A suicide mission to bring down death

28 January 2010

I know a man who went on a suicide mission to destroy death. Here's the story:

The backdrop

Our first parents, way back, were created not to die. Death came into the world because of sin.

What is sin?

It's our rejection of God. You can feel it at these rare times when you see that you haven't even met your own moral-minimum-guidelines, and have no excuse.

Anyway

Anyway, death came into the world and was not part of the original creation.

Death's complete reign

Through our first parents death and sin spread to all people. I'll yield to The Onion on this point, in their 1997 article:

Death, a metabolic affliction causing total shutdown of all life functions, has long been considered humanity's number one health concern. Responsible for 100 percent of all recorded fatalities worldwide, the condition has no cure.

The scope of the mission

Here is the difficulty in attempting to destroy Death: death is the penalty for sin (Rom 6:23 and all). A "Death destroyer" must find a mechanism to reverse the penalty of sin. Any other attack against death is just delaying it, ignoring it, mental gymnastics to try to embrace it, or patching it. All sinners must die. "He who justifies the wicked... is an abomination to the Lord."

The mission begins

The mission begins with Jesus, Son of God, the exact imprint of this nature, who is God AND who was with God in the beginning--this Jesus would leave behind his heavenly, kingly glory and become a human baby. What a condescension. Imagine going to rescue an anthill by becoming an ant larvae.

Mission step 2: be a spotless sacrificial lamb

Requirements:

love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself
pass a testing of tempting from Satan (to succeed exactly where Adam and Eve failed!)
submit to the will of God in everything

Mission step 3: Bear the penalty of sin: death

This is the meaning of the cross: Josh is a deep sinner deserving of death and hell. I can only escape by a willing, fit substitute bearing my death and my hell. Jesus is the only fit candidate, he was willing, and he left to come on a rescue mission, and he bore the wrath of God against me as my substitute. Jesus said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Josh can say, "My God, my God, why have you NOT forsaken me?" because Jesus experienced it in my place.

Mission accomplished. He pulled it off!

How do we know that Jesus' "suicide" mission to destroy death worked? He was raised from the dead. After dying on a cross, had he stayed dead, it would have probably mean he died for his own sins. His resurrection shows us:

God vindicated him, that he was innocent
Jesus succeeded as a sin bearer
An example of what awaits all who trust him: resurrected bodies never to die again.