Safety in a time of Coronavirus

The question of safety has become a big deal as we deal with the Coronavirus. I particularly began noticing it around the debate about opening schools in the UK. The news reports seemed to be asking: "Is it safe?" It's extended to all sorts of things though as we've begun to come out of lockdown. For example: Is it safe to open shops? Is it safe to visit relatives? Is it safe to reduce the 2m social distancing rule?

People have responded in different ways. At one end of the spectrum, we seem to have a group of people who want 100% certainty that something is safe before they will leave their home. At the other end, we have a group of people who point out that it wasn't safe to leave the house before Coronavirus, usually pointing to the risks inherent in driving cars, which are risks many of us unconsciously take all the time.

So are we faced with demanding unattainable safety standards or living with danger and trying to pretend it isn't there? Well, one of the great things about being a Christian is that we have a guaranteed safety. Perhaps one of the most famous verses of the Bible to encourage us here is Proverbs 18:10:

The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. (Prov. 18:10 ESV)

 Or how about David's words in Psalm 37:28:

For the LORD loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. (Ps. 37:28 ESV)

Another translation (the NRSV is you're interested) uses the word "safe" for "preserved" there, so you get the idea.

Now it would be easy to think the wrong way about this. God isn't promising that Christians won't ever suffer any harm, as if we could ignore all public health advice because we know God will never let us get the Coronavirus. That is patently untrue!

However, Jesus makes a similar type of promise when he says:

"I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (Jn. 11:25-26 ESV)

Jesus is promising that if we believe in him then we are safe forever (we have eternal life), whatever we face - even death! He's saying death can't defeat us, because we're going to live forever with him. Note he doesn't say we won't die, in fact he says "though he die." What he does say is that even though we die, he keeps us safe and we will still rise (that is be resurrected) and live for ever.

This verse is just before Jesus raises a man called Lazarus back to life and it's not long before he is killed himself and three days later is raised back to life. He proves that death isn't the end and that he has the power to keep people safe even in death and still give them eternal life.

So as a Christian, I know I'm safe, by which I mean, as I go through the ups and downs that we all face and perhaps especially the downs many of us are facing right now, I know that my eternity is sorted. Coronavirus may leave me unemployed, it may bankrupt me, it may make me very ill, it may even kill me and yet I am safe for eternity with Jesus.

That's why one of Jesus' followers Paul can write:

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed...For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, (2 Cor. 4:8-9, 17 ESV)

Whatever awful thing he faced (and he faced plenty!), it was as if it was nothing because of his eternity, which he knew was secure. So much so he could write about his death like this:

 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Phil. 1:21 ESV)

So in a world so obsessed with safety all of a sudden, do you know you are safe. Proverbs 18:10 says it's the "righteous" who are safe. Psalm 37:28 says it's the "saints". Jesus says it's those who "believe" in him in John 11:25. They're all the same group. You become righteous, not because you do everything right (I promise you, you haven't!), but because Jesus did everything right for you and died in your place for all the things you didn't do right. You become a saint not by the decree of some church or Pope, but by believing in Jesus and so being set apart for him as one of his people - the saints.

So Jesus asks the key question: "Do you believe this?" If the answer is yes, then you're safe. If not, then you're not - not at all.