April 18– LD
16, Day 3: Death Translated to Victory
by Rev
I Corinthians 15:55 “O death, where
is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
We live in the midst of death. Every day we are reminded of the horror of
death by the obituaries in the newspaper. Our loved ones are taken by death.
Sometimes death swallows them quickly, at other times more slowly. Where is our
comfort in the midst of death? If Jesus died and took away our sins, why
must we still face death? Is not the punishment of sin gone?
Christ has transformed death. Death for us is not payment for the
penalty of sin. Christ paid that penalty. Death is not satisfaction for the
righteousness of the law. Jesus satisfied the demands of righteousness. Death
is not the expression of God’s wrath. Jesus bore that wrath and cast it away.
What then is our death?
Our death is first of all the abolishing of sin. God begins the process
of sanctification at the moment we are regenerated. That process is slow
and difficult. A life-long battle against sin results in only a small beginning
of that new obedience. God uses many means in our lives to break the power of
many besetting sins, but we cannot get rid of them in this life. Death is the
servant of God to abolish the sins of His people.
But, death is more! It is secondly a passage to eternal life. He that
believes in Christ shall never die. God takes our earthly life so that we may
go into the Father’s house of many mansions. We sing from Psalm 17:
“When I in righteousness at last Thy
glorious face shall see,
When all the weary night is past, and I awake with
Thee
To view the glories that abide, then, then I shall be satisfied.”