Death overcome!

Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him: `I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.'

Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact (Acts 2:22-32).

Our world is fascinated with death. When you are a child, most department stores offer to sell you a toy gun or an army of plastic soldiers, tanks and warplanes. As you get older, you can play video games that let you shoot people, blow them up, or run them over. By the time you approach adulthood, getting a real gun of your own is easy, and some states even encourage you to carry a concealed weapon to ensure your personal safety.

But the fascination with death does not stop there. We make scores of movies about teenagers being brutally killed by monsters or serial killers. Most cop and lawyer shows do more than just solve the crime—they also reenact each murder for the television audience to watch. As if that were not enough, killers are often portrayed as cool and tough; who doesn’t want to be like Dirt Harry or James Bond? Is it any wonder that so many disturbed people take up a gun in order to ‘solve’ their problems?

Some people are curious about death. They are fascinated with individuals who claim that they can speak with the dead. Others look at death as a friend. When life is painful, either physically or emotionally, death looks like a way to escape from suffering. And many use death to solve a problem in their lives—like ending an unwanted pregnancy, or to get out of paying alimony to an ex.

But death is not exciting. Death is not fascinating. Death is not an escape from life’s problems, and it is certainly not your friend! Death is the enemy. It breaks up loving relationships. It puts an end to long-range plans. It changes lives so dramatically that they will never be the same again. In his sermon to the people of Jerusalem, Peter refers to it as the agony of death.

Death is not a good thing. Death is God’s curse on sin. In Romans chapter six Paul writes, the wages of sin is death. Sin earns God’s anger and the payoff is death, because death is the only thing that finally puts an end to our habitual sinning.

We have a lot of enemies in life. There’s the school yard bully who always pushes you around. There’s the popular kid in high school who always makes fun of your looks, your brains, or you lack of athletic ability. There’s the parent of the person you’re dating who absolutely hates you. There’s the co-worker at the office that is friendly to your face but constantly stabs you in the back. We all have enemies who make our lives miserable.

Thankfully, our worst enemy has been defeated. Paul writes in 1st Corinthians, Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Victory over death—that’s what Easter is all about. Jesus rose victorious from the grave! And death is not the only enemy that lies defeated. Death is the result of sin; in order to defeat death, Jesus had to defeat sin as well. This He did on the cross, as He suffered all of God’s anger at our sin. The wages of sin is death, and Jesus has paid off our terrible debt in full. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is proof that God the Father is well pleased; He has rewarded the Son of God with everlasting life, and the right to judge or forgive every human being. It is only through Jesus that we can receive the blessings of forgiveness and everlasting life.

The mind is a very creative thing. The human mind has dreamed of flight and invented airplanes; it has designed nuclear reactors, antibiotics and computers. But there are limits to what we can imagine. Have you ever thought about your own death? Can you imagine a point in time when you no longer exist? I can’t; I can’t wrap my head around the idea that someday there won’t be a me anymore. It’s impossible to imagine.

Of course, there’s a reason for this. God did not create us to die—death was never part of the plan. There are a lot of folks who go on and on about the ‘cycle of life’, of how death is a natural part of existence. But it just isn’t so! People who say such things don’t know Christ; they are trying to make peace with death by denying that it is an enemy they cannot defeat. No, Adam and Eve were created to live forever—sin changed God’s plan by cursing life with death. That’s why we cannot imagine our lives ending—we’re trying to grasp a situation God never intended us to face. This is why tears are always shed at a funeral—because no matter how hard we try to sugarcoat death, we instinctively know that it’s just not right.

Another thing we can’t imagine is heaven. Think about it—every time the Bible speaks about the afterlife, it’s always described in terms of earthly things. Heaven is like a wedding banquet that never ends. Heaven is like a palace where everyone has a personalized suite of magnificent rooms. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, Paul speaks of a time when God permitted him a glimpse of heaven, yet all he could say of the experience was that he heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. Even Paul, as smart as he was, could find no words to describe the place where spirits dwell.

This should not surprise us; if we were never meant to die, we were never intended to live as spirits in heaven. Earth was to be our home for always; no wonder then, that the only way God can describe paradise to us is by picturing it in terms of earthly things that we are familiar with.

The human soul is created by God to live in a body. There are no pre-born souls waiting in heaven for couple to get pregnant; when a child is conceived, the God of life creates a soul and binds it to that tiny bundle of DNA. In Psalm 139 David writes, you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. And yet, this wonderful creation is immediately made flawed by sin; we inherit it from our parents like a birth defect—David also writes, without a doubt I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me (Psalm 51). God creates us to live forever, but so long as children are born to sinful parents, death is the curse that brings an end to God’s gift of life.

Death and its consequences are unthinkable; thankfully, in Christ we have a solution. In Romans chapter six Paul writes, by baptism, we died and were buried with Christ. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was…when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin.

Easter is about getting a future that we can understand and appreciate. On the last day, Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead. All who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned (John 5:28-29). Then, when the evil have been sent away to hell, God will create a new earth for us to live on, an earth that is nothing short of paradise. On that perfect world we will know the kind of happiness that God always planned for us to have.

When we rise from the dead, we will get our bodies back, and they will work as they did before. After Jesus rose, His disciples still recognized Him when He came and stood among them. When they thought He was a ghost, He ate some of their dinner to prove that He was physically alive. So it will be with us. But our bodies will different in some respects. We will be ageless, never growing weak with the passing of years. Nor will there be any birth defects or any other kind of bodily flaw; for the first time we will look and feel the way God intended us to. Even the bad memories caused by sin will fade away—the former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind (Isaiah 65:17).

The earth we live on will also be a place we can understand—a world of trees and fields, animals and streams. But it will be a planet unscarred by sin—no pollution, no severe weather, no dangerous wildlife or accidents waiting to happen. Isaiah says, The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. In Revelation, God’s angel tells us what our new lives will be like: Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes…There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

Imagine it—life with purpose, but without stress. Life filled with love, but with no disappointment. Life surrounded by beauty, but with nothing to worry about. There will be no need for guns or soldiers or police. There will be no need for hospitals or pharmacies or funeral homes. You won’t waste time fretting about disease or your diet or the state of the economy. Jesus guarantees this world with His resurrection; He has ended the curse of sin so it will never again be a problem, and He has demonstrated His power to give you life on that new world, a joyful life that will never end.

Death is not your friend; death is God’s curse on sin. But give thanks to God, for His Son has defeated the enemy, guaranteeing us life and happiness in spite of death. May your life be filled with joy and hope, because you are confident in the blessings that the living Christ has promised you.