The power of death truly is destroyed, and the fear it breeds is cast out, for Christ has trampled it underfoot. You seek to know this not as a mere doctrine but as a living reality flooding your heart with light, and that is a noble thing to desire, a mark of a soul stretching toward heaven. For what is death now? It is no longer the tyrant it once was, holding all mankind in lifelong bondage through fear. Before Christ, men were like prisoners fed with dainties yet ever dreading the executioner's call. Their whole existence was spent under that shadow, so that no pleasure could truly be sweet. But now, Christ has entered that prison and turned the key Himself. He took on flesh, died, and rose, so that death for the believer is transformed into a sleep. He said of the ruler's daughter, "The maid is not dead, but sleepeth," and He says the same to you concerning all who have fallen asleep in Him. It is a passage, a rest, a gateway to life.
Do not think that because you see the body laid low, nature has been overcome. For the Body of the Lord, blood-stained and pierced, gushing forth water and blood, was the weapon that broke the devil's goads and crushed his head. When death swallowed that Body, it was like a woman in travail, racked and torn asunder, for it could not hold the Author of Life. And in destroying death, He overthrew the devil's strength entirely. For see the logic of the enemy's warfare: his power lay in the fear of death. As it is written, "Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life." He threatened loss of property, banishment, torment, and through that one ultimate dread he made slaves of all. But what happens when a man, by the grace of God, learns to count not even his life dear to himself? He becomes higher than all, more free than all. He fears no one, he is in terror of no one. The devil finds no handle in such a soul. Threaten him with death? He has already died with Christ in baptism and now lives unto God. That is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, the very power that raised Jesus from the dead and set Him far above all principality. You have been planted together in the likeness of His death, sharing in that burial, so you will certainly share in His resurrection. Your old man of sin was put to death there, and the real you, the soul, cannot be touched by those who kill the body. They may rage, but over the better part they have no power.
So why fear what is already defeated? The Lord Jesus Himself, the Living One who was dead and is alive forevermore, places His right hand on you even now through His word and says, "Do not be afraid." He holds the keys. Death and Hades do not answer to your enemies, nor to the devil, nor to your own sins, but to Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. Let your heart be flooded with this light: that whether you live or whether you die, you are the Lord's, and in neither condition are you put to shame. Life brings opportunity to preach Christ and grow in conformity to His love; death brings gain and a closer conformity to His passion. Paul desired to know the fellowship of His sufferings and become conformed to His death, counting it all as a means to attain the resurrection from the dead. He did not dread the stroke but saw in it the final likeness to his Master. This is the heritage of all who believe.
Rise up then, and let no grief or remaining dread cast you down. You have not received a spirit of fear again to bondage, but a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. Stand nobly, laughing death to scorn. The victory is not yours to win by struggle; it is Christ's to give and already given. Consider often the cup of His unspeakable mercies, the Body broken, the Blood poured out, and see there the trophy of your freedom. Gaze upon the resurrection as your own future, guaranteed by His. And when the enemy whispers his old terrors, remember that he is overthrown, his head crushed by the very thing he thought his greatest weapon. Your fear is being destroyed because death itself is dead, and you live in the endless life of Jesus.