Looking To The Cross | Day 33 | Hebrews 2:14-15

“You will not surely die.”

The craftiest of serpents whispered in the ear of Eve who took the fruit of the forbidden tree and shared it with her husband. This one act of sin broke mankind’s ability to dwell in the presence of the Lord, for no unrighteousness will coexist with the holiness of a perfect God.

The devil now held the power of death, and all humans were slave to the fear of the inescapable inevitably of this death. Truly, no fear is greater than the fear that mankind, now separated from God in their sinful state, would then die while in this sinful state, thus separating themselves from the presence of God for all eternity. The devil had won. Or had he?

Mankind certainly had no ability to save themselves from bondage to fear of death. Enter Jesus. Here we see God, Himself, take the form of flesh to partake in all the same things that us flesh and blood humans experience - not only in life, but also in death.

For us to become children of God, Jesus, the Son of God, entered the human realm, partook in suffering and death, rose again, claimed eternal victory over evil, and destroyed the one who brought the fear of death into hearts of mankind. “Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting?”

Christ provides something much greater than fear of death. He holds eternal life, and He freely gives eternal life to all those who repent and believe in Him. The Christ-follower may suffer, the Christ-follower will experience physical death, but the Christ-follower is incapable of experiencing spiritual or eternal death because of the great work of Christ through the power of the cross.

As my father-in-law always says, “Christians don’t die. They just kick death in the face on the way past it.”