From Breath To Glory

Section 1 — When the Grave Doesn’t Have the Final Word

There’s a hush that settles over any funeral.

Even when hymns rise strong and Scripture is read,

there’s always that still moment when you feel the weight of it—

the silence of someone who will not answer back.

I’ve stood at gravesides where the sun was shining

and yet the heart felt wrapped in cloud.

We say our goodbyes, we drop a flower, we whisper a prayer,

and somewhere inside the question trembles:

“What really happens when a Christian dies?”

For some, that question stirs fear.

For others, confusion.

But for those who know Jesus—

it opens the door to good news so bright

that even the shadow of the tomb can’t shut it out.

Because the gospel doesn’t just tell us how to live—

it tells us how to die in hope,

and how to wake again in glory.

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Section 2 — The Lie That Started It All

The first lie ever told on this planet wasn’t about money or power.

It was about death.

In Eden’s garden, the serpent hissed a contradiction to God’s Word:

> “Ye shall not surely die.”

And humanity has been repeating that lie ever since—

that somehow, we are immortal by nature;

that death is only an illusion;

that the soul can never truly die.

But the Word of God is not confused:

> “The King of kings and Lord of lords—who only hath immortality,

dwelling in light unapproachable.” — 1 Timothy 6:15–16

Only God possesses immortality.

We are not born with it; we are offered it.

Immortality is not a human property—it’s a divine gift.

And it is granted not at birth but at the resurrection.

Paul writes:

> “This mortal must put on immortality…

and death shall be swallowed up in victory.” — 1 Corinthians 15:53–54

That phrase—put on—says it all.

It’s something we don’t naturally have;

something that will be given to us at His coming.

Until then, humanity lives under the sentence of Adam’s fall—

barred from the tree of life.

God placed a flaming sword to guard the way (Genesis 3:22–24).

We die because we lost access to the life-giving tree.

But praise God—the sword that barred the way

has now been sheathed in the side of our Savior!

Through His wounds, the path to life is reopened.

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Section 3 — What Scripture Really Calls Death

The Bible uses a gentle, holy word for the death of God’s people: sleep.

When Jairus’s daughter died, Jesus said,

> “The maid is not dead but sleepeth.” — Matthew 9:24

When Stephen was stoned, Luke wrote,

> “He fell asleep.” — Acts 7:60

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians,

> “I would not have you to be ignorant concerning them which are asleep…

for the dead in Christ shall rise first.” — 1 Thessalonians 4:13–16

Death, in Scripture, is never the final curtain.

It is a pause—a holy rest—until the trumpet sounds.

For the believer, death is not annihilation;

it is suspension—the heartbeat halted, the breath returned to God,

but the life kept safe in His memory.

When we die, we do not become wandering spirits.

We rest in the assurance that our next conscious moment

will be the face of Jesus.

A child of God may close their eyes in the hospital tonight

and open them in the morning of the resurrection—

not one moment of fear, not one second of delay—

just sleep and awakening.

It’s why Paul could speak of his death

not as departure to disembodied existence

but as the longing to be “clothed upon” with immortality.

> “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan…

not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon,

that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” — 2 Corinthians 5:4

He doesn’t yearn to be a ghost—he yearns to be glorified.

He knows that to be “absent from the body”

is to await the moment of resurrection when Christ returns.

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Section 4 — The Hope That Reaches Into the Tomb

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he anchored every sentence

in the resurrection of Christ.

> “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain.”

Because if Jesus didn’t rise, no one ever will.

But if He did—and He did—then the grave has been robbed of ownership.

That’s why the gospel can look death straight in the face and sing:

> “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

At Calvary, Jesus died the real death—

not a pretend death, not a theatrical sleep.

He breathed out His life (“He gave up the ghost”).

Then, on the third day, He took that breath back—

the firstfruits of every resurrection to come.

That’s the heartbeat of the gospel:

Christ’s empty tomb guarantees yours.