Alive to God

        Alexander Solzhenitsyn (photo right), in recounting his experiences as a prisoner in the Russian Gulag, tells how at a certain moment he almost gave up hope.  Performing slave labor twelve hours a day while receiving a starvation ration, he had become very ill and felt that death was near.  That day, while shoveling sand under the scorching sun, he became so despondent he stopped working, even though he knew the guards would beat him to death.  He simply could not go on.  Suddenly he was aware that someone was standing near him.  Turning, he saw an old man who used his shovel to make the sign of the cross in the sand.  That simple gesture by a fellow prisoner reminded Solzhenitsyn that he need not fear death.  The crucified and risen Lord had defeated death and brought into the world an imperishable hope.  Solzhenitsyn took courage to persist in his resistance to tyranny.

        Paul writes, “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:8-11).

        Paul says that the sting of death is sin (1 Cor. 15:56).  As we observed previously, Death stings us by stirring up all kinds of sin within us--violence, despair, false religion, greed, sensuality, and much more.  Death, or the fear of death, gives evil its greatest power of intimidation.  It's as though the Devil has thrown a net over us, and the more we struggle to escape, the more entangled we become.

        The Son of God became human to share our mortality, so that “through his death he might destroy the Devil, who has the power over death, and in this way free those who were slaves all their lives because of their fear of death” (Heb. 2:14,15).  On the cross Jesus tasted death for every person.  His stark cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46) shows that he identified himself with us fully as he experienced our God-forsaken lostness.  He was abandoned to suffer the full force of human sin even though he had committed no sin.  But in doing this he destroyed death and gave eternal life to those who trust in him.

        Christ's resurrection is the breakthrough from the old age of darkness to the new age of light.  Now we are citizens of God’s domain, alive to God and dead to the powers that once held us.  Jesus lives on the other side of the cross, the man who abolished death.  He frees us from every false belonging so that we may belong to God alone.  That is why the Bible says that God’s love for us casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).

        During an early stage of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther was summoned to appear before the papal legate and answer for his faith.  The legate urged him to retract his teachings and warned him, “Don’t you realize that if the pope excommunicates you and puts you under the ban, you have no hope?  If the pope wiggles his little finger, you will be a dead man. And where you will be then?”  It is said that Luther calmly replied, “I will then be exactly where I am now, in the hands of Almighty God.”  Luther was aware that he lived under a new dominion where death was already defeated.  He had no reason to be afraid.

        When disciples of Jesus realize that they belong to the Lord of Life, they are imbued with a daring freedom.  Why not risk their lives for Christ if Christ is already their everlasting life? Why not give freely of their possessions if their future existence is guaranteed by the risen Jesus?  Why should they resort to violence to protect their lives when Jesus held the keys of death?  Why give up hope, even in the most distressing circumstances, when the ascended Christ has received all power in heaven and earth?  As G. K. Chesterton once noted, “A hopeless Christian is an oxymoron.”

        Some years ago a long-haired man with a pistol invaded the office of a friend of mine in Arizona. The intruder pointed the loaded gun at my friend’s head and said, “Tell me there is no God or I will pull the trigger.” My friend thought about the situation for a moment and then replied, “Now is the most important time for to assure you that there is a God.” The man dropped his gun and wept. He said, “I just wanted to find out if there is anyone who really believes there is a God.”

        Since Christ abolished death, the sins that death produced in us have been neutralized.  No longer must we be the puppets of death, manipulated by despair, materialism, or violence.  Even though we live for a while in a world where the old age and the new age collide, and though the tension is always difficult, we can already see in our risen Lord the final outcome of the conflict.  The Spirit has set us free to belong only to him who was dead but is alive forevermore (Revelation 1:17,18).  The Living One embraces us, and nothing can snatch us from his arms.  We stand under the protection of the Risen Lord!