Daily Devotions with Greg LaurieSample

When Death Died

The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:26)
Steve Jobs, in a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, had this to say about death:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

There is some truth to Jobs' statement. He is right when he says that death is the destination we all share, and no one has ever escaped it. However, I disagree with his statement that "Death is very likely the single best invention of Life." It is not the single best invention of Life. In fact, it is the worst. The Bible even tells us that death is not a friend. Death is an enemy: "The last enemy that will be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:26).

Death was never a part of God's original plan. When He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He told them to stay away from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But once they ate of that forbidden fruit, sin entered the world. And along with sin came sickness and aging and, of course, death. But what was lost in that Garden was purchased at the cross of Calvary. Jesus came to die on the cross to buy back that which was lost. Death died when Christ rose.

Summary sentence: Death had to die--it was never part of God's original plan!

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.