Renewing Your Mind Episode Summary

Podcast: Renewing Your Mind
Episode Title: How Do I Face the Death of Others?
Date: August 25, 2025
Speaker: Dr. Guy Waters
Host Introduction: Nathan W. Bingham

Overview

This episode, featuring Dr. Guy Waters, addresses a profoundly sensitive and often avoided subject: How should Christians face the death of others, especially in grief? Dr. Waters unpacks biblical teaching on grieving, the hope believers possess in Christ, and offers practical encouragement rooted in the Apostle Paul's counsel in 1 Thessalonians 4. The episode provides comfort, correction, and actionable wisdom for navigating loss with biblical hope.

Key Points and Insights

1. Grief: Forbidden Without Hope, Not Forbidden Itself

• [00:00, Guy Waters]: “What's forbidden is not grieving. What's forbidden is grieving as though we had no hope. As with everything in our lives, the gospel transforms our every experience of our humanity. And that's true when it comes to grief.”
• Scripture gives clear permission, even commands, to grieve — but calls believers to do so differently, anchored in the hope of Christ.

2. Biblical Examples and Commands on Grieving

• [02:00–04:30]: Dr. Waters surveys biblical figures who grieved:
  • Jacob mourning Joseph
  • David lamenting his sons
  • Mary and Martha grieving Lazarus
  • Mary and Martha at Lazarus’ tomb
  • Jesus Himself—“a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53)
• [04:20, Guy Waters]: “If we will not grieve, if we will not shed, as the hymn says, the sympathetic tear, then we are disobeying a command of God. We are doing something that is inhumane.”
• Paul’s command (Rom. 12:15): “Weep with those who weep.”
  No qualifier—Christians are commanded to enter into others’ sorrows.

3. The Distinction: Godly vs. Ungodly Grief

• Based on 1 Thessalonians 4:13: “Grieve, but not as those who have no hope.”

  • The difference is hope.

  • Ungodly grief is stamped by hopelessness—“Unbelievers have no hope” (cf. Eph. 2:12).

    [07:50, Guy Waters]:
    “To be Christless is to be hopeless… This world is all that unbelief has, and Solomon reminds us this is vanity... when death breaks into the life of a human being who has no hope, all is loss.”

• Ancient funerary inscriptions highlighted the bleakness:

  • “I was not, and I was, I am not and I care not.”
  • “If you want to know who I am, the answer is ash and burnt embers.”

4. Christian Hope: A Person, Not a Concept

• [11:00, Guy Waters]:
  • “Hope to the believer is not so much a what as a who. Our hope is Jesus Christ.”
• Romans 5:2 and 1 Peter 1:3: “Born again to a living hope.”
• Hebrews 6:19: “A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.”

5. Five Encouragements from 1 Thessalonians 4

[13:20–20:52]
Dr. Waters extracts five lines of encouragement from the Apostle Paul:

1. The Gospel: Christ’s Death and Resurrection
   - “We believe that Jesus died and rose again.” (v.14)
   - This affirms victory over sin and death, and grounds the believer’s hope.

   Quote [14:10, Guy Waters]:
   “Brother, sister. We believe that Jesus died and rose again. That's what we need when we grieve.”

2. Believers Who Have Died Are Still ‘In Christ’
   - “They are asleep in Jesus... still united to their savior.”
   - Death cannot sever the bond with Christ.

3. The Dead in Christ Will Rise First
   - “They haven't missed out… they will rise first.” (v.16)
   - Addresses fears of missing out on future glory.

4. Reunion with Believers and with Christ
   - “We will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord…” (v.17)
   - Death separates, but Christ reunites—believers will be joined together and with Christ forever.

5. Eternal Presence with the Lord

   • “And so we will always be with the Lord.” (v.17)
   • “He will never leave us or forsake us.”

   Quote [20:40, Guy Waters]:
   “This isn't some cosmic photo op that Jesus takes with his people and then he goes his own way. Paul says he will meet with us and we will always be with Him.”

6. Grieving the Death of Unbelievers

• [21:05]:

  • Grief remains, and is compounded by lack of assurance of their salvation.
  • The biblical response: Commit the sadness to God in prayer, but do not pray for the dead—their account is settled.

  Pray for:

  • Ourselves: For comfort and to be drawn closer to God
  • Remaining family: That they’d come to know Christ, and for opportunities to share Christ

7. Living to Leave a Testimony for Others

• [23:25, Guy Waters]:
  • “What's the very best thing we can do for [those who will grieve us]? The very best thing… is to leave behind a testimony of a sound, confirmed, fruitful faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
  • Let your legacy point others to Christ, not self.

8. Continual Need for the Gospel

• [24:05]:
  • “We all need the same thing. We need to be reminded of the Gospel of Christ.”
  • Preparation for death begins in life, right now, by clinging to Christ and sharing Him with others.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “What's forbidden is not grieving. What's forbidden is grieving as though we had no hope.”
  [00:00, Guy Waters]

• “If we will not grieve... then we are disobeying a command of God. We are doing something that is inhumane.”
  [04:20, Guy Waters]

• “To be Christless is to be hopeless.”
  [07:50, Guy Waters]

• “Hope to the believer is not so much a what as a who. Our hope is Jesus Christ.”
  [11:00, Guy Waters]

• “We believe that Jesus died and rose again. That's what we need when we grieve.”
  [14:10, Guy Waters]

• “This isn't some cosmic photo op that Jesus takes with his people and then he goes his own way. Paul says... we will always be with Him.”
  [20:40, Guy Waters]

Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Intro: Grieving with hope, not forbidden to grieve | | 02:00 | Biblical stories and commands to grieve | | 07:30 | Ungodly grief vs. godly grief—Paul’s teaching | | 11:00 | Christian hope is found in Christ as a person | | 13:20–20:52 | Five biblical encouragements in the face of death (1 Thess. 4) | | 21:05 | Grieving unbelievers’ deaths and biblical prayer | | 23:25 | Leaving a legacy of faith for those left behind | | 24:05 | Continuous need for the gospel as comfort |

Tone and Language

Dr. Waters uses measured, compassionate, and biblically insightful language—anchored in exegesis, yet deeply pastoral. His approach avoids clichés, instead rooting hope in doctrinal truth about Christ, the resurrection, and the believer’s union with Christ.

Takeaway

Believers are called to grieve—openly and honestly—but never as those without hope. The unique hope of the gospel transforms Christian sorrow, and the truths of Christ’s resurrection, the believer’s union with Him, the promise of reunion, and eternal presence with the Lord form the bedrock that supports Christians in seasons of loss. Dr. Waters’ teaching calls us both to personal preparation and to active ministry of encouragement to others, rooted always in the person and work of Jesus Christ.