The fear of death touches every person on this planet. At some point the terror of the transition from this life to the next grips a person. The presence of death ever seems before us, the grime reaper often reading in our garden or going for walk everywhere. But for us Christians death is an altogether different thing. Death for us disciples of Christ is nonexistent. Chiefly Christ has rescued us from Second Death (Revelation 21:8, Revelation 20:10), which is hell. He has guaranteed us eternal life (John 3:16, John 6:40, and blank). This alone should incite jubilation and joy in us, be Jesus guarantees us something more, we shall not taste death, "Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone." (Hebrews 2:9). Jesus has tasted death for all of us who believe in Him! That means we do not taste it ever! This is confirmed by Christ's own words, "Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world. After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." (John 11:10-15). Christ calls death for believers, sleeping. There couple of reasons for this, firstly Jesus clarifies further to Mary and Martha, Lazarus' sister, "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26), sleep again replaces the word death in final book of Bible, "Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them," (Revelation 14:13), here again is notion of rest or sleeping associated with death. Then Jesus said to some Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection of body this, "But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living," (Matthew 22:31-32).
Death has lost its sting because the creator of life, God who is Jesus died in our place. We are told that Christ made everything, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind," (John 11:1-4), here Jesus who is Word of God (Revelation 19:23) is life and brought life to Man and all things, that means death has no place in Him. This is confirmed by Apostle Paul who writes under Holy Spirit, "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him." (Colossians 1:16, see Hebrews 1:1-blank, to Hebrews 2:1-18 for more clarification on what Paul is saying). Jesus then said of Himself, "I am the Way, The Truth, and the Life, none may come to Father except through me." (John 14:6). Having established that Jesus is Life, then it makes sense why then through Christ we never experience death. While unbelievers become grim over their reaping, we shall not taste death, for the author and source of Life is Jesus, and so when we go from this world we go to Jesus, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body." (Philippians 1:21,23-24). It becomes clear from the Alpha and Omega and His Apostles words that death is nonexistent for a Christian, rather it is sleep and to be immediately with Christ. This is why in some churches it is called repose or to sleep in the Lord, rather than death. For Jesus tasted death for us on cross and was raised from dead, "but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God," (Romans 4:24-25), "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed."/He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed," (1 Peter 2:24), "but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God," (Romans 4:24-25), "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit," (1 Peter 3:18), "For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him, When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:9-11), "And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him," (Hebrews 9:27-28), "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born." (1 Corinthians 15:3-8), and "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you," (Romans 8:11).
The sting of death is taken away in three forms, we are saved from the Second Death known as hell (Revelation 21:8), we are saved from material death in that we shall go to be with Christ (Philippians 1:23) and one day have risen and resurrected body (1 Corinthians 15:35-58), and finally death is sin or separation from God by our evil actions and that is done away with, "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./O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:55-57 KJV and NLT). Christ has done away with all forms of death, for he has stripped Satan of keys to death and now rules over life and death, "Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying," (Hebrews 2:14-15), "I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." (Revelation 1:18), and, "For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living." (Romans 14:9). Christ intends to even eventually throw these keys of death away after His Return and the New Heaven and Earth are made, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away," (Revelation 21:4) and "The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life (Lamb/Jesus' Book of Life see Revelation 21:27, how to get in book of life see Romans 10:9-10 and John 3:16-18, John 6:40, John 14:6) was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 2:13-15).
We thus see a progression throughout the Scriptures that death is destroyed in all its forms, and we have nothing to fear anymore, for Christ has tasted death for us who believe in Him and we shall not need fear death anymore, for Life itself and the Creator of Life who is God (Colossians 2:9) lives within us (Colossians 1:27). If Christ who created all things (John 1:3, Colossians 1:13-18), then why should we fear death when Life itself (John 1:4) dwells in us and those who are God's children are not considered dead but alive! (Matthew 22:32).
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