What is Death to the Christian?

In 1651, puritan pastor Christopher Love was wrongfully accused of high treason and sentenced to death by beheading. Among many letters from family, friends, and fellow ministers to Parliment begging for Love's life to be spared, there were many written to Love himself, preparing and counseling him for that day when, in Love's own words, "my head is severed from my body [and] shall be united with Christ my Head in heaven."
Below is one such letter written from a dear friend, Roger Drake. Notice how the promises of Scripture are foundational to offering hope to one who is otherwise humanly helpless. In this letter, Drake answers the question, many times over, "What is death to the Christian?"

Dear soul, thou art now going to heaven. To quicken they desires, put it into these notions that are most suitable to thy condition.

To the weary it is rest.

For the righteous man is taken away from calamity; he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness. (Isaiah 57:1-2, ESV) 

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” (Revelation 14:13)

To the banished it is home.

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, (2 Corinthians 5:6)

To the reproached it is glory.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2, ESV)

To the molested and captived with corruption it is the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:21, ESV)

To the resister to blood it is conquest.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37, ESV)

To the vexed with sin and sorrow it is the extinction of both.

To the hungry soul it is the hidden manna.

To the thirsty it is rivers of pleasure, water of life, fountain of life.

They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light. (Psalm 36:8-9, ESV)

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Revelation 22:17, ESV)

To the grieved soul it is fullness of joy, and to the sorrowful heart it is pleasures forevermore.

For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; (Psalm 116:8)

In a word, to them that have lain upon the dunghill here and kept their integrity it is a throne upon which they shall sit and reign with Christ forever and ever.

The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Revelation 3:21)

And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:5, ESV)

Dear heart, cheer up. A sharp* breakfast, but a blessed supper, the supper of the Lamb.

*Referring to the blade of the axe that will soon sever his head.

A Spectacle Unto God, The Life and Death of Christopher Love, Don Kistler, Soli Deo Gloria

Bring it On!

His only request to his Christian brothers & sisters in Rome before his impending martyrdom for his faith was simple:  don't stop them.  Believing his death to be the ultimate witness of his faith, Ignatius of Antioch (the same Antioch where believers were first called "Christians" less than a century before in Acts 11:26), would rather die for Jesus than rule over the whole world (Matthew 16:26).

I'll never again have an opportunity like this to reach God.  Nor will you Romans ever again have such a chance to be credited with a finer accomplishment - provided you remain silent.  For if you quietly refrain from interfering with me, I will become a crystal-clear message from God.  But if you love my earthly body too much, I'll only be an incomprehensible noise.  I ask you to grant me nothing  but this:  that my blood should be poured out as an offering to God while I still have an altar available to me.  In your love, you can become the accompanying choir for my sacrifice.

Was he scared of dying?  Probably.  Scared of death?  Not at all.  Hear some of his last words as he anticipates the wild animals who will be the cause of his cruel death.  It's as if he's taunting them.  Bring it on!

I write to the Churches, and impress on them all, that I shall willingly die for God, unless ye hinder me. I beseech of you not to show an unseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the wild beasts, that they may become my tomb, and may leave nothing of my body; so that when I have fallen asleep [in death], I may be no trouble to any one. Then shall I truly be a disciple of Christ, when the world shall not see so much as my body. Entreat Christ for me, that by these instruments[i.e., by the teeth of the wild beasts] I may be found a sacrifice [to God].

Bring on the fire, bring on the cross, bring on the hordes of wild animals!  Let them wrench my bones out of socket and mangle my limbs and grind up my whole body!  Bring on all the hideous tortures from the Devil!  Just let me get to Jesus Christ.  Nothing on this wide earth matters to me anymore.  The kingdoms of this world are entirely meaningless.  I am at the point where I would rather die for Jesus Christ than rule over the whole earth.  He alone is the one I seek - the one who died for us!  It is Jesus that I long for - the one who for our sake rose again from the dead!

Ignatius letter paraphrased by Bryan Litfin, Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction

See also,  The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans at Christian Classics Ethereal Library.