BY DOUG KASHOREK
“God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” Acts 2:24.
On Pentecost, the world heard the gospel message for the very first time—that God had loved the world that He gave His Only Son to die a cruel death—but through the cross, Jesus overcame death.
Hebrews 2:14-15 says, “… that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
The pangs of death have been loosened! We no longer have to fear death, yet so many of those who have declared Jesus to be Lord as they have believed that He is the Christ who died to wash their sins away and give them the promise of eternal life live for this life only. They don’t understand that we are more than conquerors for whom the second death does not apply.
Used to the slavery to death in which they once lived before they obeyed the gospel, they continue to live in an earthly tomb—as if Jesus is still within the tomb in which He had been laid. But “God raised Him up … because it was not possible for Him to be held by” death. Why do we live as if He’s not loosened our pangs?