What if death, after all, was a destination?

What if death, after all, was a destination?

What if the grave was the last, lonely station

On the end of this line that we ride

Each and every one of us?

What if life was a train, going nowhere

Just dropping us off, ready or not

Alone in this God-forsaken spot

Defeated in the end—

What then? 

And what if there was no waking

No rising up

No coming back from this place

Where we all meet

This end that we all face

You know, we aren’t the only ones

Who have bit down on death

And found it bitter—

Bitter and hard—

We aren’t the only ones

Who have traveled this way

Christ, he rode this line

With the rest of mankind

Stopping at the stations—all of them.

So—if death is really the last station

Then God himself hit a dead end

If the grave is really our destination

There’s no hope for anyone, then

It’s all a lie, if this is true

The hope we claim is hope only in name

The gospel we proclaim—it never was good news

Because we’ve been betrayed, not saved. Duped.

And we’ve tricked others, too

From every pulpit making a false guarantee

Of a new creation we’re never going to see

A resurrection that’s never going to be

If hope dies with us when we die

Then this faith is a lie

And every passing away is a final goodbye

And if this broken sphere of our here and now

Is all we’re ever going to know

Then there’s no salvation

No expectation, no consummation

Then death is not only our guarantee, our reality

It’s our destiny, our finality

If we don’t have the resurrection

We have nothing at all.

But, oh friends—Christ is alive

We have a champion who not only died

But came back from the void

He defied death and everything it stands for

Because it was strong, but he was stronger

He’s returned a living proof

That the grave is the road we take

But it is not the end we face

That we go through death

But not to it

Because Christ shattered our curse

And he became the first

To rise up from its shards

Never to die again

He transcended the grave

He made a way

For us to live beyond the edge of time

And now, though we find that death still touches us

It does not hold us

It is still bitter, still hard

But it does not own us. Not anymore.

And the day will come

When death’s time is done

When Christ takes his throne

And God gives the Son full authority

Over every enemy

Even death

The last, the very last one, to go down 

So death

Where, after all, is your victory?

We’re no longer tied to mortality

Embracing infinity

We will rise free

Death is not our end

It is our birth, our beginning

The cusp of a new age, a new life dawning

Christ defeated death by dying

Disarmed it by rising

So that we

Could move beyond the grave

Into the boundless sweep

Of eternity