The Death of Death in the Death of Christ March 28, 2016
Satan’s greatest physical weapon is not recession, bankruptcy, terrorism, or disease. It’s death. Death is our greatest enemy, and the Bible indicates that every one of us fears it, at least to some degree: “Only in this way could Jesus set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying” (Hb 2:15 NLT). Death destroys our body and terminates our earthly hopes and joys.
But because of Jesus, this powerful enemy no longer dominates God’s children! Jesus has triumphed over death and the devil, but His plan of attack wasn’t quite what we might have expected. Here’s how the Bible describes it: “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who hadthe power of death.” (Hb 2:14 NLT)
In other words, Jesus conquered death through death! He did not prove He was stronger than death by being immortal and never dying. Instead, Jesus submitted Himself to Satan’s most powerful weapon, succumbed to death, and then overcame its power by rising again! To put it in an analogy, Jesus was not like a soldier who moved behind enemy lines without getting caught. Instead, he went right to the enemy general, gave Himself up, got locked away in a POW camp, and then blew holes in the walls of every cell in the compound. Now every single soldier who gets taken captive can just walk right out through the holes left by the Man who went there before him.
This is why we sing, “Christ is risen from the dead / Trampling over death by death / Come awake, come awake! / Come and rise up from the grave!” Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, every Christian who dies gets to “walk right out” with a brand new, immortal body! Your death does not have to be the end. If you have taken Jesus as your Savior by faith and repentance, someday you will rise again to a life that death will never bring to an end—life with God forever and ever!