Basic HTML Version
Breaking the Power of Death, February 7
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them
from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy
destruction.
Hosea 13:14
.
Well might all heaven be astonished at the reception their loved Com-
mander received in the world! ... He made the world, and yet the world
knew Him not. Friends denied Him, forsook Him, and betrayed Him.
He was assailed by temptation. Human agony convulsed His divine soul.
He was lacerated with cruel scourgings. His hands were pierced with
nails, His holy temples were crowned with thorns.... It was the working
of Satan’s machinations that made the life of Christ one dark series of
afflictions and sadness; and at last he compassed Christ’s death....
In the act of dying, Christ was destroying him who had the power
of death. He carried out the plan, finished the work which from Adam’s
fall He had covenanted to undertake. By dying for the guilt of a sinful
world, He reinstated fallen man, on condition of obedience to God’s
commandments, in the position from which he had fallen in consequence
of disobedience. And when He broke the fetters of the tomb and rose
triumphant from the dead He answered the question, “If a man die, shall
he live again?” (
Job 14:14
). Christ made it possible that every child of
Adam might, through a life of obedience, overcome sin and rise also from
the grave to his heritage of immortality purchased by the blood of Christ.
Our salvation was wrought out by infinite suffering to the Son of
God. His divine bosom received the anguish, the agony, the pain that the
sinfulness of Adam brought upon the race. The heel of Christ was indeed
bruised when His humanity suffered, and grief heavier than that which
ever oppressed the beings He had created weighed down His soul as He
was engaged in paying the vast debt which man owed to God.
The question, “If a man die, shall he live again?” has been answered....
God in human form has brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel. In dying, Christ secured eternal life for all who believe in Him.
[45]
44