The Age of Opportunity: How the Bible Gives Hope for Aging

Author:

Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage

Article ID:

JAF4451

Updated: 

Oct 3, 2024

Published:

Oct 3, 2024

This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 45, number 1 (2022).

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What if you could cure “the leading cause of death and suffering” — aging?1 In his 2021 book, Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older without Getting Old, thirty-five-year old biogerontologist Andrew Steele defines aging as “the exponential increase in death and suffering over time.”2 While Steele acknowledges benefits to aging such as wisdom and maturity, he believes aging should be understood as a disease and that one day, it may be cured.3 Although death would still come through accident or infection, we might eventually be able to attain what he calls “biological immortality,”4 that is, agelessness.

Agelessness appeals in a culture that will do anything to disguise or deny the fact that we’re all, minute by minute, day by day, getting older. Agelessness appeals in a culture in which the elderly are often mocked and marginalized. And yet, as Christians, we must ask, is agelessness really God’s plan for us?

To answer that question, we must recapture a biblical theology of aging. As we explore what the Bible says about aging, we discover that God has written purpose and meaning into the life of the aged. When we embrace aging with the confidence that Christian immortality awaits us, Steele’s “biological immortality” loses its appeal, and we discover rich opportunities in aging. Aging may indeed become the age of opportunity, the opportunity first to grow closer to Christ through suffering and weakness; second, to blossom with the fruit of a rich humility and a persevering patience; third, to live our calling as disciples in new ways; fourth, to prepare to die with the hope of a resurrected and glorified body in union with Christ; and finally, to leave a legacy that draws others to glorify and enjoy God. As we ourselves age and as we care for aging loved ones, we must embrace the biblical hope for aging.

THE METANARRATIVE OF THE BIBLE AND AGING

Steele’s quest to cure aging is based on his assumption that suffering and death should not be part of life. The Bible, on the other hand, assumes that aging, suffering, and death are to be expected after the Fall. When Christ returns, though, death will be no more, and if there is aging, it will no longer be accompanied by pain or grief (Rev. 21:4). Let’s consider what the metanarrative of Scripture tells us about aging, suffering, and death.

Creation and Fall

In the beginning, humans were created in the image of God with the potential for living forever. God generously invited Adam and Eve to eat from every tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they ate from that tree, he warned, they would die (Gen. 2:17). Adam and Eve, tempted by Satan, ate the fruit God had forbidden. Although they did not physically die immediately, through their disobedience, death entered the world: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).5 When Adam and Eve sinned, the body was affected as well as the soul. John Stott explains, “It appears, therefore, that for his unique image-bearers God originally had something better in mind, something less degrading and squalid than death, decay, and decomposition.”6 Whether aging was intended when God created humanity, it certainly became part of life after the Fall.

Aging Redeemed

By God’s grace, humanity’s story didn’t end in Genesis 3. God sent Jesus in human form, fully divine, fully human, to redeem His people. Jesus was born as a baby and “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). Jesus aged. Jesus died. On a cross, for our sins. Jesus rose from the dead, and because of His resurrection, those who trust in Him, inherit eternal life in union with God in Christ. Through Jesus, aging is redeemed. Through Jesus, death is defeated. In his quest for “biological immortality,” in his suspicion that death and suffering are not meant to be, Steele is on to something. Indeed, the biblical metanarrative reveals that one day all aging, suffering, and death will end in God-given immortality for those who belong to Christ.

BIBLICAL THEMES OF AGING

As we explore biblical themes of aging, we see that in addition to suffering and loss, aging also holds opportunity, purpose, and meaning.

Aging Is Natural. In the Bible, aging is assumed: “Aging and dying were considered to be natural, expected, even providential processes that were ordained and guided by God rather than discrete chronological stages of human development.”7 Genesis 15:15 states that being “buried in a good old age” will be the peaceful outcome of Abraham’s life. Psalm 90:10 proclaims that our lives are fleeting: “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty…they are soon gone, but we fly away.” Because we will age, we should “number our days,” that is, live them purposefully; in so doing, we will “get a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12).

Aging Is Not Glamorized. While aging is assumed to be natural, it is neither glamorized nor denied. Ecclesiastes 12 portrays the losses of aging graphically, even dismally. The author details many casualties of aging, including weak and trembling hands (Eccl. 12:3), teeth falling out (v. 3), eyesight dimming (v. 3), fears increasing (v. 5), and mourning and grief multiplying (v. 5). Jen Pollock Michel explains the goal of Ecclesiastes’ author: “This ancient king…wanted us to understand something of today’s temporality….See your cells old, he implores. He knows that if, by God’s providence, we end our days in old age, with bodies frail and stooped, we will come finally to grieve our wasted time of chasing ‘vanity of vanities.’”8 In facing the harsh realities of aging, we worship God more fully.

Aging Is Honorable. Despite the admitted harshness of aging, it is an honor to be aged, and the aged are to be honored. Proverbs 16:31 notes, “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.” The Fifth Commandment promises that honoring your father and mother leads to a lengthy life (Exod. 20:12). The church is exhorted to encourage older men and women and to honor widows (1 Tim. 5:1–3). Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for failing to care well for their parents (Mark 7:9–13). According to the Bible, ageism is simply unacceptable.

