The only sure thing about life is that it will end. And the one thing sure about death is that it scares us. It wasn’t always so, but we’re all too young to remember when folks lived without the fear of death. When God first created Adam and Eve, and placed them in Eden, death was no threat, except if they should sin. They did disobey God and thus sinned, and death has hung like a threatening cloud over every life since. The rest of us sinned like Adam, so we all share in the responsibility for death coming into the world. We are now mortal, and all come under God’s righteous sen- tence: “The soul that sinneth it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4).

But just as surely as we will die, we no longer need to fear to die. This is the Good News of the Gospel. It is the meaning of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. God has showed us that “the sting of death is sin” (1 Corinthians 15:56). It is sin that makes death so horrible. If we could die without ever having sinned, death would lose its pall for us.

Is it too late then? We have already sinned. The Bible says, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But there is One who never sinned. Through Him we can experience the equivalent of having never sinned.

When Christ became man, He was tempted like a man, but never sinned. He did not need to die like the rest of us, but chose to die like the worst of us, so we could live like Him. He offers us the gift of new birth by which we have the opportunity to start over again, and live right this time. Christ both showed us, and taught us, and then provided for us, to live right. Mortal humanity though we be, we can live above sin. Mortal humanity that we are, we still need to die, but with the sting of death removed.

As Jesus rose from the dead, you can rise to new life. Let the death and resurrection of Christ take effect within you. The Bible says we can be “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11). As we live here on earth under the shadow of impending death, let it be in such a way that it has no sting for us. “Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

-by Dallas Witmer