Are You Afraid to Die?Sample

Included in Your Covenant

The truth is, life is short and eternity is long. As Christians, that doesn’t scare us -- we have such a hope in Jesus! Victory over death is included in our covenant.

Hebrews chapter 2 talk about this at length. In it, God reminds us of everything that belongs to us in salvation – which includes Jesus’ victory over death, and why we have no reason to be afraid of it!

He encourages us to pay attention to our great salvation. He talks about humans being “a little lower than the angels” made to “rule over all things” but how, in our sinful condition, we weren’t ruling over all things -- Satan was. So He sent Jesus to be human (a little lower than the angels) so that through His grace, Jesus would die for us and pay the price for sin.

Hebrews 2:10-11 says, It was only right that God, who creates and preserves all things, should make Jesus perfect through suffering, in order to bring many children to share his glory. For Jesus is the one who leads them to salvation. He purifies people from their sins, and both he and those who are made pure all have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his family.

Jesus brought us into His family by becoming like us – human. He did this so that through his death he might destroy the Devil, who has the power over death. 1 John 3:8 says, The Son of God came for this very reason: to destroy the works of the devil. Hebrews 2:15 says, …and in this way set He free those who were slaves all their lives because of their fear of death.

I like the way the Message Bible says that: Since the children (God’s family) are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death. (Hebrews 2:14, 15).

In Revelation 1:18 Jesus Himself says: I am the living one! I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I have authority over death and the world of the dead. Do we have to be afraid of anything that Jesus now has authority over? No!