Let us continue in the book of Hebrews, chapter 2, verses 14 and 15: "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage." This passage tells us another fundamental reason why the Lord Jesus died.
The children here are those to whom God grants the privilege of becoming his children through faith. Christ died for all, but not all benefit from his death, because not all through faith become his children. Notice also that it was only through death that he could accomplish this — he could not circumvent or bypass death. It was through his death, and his death alone, that the devil is destroyed.
What does it mean to destroy? Since the death of the Lord Jesus, Satan has not ceased to exist — the word in the Greek literally means to put out of action, to render useless, to make ineffectual. Think of a tank advancing and threatening to destroy you; someone fires an anti-tank weapon and the tank is hit and immobilised. It does not cease to exist — it still stands there with its ammunition — but it is out of action. Satan is crippled by the death of Christ, crippled insofar as the children are concerned.
This is very important practically. The way many Christians conduct themselves, you would never think Satan was actually crippled. I am deeply disturbed by Christians constantly falling into sin, constantly weakened in their daily lives. And I do not mean only falling into gross sins such as fornication or adultery — I mean also the inability to control ordinary behaviour, the inability to conduct oneself with a measure of consideration, kindness, and thoughtfulness. One wonders whether these persons really know who Jesus is, and whether the death of Christ has become effective in their lives. If the Christian is out of action rather than Satan, it is not because Satan has the power to cripple him — it is because the Christian is not drawing upon the power the Lord provides, the power of the resurrection life.
I feel disappointed too often with the performance of Christians, and I feel disappointed with myself as well — that I do not rise at all times to the level of excellence the Lord calls me to. Part of our problem is that we tend to be too easy on ourselves, making excuses for our sins and justifying unacceptable behaviour. We think it is charitable or loving to overlook sin, particularly in ourselves. This is not acceptable. The church must be purified. Christ died to put Satan out of action, and we must see to it that he remains out of action in our lives.
Now, how does Satan wield the power of death over us? He tempts us into sin. Sin can look so tempting, so acceptable, so pleasurable. And what is more, one of the most frightening aspects of the power of sin is that it deludes us into justifying our actions — saying, "There's nothing wrong with this, it seems perfectly acceptable to me." That is the intoxication of sin, like alcohol, that befuddles the mind and confuses the judgment, so that you can no longer discern right from wrong. Once you lose that grip, it is time to examine very carefully where you are heading.
There also comes a point in the life of the church when a pastor has to say: this conduct is not acceptable and it must stop. Certain actions have to be taken, and if the person does not find them acceptable, they effectively excommunicate themselves. We cannot go around tolerating sin indefinitely. We must proceed with the utmost caution and unbiasedness — not acting purely on our own feelings, but on solid and concrete facts — yet act we must. The battle against sin must be fought with determination, because sin will destroy us and Satan exercises the power of sin.
How are we delivered from spiritual death? For those not yet Christians, the Scripture teaches it is through a deliberate dying with Christ on our part. It is not only that Christ dies for us — we must die with him. A Christian already in this life has a real experience of what death is like. The reason so many Christians lose the battle against sin may be that they have never gone through a deep spiritual experience of dying out, a complete dying out to the old way of life. We simply carry our old sinful nature into the new Christian life and change it only externally, cleaning the outside while the inside remains unchanged. Far too much of our Christianity is painfully superficial. Do you know what it feels like to die out inwardly? To have a sense of wretchedness and contrition because of sin, such that you understand in some measure what it is to have died, to have finished with sin? These things are not taught enough today.
The strength of your Christian life will depend on the depth of that experience of dying out within you. How can you rise to a new life when your experience of death was virtually non-existent? The death of Christ must become a reality in us as we join him in that death, so that we may rise with him — and that is the meaning of baptism. Those who remain faithful after such a spiritual transaction have nothing to fear from the second death. Revelation 2:10–11: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death." To conquer in our daily life — not to be defeated by sin — is the condition of not being hurt by the second death. A person who truly has been freed by the death of Christ will experience what it is to live victoriously.
