1 Corinthians 15:25-26 (NIV): For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
To hear a lot of Christians talk, you would think that death was the greatest, most miraculous thing in the world. They seem to believe that what God is unable to do in people during their earthly life, death will somehow accomplish! They proclaim that they don’t enjoy singing and worship all that much; but when they die and get to heaven, they are sure that they will love to sing praises to God 24/7. They confess that they find praying to be a chore; but when they die and get to heaven, they are sure that they will love talking to God constantly. They admit that there are many people whom they don’t care for at all; but when they die and get to heaven, they are sure that they will love everybody. They agree that they are far from holy, that their lives are filled with sins big and small; but when they die and get to heaven, they are sure that they will instantly be pure, and holy, and absolutely radiant.
If death could really do all of that for people, make them enjoy prayer and worship, give them a heart of love for their fellow believers, and make them holy, it would be the greatest friend of all mankind. But death is the last enemy of humanity; it will not do any of those things for a person. Death is the last scar of sin-sick humanity; the last remaining mark of their sin, and rebelliousness, and brokenness, and separation from the life that is in God. Jesus came, not to embrace death for all of its benefits, but to defeat it, to destroy it, to swallow it up in life.
The fact is, if a person hates to worship and pray to God while they are alive, it betrays a separation between themselves and God that death will not change. If a person does not love their brother, it shows a darkness in their heart that death will not change to light. If someone is sinful here in this world, it shows a distance from God that will leave them sinful in the next world, and unfit for heaven.
The fix for all of these problems is not death, but becoming a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). He alone is the cure for all earthly ills, as well as the final Victor over the last enemy of humankind: death.
Father, I thank You for life that is truly life. I thank You and praise You for making me a new creation in Christ; for instilling in me a love of prayer and worship that will last for all eternity; a love for those around me that will continue forever; and a genuine holiness of heart and life that comes entirely from You, and that will draw me into Your presence for all ages to come. Amen.