Thursday, March 20, 2008

Death is Crushed to Death

Until her death, our mother loved to laugh. She loved to pull her share of practical jokes and even loved to be the brunt of one. She got so much fun out of doing silly (and yes, sometimes dangerous, i.e. just ask one of her girls about the cardboard spools from Carolina Blouse) stuff to people to make them laugh. One of the things she would do to us as children would be to hide behind a door or on the opposite side of a wall and "jump out at us" as we would enter the room. I remember often saying to her, "you scared me half to death."

When you actually think about the statement of being scared "half" to death, you realize that's not possible. Death is fully, totally dead to life on earth. There is not such thing as being half dead.

One of the songs that our choir is singing on Resurrection Sunday is "The Power of the Cross" by Keith Getty. A line in the song says "death is crushed to death." What would that mean? As I said before, there is no such thing as half dead. The finality of salvation is death being crushed to death through the death and resurrection of the Savior. There is nothing more that needs to be done except for us to accept the gift that was given on the cross as Christ became sin for us.

The entire final verse and chorus points us to just what this means to us as Christians.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

FINAL CHORUS:
This, the pow'r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.


Praise Him from Whom All Blessings Flow! We stand forgiven at the cross.

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