Henry Louis Aaron passed away Friday. He was 86. I saw Hank Aaron play baseball several times at Crosley Field when I was a college student in Cincinnati. He was a terrific hitter, and I very much admired the way he played baseball. He eventually broke Babe Ruth’s home run record and deserved all the accolades he received.
I now admire Aaron’s character even more than his baseball skills. Nearly everything I have heard about him since is commendable. He once wrote, “God is my strength…He helps me when things go wrong. He forgives me when I fall on my face. He lights the way.”
I find it interesting that when a celebrity like Hank Aaron dies, even secular cartoonists, comedians, and media pundits immediately imagine them in heaven with their buddies. They depict Aaron being interviewed by Larry King and discussing who was the best hitter or coming out of a cornfield to join in a game with past Hall of Fame Athletes on a newly constructed field in Iowa.
It is intriguing that many of the same people who are inclined to ridicule any discussion of Biblical matters at other times somehow imagine life beyond the grave when a famous person dies. In a sobering moment, they attempt to bring some comfort and hope. Instinctively we all think, “Surely, this can’t be all there is. Surely we’re more than mere road-kill that slowly evaporates into dust and disappears forever.”
That instinct for life beyond is God-given. Solomon wrote, “God has set eternity in the heart.” Human beings have an innate sense of being created in the image of God, and, unlike animals, we ponder the meaning of life, and we hope for life beyond the grave.
C.S. Lewis once used that instinct as evidence that heaven exists. He wrote, “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex.
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Thankfully, we have much more convincing evidence for life after death than mere human instinct. Jesus Christ, died, was buried, and rose victoriously from the grave. Our hope for life beyond the grave is not based on instinct but testimony. It is not founded on shaky speculation but a dependable demonstration. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25).
Simon Peter wrote, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).
The good news is there is life after death. Jesus told the penitent thief dying on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” The Bible assures us, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Just as a hand is removed from a glove, so the spirit departs from the body and slips into a new spiritual dimension with the Lord. The glove still has the form of the hand but is not the hand. The body that remains is not the person but the worn-out garment that has been cast aside.
The sobering news is not everyone goes to heaven when they die. In fact, Jesus warned, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” The New Testament makes it clear that good people don’t go to heaven. Forgiven people do. “…for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
I trust Hank Aaron is in heaven today. However, only God can decide that. The Bible makes it clear that heaven is not awarded to those who are famous athletes or gracious people. Heaven is granted to those who are forgiven of their sins because they have placed their faith in Christ. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Following His resurrection, Jesus commissioned His disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16).
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale once compared dying to a birth. He imagined a baby in the mother’s womb, saying, “I don’t want to leave here. I’m warm, loved, and happy. I’m safe, comfortable, and secure. I don’t want to be born.” But immediately after being delivered, if the baby could talk, it would say, “How silly I was! Look at the deeper relationship I have with my mother. Look at the new beauty I can see! Look at the new freedoms I enjoy. I was wrong to be afraid. This is better than I imagined!”
When we are confined to the womb of this world, limited by time and space, we are inclined to say, “I don’t want to die. I like it here. I’m safe, comfortable, secure, loved.” But immediately after dying, I’m confident we will say, That was so silly! Look at the deeper relationship I have with my Creator. Look at the new beauty I can see, the new freedoms I enjoy, the transformed body I now have! This is even better than I imagined.
Solomon once wrote, “…the day of death is better than the day of birth” (Ecclesiastes 7:1). The Bible says, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor. 2:9 NKJV)
From all indications, Hank Aaron put his trust in Christ and claimed Jesus’ promise in John 3:16: “For God so loved that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Have you?
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