Day 4: Over death and hell
I [Jesus] am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades (Revelation 1:18).
Holy Father, God of power and might, how fitting the words of the prophet, Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done wonderful things, things planned long ago... On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever (Isaiah 25:1, 7-8).
Indeed You planned the destruction of death long ago, when You purposed to send Your Messiah, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world (Revelation 13:8). He came with the specific purpose to destroy the shroud that enfolded all peoples from the time humans deliberately disobeyed God. They ignored Your protective command, choosing instead to listen to the deceptive words of the enemy of our souls—the same deceptive words he continues to spout today:
“You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5 - NKJV).
From the beginning You promised Your mercy and redemption (Genesis 3:15). You knew that only one without the legacy of spiritual death that is passed to every human could redeem humans from spiritual death. And in Your unsearchable wisdom and amazing grace, You sent us Your Son in a wonderful, perfect plan described by the writer of Hebrews:
Since the children have flesh and blood, [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).
He laid down His life willingly—of His own accord (John 10:17-18)—even while we were God's enemies (through our spiritual condition of sin)—to reconcile us to God (Romans 5:10). 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 (Acts 2:24). And furthermore, the apostle Paul told the Roman believers, We know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him (Romans 6:9).
Paul explained the monumental importance of this for every believer in Christ: If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has truly been raised from the dead—the first one and proof that those who sleep in death will also be raised. (1 Corinthians 15:19-20 - NCV).
The apostle John recorded the last words He whispered on the cross, "It is finished" (John 19:30). But on the island of Patmos, the Lord Jesus—risen, glorified—gave John the thundering message of victory, I AM alive! I have the ultimate power over death and hell!
コメント