The Death of Death in the Life of Christ

I was looking through some of my old projects recently and found this video that I made with Windows Video Editor and some photos I’d taken.

How often do people pass by eternal things to pursue the pleasures and fleeting joys of this world, when in fact this world is temporary, and life fades like a flower. It is here one day and gone the next, and the only remembrance of it will be carved onto a tombstone, a marker which will only be forgotten, even by those who placed it there.

Death rules this world with an iron fist. It takes no bribes, hears no pleas for mercy. It simply snatches souls away, and cuts them off from the land of the living. While we have life, we are able to thrust thoughts of death into the darkest corners of our minds, but when we draw near to the door of doom, we tend to retrieve those notions and fears, and begin to mediate on our own fragility.

But often, it is by that time too late. The opportunity is gone, and many will find themselves lost, and beneath the righteous judgement of a holy God.

But it does not have to be so.

“Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” In this way, “death reigned from Adam,” making subjects of all humanity. When Adam sinned, every person sinned with him; thus we all die. Our own sins also condemn us to death and hell, which are the just sentences for our crimes against God. No one escapes this condemnation, for we “are all under sin…there is none righteous, not even one…there is none who seeks after God.”

Romans 3 and 5 clearly state that all men sin, and also that there is but one way to be cleansed of that sin and be made righteous before God. This one Way is Christ Jesus, who took God’s wrath—the wrath we deserved—upon Himself on the cross. By doing so, Christ became our substitute, and God can justly justify sinners by laying His Son’s righteousness upon us as our own, just as He poured His wrath upon Christ on our behalf. Those who obey Christ’s command to repent and believe will be saved, and by His cleansing blood their sins shall be made “whiter than snow.”  

But we are not only forgiven of our sin and saved from hell—we are also redeemed from the fear of death. For Christ rose to life again to give believers eternal life, defeating death as completely as He conquered the sin that brought it. Death has been swallowed up in Christ’s victory, and when we have the hope of eternal life within us, it loses its power, because “the sting of death is sin,” and when Christ took our sins He also took the sting of death for those who believe.

And when we have no fear of the judgement after death, death itself becomes only a door to life—an everlasting life we will spend in the presence of the great and holy God who redeemed us.

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:22

Yes, “the wages of sin is death”, “but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”, for in Him believers can sing “O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?”

Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:55-57

SDG <><