(Job 18:14.)
HAS the reader ever considered what a mighty king and conqueror DEATH is? Victors, men of renown, there have been ever since the days of Nimrod, that mighty hunter before the Lord. (Gen. 10:9, 10.) Scripture itself tells us of a Pharaoh and' a Sennacherib, a Nebuchadnezzar and a Cyrus, who overran countries, captured cities, and slew their thousands and tens of thousands; each, as the prophet says, causing his terror in the land of the living. (Ezek. 32:24.)
And if we turn aside to mere human history, none so figure in its pages as those who have deluged the earth with human blood.
But what has become of all these mighty conquerors? They have all had to bow to one mightier still. “Like sheep they are laid in the grave," and death feeds on them. (Psa. 49:14.) And not only does death conquer the mightiest conquerors of others, he conquers all mankind. The strongest cannot resist him; the wisest cannot elude his stroke. Those who live the longest have to die at last. Death has no pity either for helpless infancy or decrepit old age.
The richest cannot bribe him to allow them a single hour; and the poorest fall beneath his resistless stroke. For near six thousand years he has reigned over Adam's race, and relentlessly swept into the grave the millions and millions of each successive generation, old and young, rich and poor, prince and peasant.
But mighty as death is, and universal and long continued as is his reign, there is One infinitely stronger, who has encountered and vanquished death, and who will in due time display the full fruits of His victory both in heaven and on earth.
And how was it that He gained the victory over this mighty conqueror, death?
In contests among men we hear of armies and navies; battles by land, and battles by sea; weapons of attack, and weapons of defense; while everything depends on numbers, and discipline, and skill, and wealth, and courage. Those who can muster the most, and 'strike the hardest, and endure the longest, generally win the day.
But not so in the conflict between death and its glorious Victor, the Lord Jesus Christ.
How did He conquer death?
By undergoing it Himself. He “became obedient unto death."(Phil. 2:8.) “That through death He might destroy him who had the power of death." (Heb. 2:4.)
What was the secret of death's power over the human race?
It was sin. "The wages of sin is death"; and it is because all men are sinners that death has universal power. (Rom. 6:23.)
And what has the blessed Saviour done?
Sinless Himself, so that death had no claim upon Him, He became the Substitute for sinners, and died in their stead. God as well as man, His death was of infinite value, and destroyed death's claim on those who are sheltered by Christ's precious blood. But more than this, so completely was death vanquished by Christ, that though He was laid in the grave, death could not detain Him there. God's Holy One saw no corruption. From the grave He came forth victorious, and now, seated at God's right hand, He awaits the moment appointed for His return to release from death, and raise up and glorify with Himself, all who are His. "Every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits, afterward they that are Christ's, at His coming." (1 Cor. 15:23.)
That will indeed be a glorious moment when the Saviour shall descend, and the grave be obliged to disgorge its prey; and death, the vanquished one, be forced to yield up to his Conqueror the millions of believers who have fallen under his resistless might. (1 Thess. 4:16.) Death will indeed be swallowed up in victory then. All thanks and praise to the blessed Conqueror! (1 Cor. 15:55-57.)
His be the Victor's Name
Who fought the fight alone:
He hell in hell laid low;
Made sin, He sin o'erthrew;
Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so,
And Death, by dying, slew.
Lord, e'en to death Thy love could go,
A death of shame and loss;
To vanquish for us ev'ry foe,
And break the strong man's force.
Oh! what a load was Thine to bear
Alone in that dark hour;
Our sins in all their terror there,
God's wrath, and Satan's power!
The storm that bowed Thy blessed head
Is hushed forever now;
And rest divine is ours instead,
Whilst glory crowns Thy brow.