The Death of Death

Church Family: 
Astonishing Good Friday to you! Today we celebrate one of the many benefits of Christ's death. The Son of God put on flesh and blood so that through His own death He would destroy the one who has the power of death, the devil (Heb. 2:14-15). While God cannot die the incarnate God-Man can die and He did die. Jesus, the Son of God, was born to die. His death was the very purpose for His human existence. One of the multitude of reasons that Jesus Christ came to die was to destroy Satan’s power over death.

Have you or are you experiencing Satan's power in death? Simply speaking, Satan enjoys exerting power over you by terrorizing you with great fear in your hearts when you ponder your death. Satan wants to destroy your expectant hope in death killing your peace and joy while growing misery, fear and despair declaring to you that God's wrath awaits you after your death.

However, the good news of the Gospel declares that you can experience a fearlessness when thinking about your death. The Son of God has lived, died and was resurrected for you to live fearlessness in death. Fight the fear of death by knowing that Christ has destroyed Satan's power through his "propitiation." The Gospel is filled with big words that have big meanings that reveal the bigness of our God and the greatness of our salvation. Propitiation is a glorious word for you to ponder so that the fear of death remains vanquished. Declare to yourself that Christ's propitiatory death on the cross is your wrath-removing sacrifice. When Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice for your sins, He also satisfied the righteous wrath of God against your sin, providing for you reconciliation and peace with God. The sting within your death has been defeated by the death of Christ. Death has been swallowed up in the victory of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:54-57). The propitiatory death of Jesus means your victory over death. That truth is to be enjoyed every day.

Church, in Christ, there is no reason to fear death because there is no wrath that remains on us as believers. We are not to fear death because there is no judgment that we will experience. We are not to fear death because on the other side of this life there is only the smiling and joyful and loving God who has forgiven us in Christ. We are not to fear death because Christ has reconciled us to Himself and has made us children of God forever. With Christ destroying the power of Satan in death, we should never fear death. Death has been defeated, death has died. Have an astonishing Good Friday!

See you Sunday, with no fear in death: Steve