The Wednesday Word - Death Swallowed Up
“He
will swallow
up
death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all
faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all
the earth: for the LORD
hath
spoken it” (Isaiah
25:8).
Notice the expression, “swallow
up”;
it means to destroy or to do away with. According to this scripture,
there is coming a time when death will be lost to sight. It
will be as though it had never existed. Yet there are many who are
uncomfortable with the thought of it. The comedian, Woody Allen,
spoke for many of us when he quipped, “I’m not afraid of death I
just don’t want to be there when it happens.” But there’s
coming a time when death will not have a trace remaining—there will
be no sign left that there ever was such a thing! The Lord promises
His people, “I
will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from
death: O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your
destruction”
(Hosea
13:14).
Take it from the Lord Himself, death will be
destroyed. It will meet its final destruction in Christ. Christ
inaugurated this victory over death at Calvary, He will
consummate it at His return (see 1 Corinthians 15:20-26).
It’s
no wonder then that the Psalmist was prompted by the Spirit to
exclaim, "Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil: for Thou art with me ".
What
will the moment of death be like? I don’t know the details
but this I know; I will not face it by myself for, “Thou
art with me”!
That is enough. The Psalmist wanted nothing more than the presence of
the Lord at death. We will have it too. Listen again to Isaiah,
“When
you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the
rivers, they shall not overflow you; when you walk through the fire,
you shalt not be burned: neither shall the flame kindle upon you”
(Isaiah 43:2).
Jesus said, “My
sheep . . . shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of My
hand”
(John 10:28). If you are a child of God by adoption, you will always
be a child of God; you can never be un-adopted. Death cannot
disinherit you. Death has been swallowed up! By faith, receive this
truth and death will hold no fear for you.
Likewise,
if you are one of the Good Shepherd’s sheep, He says to you, “My
sheep . . . shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of My
hand.” Believe
this and be at rest.
The gospel, when believed,
brings us into rest concerning death.
Rest for time.
Rest
for eternity.
Rest in light of the “judgment to come.”
Rest
of conscience through the blood-shedding of Christ.
Rest of
heart in the Person of Christ.
Consider the Master’s
words to you: —"Come
unto Me,
and I will give you rest.”
He
died to secure rest for us. He died to satisfy the requirements of
divine justice when nothing else would do. But, despite knowing this,
do you still find yourself ill at ease at the thought of meeting God?
You do? Then rest in the fact that Jesus bore your “sins
in His
own body on the tree”
(1 Peter 2:24).
You can rest in the fact that your sins
have been purged (Hebrews 1:3).
You can rest in the fact that He
has blotted out your transgressions (Isaiah 43:25).
You can rest
in the fact that He will not remember your sins” (Isaiah
43:25).
You can rest on the fact that death has been swallowed
up by your Saviour!
And that’s the Gospel Truth!
-Gospel
report by preacher D. G. Miles Mckee
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