t know how old we will be or where we will be living, or whether it will be sudden or long or drawn out.
“Every day we get up, and get out of bed, standing on the promises of God.”
Between now and the moment we die, we are walking into an unknown country. No matter how many steps you have taken to make it feel secure, it’s not — not in this world.
Now, how do we do that? How do we enter that unknown with joy and dignity and hope? That’s the question that’s being asked. And to be honest, it may be impossible to do it with dignity.
Joy in Indignity
Here’s what the apostle Paul says about the body as it approaches death. He describes it like a seed sown in the ground: “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power” (1 Corinthians 15:42–43).
Now, here’s a paraphrase. This is my paraphrase of those three words perishable, dishonor, weakness. Perishable: rotting like fruit with mold in a warm refrigerator. Dishonor: undignified and pathetic, like an old man curled up in a fetal position with a diaper who soils himself. Weakness: helpless, totally dependent on others for everything. That’s Paul’s picture of the typical process of dying in his day, and it is very common in our day.
We have no promise in the Bible that the Christian life will end any other way than like this — perishable, dishonorable, undignified, weak. But that does not mean that we have to succumb to bitterness and joylessness. Dignity we may have to surrender, but joy in Jesus, joy in hope, joy in suffering — we can fight for these to the end.
- “In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy” (2 Corinthians 7:4).
- “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
- “We rejoice in our sufferings” (Romans 5:3).
- “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2).
- “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
- “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property” (Hebrews 10:34).
And on and on the texts go about joy in suffering. Dignity we may have to surrender, but in all our undignified weakness and suffering, may we be found fighting the good fight of joy all the way to the end and saying with the apostle Paul, “In all our afflictions” — our aging afflictions — “we are overflowing with joy.”
Standing on God’s Promises
Now, how do we do that? We do it the same way we have done it, the same way we have fought the fight for joy all the way along: We live by faith in future grace. Or another way to put it: Every day we get up, and get out of bed, standing on the promises of God. The promises of God are the sword of the Spirit by which we put to death the sins of unbelief. Trusting the promises of God is the shield of faith by which we quench the fiery darts of joylessness.
So, when the fiery dart of loneliness threatens our joy, we quench it with the promise:
- “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
- “[I] will not leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
- “So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:6).
When we’re threatened with the fear of uselessness, we quench the dart of that threat with the promise that the slightest good done by us — even if it’s only a whispered prayer on our deathbed — will not be forgotten in heaven but will be rewarded by the Lord (Ephesians 6:8).
When we are threatened with the thought that the miserable loss of our abilities, strength, and beauty have no good purpose at all — that it’s all gratuitous and pointless — we quench that dart with the promise that this wasting away is in fact working for us “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:16–17). It is not pointless.
“The promises of God are the sword of the Spirit by which we put to death the sins of unbelief.”
When we’re threatened with the fear that our faith may fail, we quench that dart with the promise that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Philippians 1:6). He took hold of you, and that’s why you can take hold of him. You don’t initiate this; he initiates this. “He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast, for my Savior loves me so. He will hold me fast.”
And on and on the promises go to match every fiery dart that the devil shoots at us. That’s how we fight the fight for joy through all the indignities of aging.
Daily Nearness
Dear aging friend, I’m 80, and being 80 means you’re in your 81st year. This is all really relevant for me.
So, let us cultivate a nearness to God. Let us keep the Lord always before us (Psalm 16:8). Let us bring into focus every day afresh the sight of his glory through the Scriptures. Let us drink every day from the river of his delights, which he is so eager to give us (Psalm 36:8). Let us remind ourselves every day that he is a treasure greater than anything this world has to offer (Matthew 13:44). Let us answer, out loud, his question to Peter, “Do you love me?” (John 21:17) with the words, “I love you. I love you. I love you, Jesus.” Let us put to death every sin and keep our hearts pure. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
And while we can, while we still can, let us help others do this same thing. That’s what it means to know God.
