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Victory in Death

I used to see a T-shirt during the stock market bubble in the late 1990s that caught, I think, the tenor of the times. It read: “The kid who dies with the most toys wins.” It was, of course, mocking what was deemed our exceedingly competitive, materialistic win-at-all-costs society. As long as you have more things than others, and as long as you win, it doesn’t matter that it cost you your life. You got the most toys! You won! Period.

We don’t often equate, though, death with victory, do we? In most video games, the winner is the one who survives; the loser dies. It’s often like that in war. The side which inflicts the most casualties on the enemy usually wins. Though there are, of course, exceptions, death is generally equated with defeat. We often hear the phrase, “He fought a losing battle with death.” Or “Death won in the end.” And so forth.

There is, however, one great exception--the greatest example in all history of victory in death--and that’s the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The Bible expresses it like this: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He [Jesus] Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb 2:14, NKJV).

Through death He might destroy the one who had power of death, the devil? What does that mean?

For the past few days we have been looking at what I’ve called “the great controversy”--a battle that began in heaven with a mighty angel named Satan and that eventually wound up here on earth, through Satan’s deception of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And yesterday we saw how the book of Job pulled back the curtain on this great controversy and we were given a glimpse into how the turmoil and controversy in another part of the universe was being manifested here, and how violence, suffering, death and destruction are all part of Satan’s arsenal in his battle against God and against us.

As Peter said, and worth repeating: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pe 5:8, NKJV). That’s sounds like a dangerous enemy, I’d say. Thus, with such an enemy after us, we are all involved in this great controversy, whether we like it nor not.

Now, all this leads to a crucial question, one you might have been asking yourself for the past few days, and that is--How did this happen, the fall of Lucifer in, of all places--heaven? That’s the last place you would think there would be strife and rebellion. Did God plan for Lucifer to rebel?

Of course not. But God did create Lucifer as a being who could love. I believe that the most basic force in all the universe isn’t gravity—it’s love. And love, to be love, has to be free. If God wanted beings who could love Him, He had to create them free.

Look at it this way. Suppose you wanted someone to love you who didn’t love you. Now, suppose you could implant a computer chip in brain that would cause their neurons to fire and release certain chemical that made them quote-unquote “love” you? Notice, I said, quote-unquote “love” you. Why? Because would that really be love? Isn’t what makes love love the fact that the person who loves you loves you out of free choice? If you could somehow take that free choice away, suddenly whatever feeling that person had for you, it wouldn’t be love, would it?

Can you see the point? What makes someone’s love for you special is that this person has the freedom to not love you, and yet they do anyway. Again, if they had no choice but to love you, it really couldn’t be love.

Well, friend, I believe it’s the same thing with God. If God wanted beings who could love Him, and love each other, He had to make them free. And for them to be free, they had to have the potential to do wrong. Doesn’t mean the being has to do wrong, only that it has the potential to do so. Otherwise it’s not free.

Of course, this now leads to the question, Did God not know beforehand that all this would happen, that these free beings would abuse their freedom ? I like how the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis answered this question: “Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it was worth the risk.”

Worth the risk? you say. Suffering, evil, death, pain, loss, all this we face as human beings because God thought it was worth the risk? How do we make sense of this?

Glad you asked, friend, for now we’re getting to the heart of this great controversy.

If you were here yesterday, you remember that we saw in the book of Job how Satan was making accusations about Job that were really, at their root, accusations about God. Satan was challenging the goodness of God, the idea being that Job served God not because God was so good, so merciful, so kind, but only because God gave him lots earthly goods.

At it’s heart, then, this great controversy is an attack on God Himself, on the character of God, the goodness of God, the government of God. We’re dealing here with what’s, literally, a universal issue, not universal in the sense of various nations on their tiny earth, but universal in the sense of the whole universe itself!

But now, here comes Jesus, God in the flesh. The same God that Satan made accusations against, whose character, goodness, love and mercy were all questioned-- what does He do? He comes to this earth—He, the Creator God—He comes to this earth, takes upon Himself the form of a human and in that form as a human offers Himself as a sacrifice for the abuse of the freedom that He Himself had given humans to begin with!

Think about this for a moment; it’s very important. If you believe, as I do, and as the Bible clearly teaches, that Jesus was God, the Creator of the universe, then the implications of what we’re saying are staggering. Scripture says about Jesus that, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3, KJV) ; that’s all things—galaxies, planets, the ocean, human beings, anything that was created was created by Jesus. That was Jesus—the same Jesus who, two thousand years ago, allowed Himself to be hung on a Roman cross and crucified, murdered like a common criminal!

Friend, think about it. What we’re saying is that the person on that cross, suffering, agonizing, and dying, was God Himself--the same God whom Lucifer, at some point in the past, had made all sorts of accusations against, accusation that led to a rebellion in heaven, a great controversy that eventually came down to earth and is being fought out here in the hearts of every one of us!

Now, this is the crucial point. When you look at that cross, and you see Jesus up there, you are seeing the same God who faced charges by Satan, charges about His character, His nature, His goodness and mercy. And I say, whatever those charges were, how could they have not been answered by that God hanging there on the cross and dying for the sins of the fallen world?

If Satan accused God of being uncaring and unloving, certainly the cross proved him wrong. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, KJV).

If Satan accused God of being selfish, only out for Himself, the cross proved him wrong. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phillipians 2:5-8, KJV).

Whatever accusations Satan made against God, when you look at this God, hanging on the cross, suffering in Himself, taking upon Himself the punishment for the sins of the whole world . . . then, well, I’m sorry but I can be certain that those heavenly beings who heard Satan’s accusations against God’s character must have seen just how false those charges were.

At the cross, the essence of the character of God was revealed, not just to us--but to all the on-looking universe, and that character is one of total self-denial for the good of others, total unselfish love manifested unconditionally for those who might not ever love Him back. That’s what God is like. No wonder the Bible depicts some angels in heaven shouting: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Revelation 5:12, KJV).

I have questions, lots of questions, but when I look at the cross, and see God, my God, hanging there, dying for me, I seen enough to know that I can trust Him and His love--regardless!

Yes, friend, that’s the victory in death that Jesus won for us. It was the crucial battle in this great controversy, where the love of God was revealed in a most incredible way. Try to imagine these heavenly beings who knew their God only as the King of heaven, the Creator of the universe—and now, there He is, dying on the cross? No doubt it made an impression on them.

And it should make an impression on us too. Jesus died there for each of us. He just didn’t die as a show. He died as a substitute. He died for your sins. For my sins. He died so that we can have the hope, the sure promise, of one day living in a world where this great controversy is over, done, and will never rise again. That’s the hope, the promise that Christ’s victory in death offers to all of us.