What would it mean for someone to die in vain? I had a dream where my grandmother visited me outside her home six months after she had passed away. As I rushed to her with tears in my eyes she stated, “Do not come any closer or else the sunshine will not show me.” Then she said, “I love you more now than I ever did, even if I did die in vain.” She handed me a piece of paper to show me that this was a real event and then slowly faded away. I awoke in tears and wrote down everything I could remember from start to finish about the dream. Then just last month I found a copy of the letter. It was then I remembered the, \u201ceven if I did die in vain\u201d part and now I am curious as to what that could have meant.<\/p>\n\t
Quite an imaginative story, but one that I cannot accept as true. When David’s son died, David stated, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me<\/em>” (II Samuel 12:22-23). David understood that people who died do not return to this world. Job stated the same: “As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, so he who goes down to the grave does not come up. He shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore<\/em>” (Job 7:9-10).<\/p>\n But to answer your question, “vain” refers to actions that are useless. For example, it would be vanity to stand outside and start huffing and puffing in hopes of changing the course of the wind. You can blow until you are blue in the face, but your effort would be useless.<\/p>\n The Bible uses the phrase “died in vain” just once when Paul stated, “if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain<\/em>” (Galatians 2:21). By this Paul is stating that if a person could earn their salvation through perfect law keeping, then Jesus’ death on the cross as a sacrifice for mankind was a useless action. If men could save themselves, then they wouldn’t have needed a savior to die on their behalf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: What would it mean for someone to die in vain? I had a dream where my grandmother visited me outside her home six months after she had passed away. As I rushed to her with tears in my eyes she stated, “Do not come any closer or else the sunshine will not show me.”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[109,76],"class_list":["post-4078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-death","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":45956,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-christ-die-in-vain\/","url_meta":{"origin":4078,"position":0},"title":"Did Christ Die in Vain?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Most, if not all, of us put hard work into various projects, be it a project at work, the raising of children, or implementing a favorite hobby. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After hours of hard work, it is devastating to find it destroyed or never used. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I remembered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31358,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-missed-an-opportunity-to-tell-someone-that-their-life-is-not-right-with-god-what-do-i-do-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":4078,"position":1},"title":"I missed an opportunity to tell someone that their life is not right with God. What do I do now?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My wife ran into an old friend at a store, and they were talking.\u00a0 Her friend talked of how she and her fiance were living together, and my wife said something that kind of approved it.\u00a0 Her friend was also cussing.\u00a0 I walked away and sat in the car.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15161,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-god-forgive-me-for-using-his-sons-name-in-vain\/","url_meta":{"origin":4078,"position":2},"title":"Will God forgive me for using His Son’s name in vain?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was reading your web site about using God's name or Jesus' name in vain. I was reading it because this morning I made a big, huge mistake! My 10-year-old daughter was asked to sit next to her 9-month-old brother on the couch so that I could grab his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27189,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-does-taking-care-of-your-appearance-stop-and-vanity-begin\/","url_meta":{"origin":4078,"position":3},"title":"Where does taking care of your appearance stop and vanity begin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A friend and I were talking about vanity. We know it's a sin, we just don't know when it stops being taking care of the appearance and when it starts being vanity. What is vanity? Answer: \"\"Vanity of vanities,\" says the Preacher; \"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity\"\" (Ecclesiastes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95583,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/willing-to-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":4078,"position":4},"title":"Willing to Die","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong \"Then Paul answered, 'What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus'\" (Acts 21:13). Paul, the last of the apostles selected by Jesus, was to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37359,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-say-a-creed-at-every-service-is-this-vain-repetition\/","url_meta":{"origin":4078,"position":5},"title":"We say a creed at every service. Is this vain repetition?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, My question to you today is concerning a creed that a church I've been attending quotes during every service, and I would like to know your thoughts on it. I have recently come to terms with my abusive use of alcohol and the demeaning and shameful things I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}