We have received from our Lord Jesus one of God’s most precious and most important promises, when our Savior said, “because I live, ye shall live also.” [Jn 14:19b] Jesus, while speaking about Himself being “the true bread from heaven,” which “giveth life unto the world,” told us, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” [Jn 6:40] Jesus promises us no less than four times in this discourse alone that we shall be raised up at the last day with Him. This is our blessed hope, that by rapture or by death we should see our King and ever be with Him. We are promised by The Spirit in Paul’s epistle that, “we [can] always [be] confident,” for we know that “whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from The Lord.” [2 Cor 5:6]

We have a great hope from Christ, who is our Savior. There is hardly another like Him, our great Hero who “emptied Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;” and who “took part of [flesh and blood]; that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” [Phil 2:8, Heb 2:14] Our Noble King of Old, who is from everlasting and to everlasting, The Alpha and Omega, the Bright and Wonderful and Glorious Morning Star, that Holy Child Jesus, The Son of God; it is He who has vanquished the sting and the power of our wicked foe Death, that vile and malicious plague to which we once were “through fear of death…all [our] lifetime subject to bondage.” [Heb 2:15] But praise be to God, for He has not left us here to fight him on our own. He has not left us without recourse nor armor nor weapon. For He, by His own precious Blood has “sent forth [his] prisoners out of the pit where is no water” and has “loosed [our] bonds” [Zech 9:11, Psa 116:16]; It is Jesus who has come to loudly and triumphantly proclaim, “LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES, AND THE OPENING OF THE PRISON TO THEM THAT ARE BOUND!” [Isa 61:1] He, “The King of Glory” who is “strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle;” [Psa 24:8] who “saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor,” came to earth to wage war against that Goliath, Death, and to save us from his clutch; Surely He, in glorious suite and with His strong arm, did “put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon His head; and He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke,” [Isa 59:16-17] and came, and with righteous zeal He overcame hell and death and the eternal enemy of mankind, sin; and on that day it was said to our Brother, from God Almighty, when that grave burst wide open and He was resurrected into majesty forevermore, “thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee[!]” [Psa 2:7] Just as in His second coming Jesus “shall annihilate [the wicked one] with the breath of His mouth, and shall render him completely powerless” by the manifestation of His glory, so too when Christ rose from the dead in all His glory, having been glorified with The Father “with the [same] glory which [He] had with [Him] before the world was,” Jesus annihilated death, so that when those who trust in Christ die, they shall surely come to find that “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY.” [2 Thess 2:8, Jn 17:5, 1 Cor 15:54] Halleluiah! Death has lost its sting; sin has lost its power; Jesus Christ has risen from the dead! “O death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ[!]” [1 Cor 15:55-57] Praise God who has given us the victory through our High King, the great Warrior Jesus Christ, that we, for Christ’s sake, might boldly shout even now, “I SHALL NOT DIE, BUT LIVE, AND DECLARE THE WORKS OF THE LORD.” [Psa 118:17]

Truly, as the scripture says, those who place their simple faith in Christ’s work shall never die. The punishment for our high treason has been imputed to The King’s own Son, who set His face as a flint toward the cross, courageous, meek, and strong, as He bore every treachery and every falsehood we ever did commit squarely upon His back, becoming “sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” [2 Cor 5:21] And Who, “for the joy being set before Him endured the cross, disregarding the shame,” and who has now, for His courage in battle, been highly exalted and given “a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” [Heb 12:2, Phil 2:9-11] And so, for those who have been “made objects of [The Father’s] grace in the beloved [Son],” who have been “washed…sanctified…[and] justified in the name of The Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God;” yes, to them alone, this glorious and blessed promise holds steadfastly true: they shall not die but live. Most assuredly; for one day our Eternal Victor “shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with The Lord.” [1 Thess 4:16-17] Praise Jesus Christ; yes, praise Him a thousand times over, for through Him we have been granted access to all of God’s precious promises, and therefore one day we shall see the fulfillment of these things with our own eyes, and not another’s; yes, we shall see our Redeemer stand upon The Mount in that Latter day, arrayed in splendor and strength wherewith He has clothed Himself, and we shall see Him utter one, single, strong, glorious word so that all the kingdoms of this fallen earth and of that wicked cherub shall be straightway forever dashed to pieces; and then for us who are children of The King, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away….and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in [the City, New Jerusalem;] and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face…” [Rev 21:4; 22:3-4] Amen.