Aging Brings Wisdom. One reason to honor the aging is that aging brings wisdom. As mentioned, embracing aging leads to a “heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12). Throughout Scripture, older people share wisdom with the community: Jethro mentors his son-in-law Moses (Exod. 18:13–27); Moses in turn mentors Joshua (Exod. 24:13, 32:17–19, 33:11); Elizabeth encourages Mary (Luke 1:39–45); and the father and mother in Proverbs 1 pass on wisdom to their adult son (Prov. 1:8–9). As J. I. Packer notes, aging brings “an enlarged capacity for discerning, choosing, and encouraging.”9

The Aged Continue in Discipleship. In part because of their wisdom, aging neither disqualifies nor releases people from their calling as disciples. The elderly preacher of Psalm 71, though apparently experiencing ageism, implores God to continue using him: “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds” (Ps. 71:9). Psalm 92 reminds us that “the righteous still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green” (Ps. 92:14). In Titus 2, older men and women are to lead by example, passing on their wisdom to the next generation (Titus 2:1–5).

FIVE OPPORTUNITIES IN AGING

A solid biblical theology of aging provides hope that, despite the losses and limitations of aging, God has written profound purpose into our advancing years. Aging presents numerous opportunities for sanctification; here we will consider five.

Intimacy with Christ through Suffering. As Steele has suggested, aging leads to suffering and loss — mental, physical, and relational. Even so, as gerontologist James Davies discovered, the suffering of the elderly can potentially draw them closer to God: “Many older Christians have found spiritual renewal through seeing their affliction and loss as a personal reminder of the affliction and loss that Christ went through to purchase their salvation.”10 Those who face rather than deny the grief of aging will discover the Christ who wept with Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus died. In their grief and loss, the aging may grow deeper intimacy with the God of all comfort (2 Cor. 1:3–4).

Deeper Humility through Limitations and Loss. Along the same line, embracing limitations and the loss of independence may be the pathway to deeper humility. When we can no longer drive to church, when afternoon naps become daily necessities, when we require a helping hand to rise from a chair, we have the opportunity to discover a deeper dependence on Christ. As Alice Fryling, author of Aging Faithfully: The Holy Invitation of Growing Older, points out, when we are no longer as productive as we once were, we may grow in fruitfulness — “non-tangible ways I relate to others.”11 Aging, when we can accept the limitations it imposes, can grow fruit, the fruit of humility, the fruit of patience, the fruit of kindness.

New Opportunities for Discipleship. As we grow in fruitfulness and wisdom and as time is freed up by retirement, we discover new opportunities for discipleship. My eighty-two-year-old mother, who developed a severe limp in later years, hobbled her way into the prison every time her church team visited. While she was unable to serve the meal, she sat with the incarcerated and their families, listening to their stories, offering them the presence of Christ. As we age, we can pass on wisdom as our bodies allow — by volunteering, by driving grandchildren, by tutoring youth, and by praying. Some churches, Packer says, “behave as though spiritual gifts and ministry skills wither with age. But they don’t; what happens, rather, is that they atrophy with disuse.”12 When we are aware of this danger, we will be more intentional about discipleship as we age.

Preparing for Death. As Christians, knowing that we have the hope of an immortal body helps us to approach our death with peace rather than fear. One day, we will inhabit a resurrected body that will never again be scarred by sin, and we will serve and worship God unfailingly. Sam Allberry writes, “The signs of aging are no longer a threat but a promise. Gray hair and deepening lines on my face don’t need to speak to me of a past that I can’t recover but of a future I can barely conceive. The real glory days are not behind but ahead.”13 Buoyed by this hope, we can more easily prepare for death today, seeking to repair relationships, to serve others, and to plan our legacy.

Leaving a Legacy. Facing mortality leads naturally to considering the legacy we wish to leave for future generations (Ps. 145:4). In addition to gathering the information our loved ones will need in a crisis — advance directives, wills, password information, and end-of-life wishes — we can begin sharing our values and our stories. In preparing our legacy now, we have a powerful opportunity to point future generations to the God who imbues life with the deepest significance.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, we’re all aging, and biological immortality offers too little hope. Aging brings the hope of growing more like Christ as well as the hope of nearing the day we will dwell eternally with God. Indeed, given the hope of Christian immortality, we can resist the allure of agelessness and move with confidence into the profound opportunity of aging well.

Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage (MEd, MACS) is an author, Bible teacher, and gospel coach. She has written two devotionals for people in crisis.

NOTES

  1. Andrew Steele, Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older without Getting Old, First American edition (New York: Doubleday, 2021), 3.
  2. Steele, Ageless, 3.
  3. Steele, Ageless, 14.
  4. Steele, Ageless, 3.
  5. All Bible quotations are from the ESV.
  6. John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World, electronic resource, rev. ed. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020), 166.
  7. William H. Willimon, Aging: Growing Old in Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2020), 21.
  8. Jen Pollock Michel, “This Is Forty,” in The Wonder Years: 40 Women over 40 on Aging, Faith, Beauty, and Strength, ed. Leslie Leyland Fields (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2018), 216–17.
  9. J. I. Packer, Finishing Our Course with Joy: Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 19.
  10. James A. Davies, “A Practical Theology of Aging: Biblical Perspectives for Individuals and the Church,” Christian Education Journal 5, no. 2 (2008): 285.
  11. Alice Fryling, Aging Faithfully: The Holy Invitation of Growing Older (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2021), 9.
  12. Packer, Finishing Our Course with Joy, 64.
  13. Sam Allberry, What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 185.
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