A Concise Study on "So That Death May Die": A Sermon on the Power of Christ in Death Turned Backwards

 Dr. MA Petillo

Now unto Jehovah, ye sons of the mighty,
All glory and strength and dominion accord;
Ascribe to him glory, and render him honor,
In beauty of holiness worship the Lord.
The voice of Jehovah comes down on the waters;
In thunder the God of the glory draws nigh.
Lo, over the waves of the wide-flowing waters
Jehovah as King is enthroned on high!
The voice of Jehovah is mighty, is mighty;
The voice of Jehovah in majesty speaks:
The voice of Jehovah the cedars is breaking;
Jehovah the cedars of Lebanon breaks.
Each one, in his temple, his glory proclaimeth.
He sat on the flood; he is King on his throne.
Jehovah all strength to his people imparteth;
Jehovah with peace ever blesseth his own.   (TH, 36).

The Fall of Adam brought physical, spiritual and eternal death.  Death would never die unless for the deathless risen Christ.  Death turned backwards through the plan of God to cause His eternal Son to defeat Satan (see Gen 3:15).  The predestinarian purpose of the Triune God is to glorify, exalt and honor the eternal Son of God in the outworking of His foreordained design before creation began (Eph 1:11).  He controls the meticulous details and ultimate outcomes of the outworking of history in His providential design to bring glory to the victory of His dear Son.  Everything is arranged from His design for His victory (for example The Book of Revelation).  That is, the purpose of the fall of Satan is the glorify of the eternal King unto His glorious wrath alone.  Moreover, the plan of God in the Fall of man was also to glorify the Incarnate Word alone unto His choice alone according to His good pleasure alone through the divine accomplishment of either His eternal mercy for the converted elect or the divine achievement of His eternal wrath for the unconverted non-elect.

So that death world die.  That is, death took an eternal hit at the matchless, sinless and impeccable life of the divine Lamb of God.  The eternal Christ lived a sinless life in behalf of God's elect alone.  We are to have faith, confidence and hope in the sinless life of Christ in how we are right with God.  That is, He earned spiritual salvation for all the believing ones.  It means that death cannot conquer us because of the life of Christ that crushes death.  Some say Jesus Christ got His sinlessness from the Virgin Mary.  I suggest to you that He got His sinlessness touching His sacred humanity through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit in the virginal conception of our Lord and Creator Jesus Christ.  Some have also dared to suggest that the deity of Jesus Christ was received  through the alleged godhood of the Virgin Mary.  No, no!  The matchless deity of Jesus Christ is eternally self-existent.  That is, touching the deity of Jesus Christ He existed from everlasting to everlasting: He was, and is, and is yet to come.  There is no doubt that Jesus received His humanity from the Virgin Mary, but He also possessed a temporary body in OT times that pointed to His divine incarnation by the Spirit of God.  Being born of a virgin does not take away from the glory of God.  Rather it demonstrates not the greatness of God's creation, but the greatness of Jesus alone.  Death turned backwards because of the life that moves forward in His perfect life into eternal bliss through Jesus Christ alone.

So that death would turn backwards.  That is, the overall death the Fall brought to fallen humanity leads us all to hell.  A Reformed theologian commented that he is surprised that fallen man is not born in hell because of original sin.  Sin is cosmic treason.  Sinners make sin out to be less than it is.  Death could not turn backwards if left without the eternal Christ.  Sinners were immersed in death without Christ.  We are called to remember the spiritual life in the death of Christ.  The death of Christ turned death backwards.  How?  The very death of Christ won life for God's people who are born, not of might nor by power, but from the Spirit and Word in effectual calling.  The death of Christ has eternal value for all the believing ones alone.  Only the death of Christ could remove death.  The enemy sought to destroy Christ through death.  The destruction of Christ brought the destruction of death.  Through the very means of destruction, God brought life out of death.  It is not that man had power over Christ, but that Christ had power over man.   That is, He sovereignly chose to lay down His life only to take it up again. No doubt the death of Christ destroyed death.  That means the death of Christ brought spiritual life for those it was intended for through God's meticulous outworking providence through His foredetermined plan through the wicked schemes of abominable sinners and Satan as the providential second cause.

So that death would die.  That is, God's people will never die.  The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ destroyed death.  God's people will die a physical death that is a way to heaven.  Heaven is not the end but the beginning.  Death is a gateway to joy for those who have been chosen by God alone unto everlasting mercy.  No child of God will taste the second death.  The second death is eternal hell.  Are you a child of God that has caused sin up to the white clouds of heaven in blazing fires of hell like the ancient but historical city of Sodom?  The way to know you are right with a holy God is through the verification of the risen Christ.  That is, the historical sign of Jonah in Jesus' bodily resurrection shows the many infallible proofs of the reliability and trustworthiness of the life and death of Christ in justification by faith alone unto good works (Eph 2:8-10). 

"We need not wonder that so much importance is attached to our Lord’s resurrection. It is the seal and headstone of the great work of redemption, which He came to do. It is the crowning proof that He has paid the debt which He undertook to pay on our behalf, won the battle which He fought to deliver us from hell, and is accepted as our Surety and our Substitute by our Father in heaven. Had He never come forth from the prison of the grave, how could we ever have been sure that our ransom had been fully paid? (1 Cor. 15:17.) Had He never risen from His conflict with the last enemy, how could we have felt confident, that He has overcome death, and him that had the power of death, that is the devil? (Heb. 2:14.) But thanks be unto God, we are not left in doubt. The Lord Jesus really “rose again for our justification.” True Christians are “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” They may boldly say with Paul, “Who is he that condemns – it is Christ that died, yes rather that is risen again” (Rom. 8:34. Rom. 4:25. 1 Pet. 1:3)." (J.C. Ryle, Matthew Commentary, Chapter 28).

 How calm and beautiful the morn
That gilds the sacred tomb,
Where Christ the crucified was borne,
And veiled in midnight gloom!
O weep no more the Saviour slain;
The Lord is ris'n; he lives again.
Ye mourning saints, dry ev'ry tear
For your departed Lord;
Behold the place, he is not here,
The tomb is all unbarred;
The gates of heath were closed in vain:
The Lord is ris'n; he lives again.
Now cheerful to the house of prayer
Your early footsteps bend;
The Saviour will himself be there,
Your Advocate and Friend:
Once by the law your hopes were slain,
But now in Christ ye live again.
How tranquil now the rising day!
'Tis Jesus still appears,
A risen Lord to chase away
Your unbelieving fears:
O weep no more your comforts slain;
The Lord is ris'n; he lives again.
And when the shades of evening fall,
When life's last hour draws nigh,
If Jesus shine upon the soul,
How blissful then to die!
Since he has ris'n that once was slain,
Ye die in Christ to live again.  (TH, 209).