Article 25 - October 2015
Where Is Your Victory?
by Stephen Ogden
Death is power ful. In the hands of terrorists, it scat ters fear and destroys peace. Threatening others with death steals, exploits, impoverishes, enslaves, and gives near complete dominion over anyone. The mere threat of death creates a slave willing to do any thing to live.
But Jesus had a dif ferent promise: a promise that ultimately changed ever y thing, a promise that has reshaped the world and given hope where there was none. Jesus came with the promise of eternal life … fulfilling all that was before and pointing toward all that will be. 4
The extremes of crime and punishment are equal: the taking of life and the sentence of death. The most heinous crime you can commit is murder and paradoxically the most severe punishment for a crime you can receive is the death penalty. The power of each is in their finality, the finality of death.
This message of life was so radical and dif ferent from what anyone expected or wanted to believe that they crucified him, they put him to death, for it. They wielded the power of death over the life giving messenger, Jesus. And Death, it seemed, was still victorious. Jesus was dead. 5
For an army, death at once destroys the enemy and also demonstrates a power ful enough threat to defend a nation’s interests. We understand that the nation with the greatest abilit y to kill its enemies is the most power ful nation. Death to your enemy is victor y on the bat tlefield.
But the bat tle bet ween death and life was not over. Af ter three days, Jesus’ friends went to the tomb and discovered it was empty. Jesus, who was completely dead and buried, was indeed found alive. God had raised him up in resurrection. Jesus’ message was confirmed and his authority as the son of God was established forever. Jesus’ kingdom had come on ear th as it had always been in Heaven. Death no longer has dominion, authority, and power. Death was ut terly defeated and the promise of eternal life became our living hope. 6
But death is more than just the threat of the oppressor, or the tool of a power ful nation. It is the destiny of us all. We are all corruptible flesh. The strongest among us is made weak by the cer taint y of death. The words “You shall surely die” ring as loud and true now as they did for Adam & Eve when they were cursed to return to dust, in death, as a consequence of their sin. 1 Death was not God’s plan. Creation and mankind alike were not meant for death. Death was never meant to be par t of some cycle of life or natural course of events. It was through our sin that death entered the world and through our sin that all became corruptible to decay, even the natural world around us. In fact, creation itself groans with the curse of death much like we do. By man’s decision to def y God, death reigned, spread, and consumed the ear th we live in. When we sin, we fur ther empower death in this world. We give death its power. 2 And that ’s the world we live in: a world full of sin, death, and suf fering as a result of it. Our world is a constant state of rebellion and would remain that way if God hadn’t mercifully set about a plan to redeem it. God sent Jesus, His only son, in the same flesh we bear to endure the same temptations and same corrupt world that we do, so that He might overcome. 3 Jesus came in complete obedience to God. Having this determination to never sin against God, His message was not that of cer tain death. “You shall surely die” was the promise to Adam & Eve and the experience of ever yone from that moment for ward.
This is precisely the “Good News” preached by Paul and the other Apostles in the first centur y. Christianit y was not established with a new philosophy or a new religious idea: it was established as the “Good News” that Jesus is risen: that death is defeated: that the kingdom has come on ear th as it is in Heaven: and that the King is enthroned immor tally. All this through the resurrection of the Son of God; through His conquering of death. 7 Death can be a power ful force but it has not enslaved the people of God. Death has no victor y over us. We freely ser ve the God that defeated death with his own son so that we might have the promise of eternal life. The only victor y is in the Lord and through an abundance of His grace and the free gif t of righteousness … we too will reign with him forever. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. Jesus is our victor y. 8
Heb 9:27, Gen 2 Rom 5:12, 8:19-23 John 1:14, Titus 2:11-14 4 Matt 5:17,28:19-20, John 3:16,11:25-27,14:31, 1 John 2:25 5 Matt 27:31 6 Matt 6:10,28:18, Eph 1:15-23, 2 Tim 1:10, 1 Pet 1:3 7 Luke 1:31-33, Acts 13:32-37 8 John 10:10, Rom 5:17, 1 Cor 15:54-57, Eph 2:4-10 1 2 3
The finality of death need not be the end. Join us for Bible Study and learn of the life giving hope of God. Email us at MyWestEndChurch@gmail.com
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