That is why I feel alarm when I see Christians defeated in their daily lives — still ill-tempered, still unpleasant, still inconsiderate. Conquering means being able to overcome sins by the blood of the Lamb, by the power of Christ living in us. The promise is made only to those who conquer. To conquer or not to conquer is the vital question.
# Destroy the Power of Death (Part B) — What Happens at Death: Sleep, Paradise, and Freedom from Fear
We spend so many years in school learning to add, subtract, name capitals, and recite formulas — and nothing in all those years prepares us for the complexities of life. When you have problems adjusting to people at work, or getting on with your brother or your sister, what does your algebra or your physics help you? We are not taught anything about how to cope with life. And if we are not well prepared for life, we are much less prepared for death.
Death is a reality that will come to every one of us, sooner or later. We don't like to think about it — but refusing to think about death is like refusing to prepare for an examination that will not go away. Your refusal to think about it will not make it disappear. The only result is that when it comes, you will face it wholly unprepared. We must be prepared to think about death if we want also to be prepared to live. And the Christian today, if you ask him what happens at death, often does not even know. How do you prepare for an exam when you don't know the subject you will be examined in?
What happens to a Christian at the moment of death? The scriptural answer is very unambiguous — and it is so wonderful that I wonder why any Christian fears death. Philippians 1:23, a verse every Christian should know deeply: Paul says he is "hard pressed between two alternatives, my own desire is to depart and be with Christ, for this is far better." At the moment the Christian dies physically, he goes immediately to be with Christ. The question is then: does the thought of going to be with Christ terrify you? Or is life in this world more precious to you? If you profess to love the Lord Jesus but cling to this life, there is a contradiction. If I loved someone so dearly, I would be most anxious to be with them.
The Lord Jesus said to the dying revolutionary on the cross in Luke 23:43: "Today you will be with me in paradise." Not after a long sleep, not after a period in some intermediate state — today. This is exactly what Paul is saying when he speaks of departing to be with Christ. And Paul adds: it is "far better" — Max Zerwick's analysis of the Greek gives the force as "infinitely better." Think of every pleasure this world has to offer — chocolate sundaes, a beautiful car, music, travel — and Paul says, at the end of it all, to be with Christ is infinitely better. You say, maybe Paul hasn't appreciated the delights of life. But Paul knew both poverty and abundance, both the high life and the hard life. He says: when you have gone through all of that, to be with Christ is far better.
In Scripture, physical death is spoken of for the Christian as falling asleep. Is falling asleep something so terrible? I was taken to see my grand-aunt when she died, and she lay in her room so calm, so peaceful, simply sleeping. The body is no longer consciously active — but as in sleep, the mind is still very active. You can have dreams, and sometimes even solve problems in your sleep; I have wrestled with passages of Scripture, gone to sleep, and woken in the morning with the exegesis clear in my mind. And God speaks in dreams and night visions, as Job 33:14–15 tells us: "For God speaks in one way and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men while they slumber on their beds, then he opens the ears of men." I experienced this even before I was a Christian — the night before my attempt to cross the border from Canton into Hong Kong, I had such an uncomfortable feeling through the night that something was wrong, and sure enough we were arrested the next day.
So the picture of sleep is important but must not be pressed too far. It is not that the departed Christian is in some vague hazy dream-like existence. Paul's expression "far better" rules that out entirely. To be with Christ is not a dream-state — it is to be, as the Lord said, with him in paradise, in the fullness of enjoyment. The comparison is not between dreaming and being fully conscious, but between all the joys of earthly life on the one hand and the unspeakable sweetness of being with Christ on the other — and Christ wins, infinitely.
And the body awaits the resurrection — awaits the new morning when the long night of sin will be over and the new day of God's salvation dawns. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, we will be raised incorruptible, with a new spiritual body not subject to death. Whichever way you look at it, our prospects are so glorious that it is hard to see why any Christian, unless quite hypocritical or still ignorant of what death is about, should have any fear of it. The death of Christ has removed from us any grounds for fear of death. Has it removed the fear from your heart? Let us be quiet before God in prayer.