There is a church in Allerton Bywater that has a sombre message above its Lych Gate: Death The Gate Of Life. Imagine the joy in passing through this every Sunday... I was wondering what the writer was trying to say to the gathered as they came to church. Was it a message of holding on until our coffins' finally made that blessed journey and we are released to be with the Lord? Was it a message of sobriety to keep us from living passionately (and therefore sinfully) and always mindful of the cross we are to bear?
Yet this message does lie at the heart of the gospel. Jesus restored life for the human race through his sacrificial death on the cross. The cross indeed is THE gate of life for believers. Deeper still in the gospel truth is the death that takes place in our lives when we are baptised. "I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I that live," says Paul, "but it is Christ who lives in me." (Gal 2:20)
The tragedy is that for many, the message is only optimistically applied for coffins. Christ's gate of life is a way to be entered in this life - don't count on dying just the once!
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