Resources | The Day of a Godly Man’s Death

“A good reputation is more valuable than costly perfume; and the day you die is better than the day you are born” (Eccles. 7:1). The day of a godly man’s death is better than the day of his birth. This is as contrary as possible to the notions entertained by men who look on the day of a man’s birth as a happy day but the day of death as the most sorrowful and doleful day that man ever met with.

There is nothing that man has so great a dread of and such terrible apprehension of as death. It is generally looked upon as the end of all good to a man, as entrance in a doleful state of oblivion and darkness and eternal separation from all enjoyment.

God Does Not Call It Death

But when a godly man dies, he receives a better life than when he is born. We call it death. It signifies the end of life or the abolishing and destruction of it, and it is so in appearance. But it is in reality the beginning of a more glorious life. Therefore, God, who sees things as they are, doesn’t call a godly man’s decease by the name of death, but in the Scriptures calls it sleep. Thus it is said of Stephen who was stoned to death in Acts 7:60, “And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” (ESV)

“The present life is but a state of death in comparison of that glorious life that a godly man enters into when he dies.”

And Christ, not accounting the decease of a godly man worth of the name of death, says that he who believes in him shall not die. John 6:49-50 says, “Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however,will never die.” And John 6:51 says, “Anyone who eats this bread will live forever.” A godly man’s death is indeed more like a resurrection or a rising from the dead than like death. The present life is but a state of death in comparison of that glorious life that a godly man enters into when he dies. He enters into a more glorious and blessed state. He does, as it were, awake out of sleep and therefore this change is implied in Psalm 17:15, “When I awake, I will see you face to face and be satisfied.”

A Holy and Happy Life

In the day of a man’s birth, he receives the bodily and natural life. The present life is a state wherein the godly are exceedingly clogged with the flesh and with sin. They are in a great measure hammered and deadened and rendered insensible and inactive in comparison of what they are in another world. But when a godly man dies, he receives the life of angels. He is made a partaker of the glorious life of Jesus Christ. When a man is born, he then becomes mortal; but when he dies, he receives an immortal life. The life that a person receives on the day of his birth is not worthy to be called by the name of life in comparison of that which the godly receive at the day of their death. The godly who are dead now live.

The godly person receives spiritual life before in his conversion, but on the day of his death, he receives the life of glory. They have a life now that is more perfect, happy, and glorious-ten thousand times-than the best and happiest life on earth. The image of God is completed, and all sin wholly and perfectly abolished. The remains of sin in a godly man are reminders of death. When a godly man departs this life, he is delivered from all remains of death. Holiness shall be a flame then and shall make the soul to shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of God.

A Better World

A godly person on the day of his death enters into a better world than on the day of his birth. It is on the day of one’s birth that one first comes into the world, comes abroad from being shut up in the womb into the world. But the soul of a godly man on the day of his death enters upon a state of more glorious liberty. It is like one escaped from prison. His soul is released from the body where it was confined and kept in prison under the chains of sin and the flesh.

The world that a man comes into on the day of his birth is a world of low and earthly enjoyment. But the world that the soul of a godly man is born into on the day of his death is a world of spiritual and divine enjoyments. This is a world of fading, vanishing pleasures, but that is a world of substantial, durable joys and delights. There are pleasures forevermore.

This world that men come into on the day of their birth is a world of sin and vanity and trouble. But the world that a godly man enters into on the day of his death is a world of perfection and holiness, of light and joy without any mixture of sin and sorrow. This earth is a valley of tears, but that is Mount Zion, where they sing a new and everlasting song. Where all tears are wiped from their eyes, and “sorrow and mourning will disappear” (Isa. 35:10), where there is “no more death or sorrow or crying or pain” (Rev. 21:4).

On the day of a person’s birth, he is born into a world that is under a curse and has no guard against it; but on the day of his death, he enters into a world that is blessed of God, where there is no more curse, but only joy and happiness, a world that is blessed continually with the glorious presence of God and the perfect manifestation and full enjoyment of God’s love. It is a world that is filled with the boundless love of God which does, as a river of life, satisfy all the inhabitants thereof.

A More Glorious Light

A godly person on the day of his death is brought to behold a more pleasant and glorious light than he did on the day of his birth. It is on the day of a man’s birth that he first beholds the light. He comes then to see the light of the sunlight, and it’s a thing sweet to men. A man on the day of his death closes his eyes forever on this light. Though he closes his eyes on the light of the sun, he opens them in the midst of the light of God’s glory, who is the Father of lights, who has clothed the sun with light, in comparison of which the light of the sun is a dark shade. He sees the light of the Sun of Righteousness of him who is the brightness of his Father. He sees no more of the light of this lower world, but he is blessed with the light of the heave of heavens where they have “no need of sun or moon” (Rev. 21:23), nor of the light of a candle, “for the Lord God will shine on them” (Rev. 22:5), “and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Rev. 21:23) (ESV).

A Perfect Father

The godly person on the day of his death is received by a better parent than persons received by on the day of their birth. Persons are joyfully received on the day of their birth by earthly parents, but death snatches them from them and from all earthly friends. A godly person on the day of his death leaves them in sackcloth and tears but is received into the arms of a heavenly Father. He is welcomed into his immediate and glorious presence and to the full enjoyment of his love to be in heaven forever. He will be in his family to dwell with his children and eat and drink at his table with them. He will partake with Jesus Chris his Son and with the glorified saints and angels, his dear children in the palace of his glory. Indeed there is oftentimes a great weeping among earthly friends on the day of a godly man’s death, but there is joy among his heavenly friends when they meet him and welcome him to Mount Zion, the city of the living God.

A Greater Inheritance

The pious soul on the day of his death is received to a better inheritance than on the day of his birth. A person on the day of his birth may be heir to a great estate. He may on the day of his birth come to be an heir of large earthly possessions. Death takes persons away from all their earthly possessions. If they have been in comfortable circumstances, or if they have been rich, death takes them away from all, but it translates them into better possessions, a more glorious inheritance. First Peter 1:4 says, “an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.” They are then received to the possession of a kingdom, a crown of life, and to unspeakable and unsearchable riches and glory.

Prepare for the Coming Day

Thus, the day of a godly man’s death is better than the day of his birth on the account of the glorious change made in his circumstances by his death. Even in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death, the godly man has cause to rejoice at the approaches of it, to bid it welcome, so for him to die is gain. And oftentimes God actively gives much of the light of his presence that carries above all the fears of death. God sometimes gives such a sense of his love, such discoveries of being, such views of approaching glory and happiness that make the day of death a pleasant day, more pleasant and joyful than a wedding day and sometimes the most pleasant day that ever he say in his life (Ps. 37:3).

I would urge persons to get into such a state that the day of their death may be so to them. Strive that you may be a godly person. That you may have your hearts changed and nature savingly renewed. Then it will be thus with you- that the day of your death will be better than the day of your birth.

Adapted from Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “The Day of a Godly Man’s Death is Better Than the Day of His Birth” as part of our sermon series, “A Theology of Death.” Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was a colonial American Congregational preacher, theologian, missionary to native Americans, and president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) who was a main catalyst of the First Great Awakening.