I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living...

September 15, 2013 Evening:

Title: The Death of Death in the Death of Christ

Old Testament Passage: Psalm 29:1-2 – The Lord and other “heavenly beings”

Gospel Passage: Mark 12:35-37 – David's son and David's Lord

Sermon Text: Hebrews 2:14b Satan and his reign of death is destroyed through the cross

Sermon Point: Because of the death of Jesus, we are now under the power of eternal life.

that through death

Jesus did a great work that required not only His life, but also His death. If our Lord had lived without sin and then went on to live forever, bypassing the grave, something very significant would have been missing—a most necessary ingredient in God's plan of salvation for us.

Why did Jesus have to die? There are many questions that we might want to ask the Lord about death for which we cannot expect an answer. The mysteries of His providence are profound. He reveals what He chooses to reveal. We need to trust Him not only in what He has revealed, but also in what He has chosen to not reveal.

Is the purpose of the death of Christ one of those things that we can never know? Surely the cross is full of meaning that I do not yet understand, but God has explained a big part of this great mystery to us in the Bible. If Jesus did not die, my debt to God's justice would still be unpaid. I could not be in His presence forever.

he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

There is another way of putting this: Someone had to kill death.

John Owen wrote a book about the definitive work of Christ on the cross showing how Jesus actually accomplished the salvation of His people rather than merely making salvation a possibility. He entitled that book, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.

Jesus not only destroyed death for us. He destroyed the prince of death. This is a great mystery to ponder. The Lord had a plan that involved the role of a fallen angel who would be for a time the prince of this world. The world of Adam is under a sentence of death, and Satan, the devil, has had a role to play in the divine sanction of futility for sin. The devil's goals in his work were surely different than the goals of the Lord, just as the goals of the Babylonians in destroying Jerusalem were different than the goals of Yahweh in using them as agents of destruction.

Eventually the destroyer had to be destroyed. Somehow that happened on the cross. As Paul writes in Colossians 2:15, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” through the cross.

Though we die, we live. Why? Because Jesus claimed us with His blood. We will not be turned over to a cruel adversary for God's just torment. Christ suffered the pains of hell for us. Our death is now dead, and so is the prince of death, though he still will trouble the church for a little while.

What is left for us now that the fangs of death have been removed? Life. Eternal life. And the present joy of the Lord even through trial. Be strong and of good courage. Death is dead. Jesus lives, and so shall I.