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No Fear
What does fear keep you from doing? What would you do if you had no fear?
My son is training to be a nurse. He recently told me he didn’t study for the grade, he studied to help people. Why? Because what he knew could make a difference between a person’s life or death.
My husband removes melonomas (skin cancer) on people every day. Why? Because it kills people. He’d like to prevent people from dying.
We read in the news of a teenager who died. We say, “He died too young.”
People fear dying.
My boys, especially when they were younger, had no fear of death. They jumped in a pool without fear of drowning, even though they didn’t know how to swim. Why? They had no fear. They trusted their father’s arms.
As my boys grew, they didn’t just depend upon their father’s arms, they walked over cliffs with a single rope tied to their waist, or roped a bull and went for a ride, or flew over hills on their dirt bikes and motorcycles.
They live as if they expect to live forever.
As a mom, I wish they had some fear…some realization this life is temporary. But then, do I?
As life continues, the fear comes.
You know it. It comes to you in pieces, like when you stand at the edge of cliff and the voice inside says, “Jump.” You tremble and step back, wondering where that came from. Or when age creeps in and you no longer try things you once would have without thought. The fear of pain afterward hinders you from trying it all. We lose that lack of fear. We grow more cautious. Why?
We begin to see that our lives will end. And we don’t want to die.
We were made to live forever.
But we don’t.
We die.
Why?
We sinned. We fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) We have chosen to go our own way.
The result? Death.
“The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)
Are we left fearing death with no hope?
That’s what Easter is about.
Christ didn’t come to show us how to live.
He came to die for us.
“But God commended His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus “died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit…” (I Peter 3:18-19)
If Christ wasn’t raised from the dead, we would still have no hope. We’d be left in our sins.
Have you ever wondered why a plane flies?
A Boeing 747 has a maximum take-off weight of 450 tons.
That’s a lot of pull on gravity, that force that holds objects to earth.
And yet, the Boeing 747 defies gravity and flies. Why?
Does gravity stop working? No.
A force greater than gravity pulls it up.
During takeoff, the plane’s engine propels the plane forward. This push is greater than the drag (air resistance) that pulls it back. This force lifts the plane off the ground and into the sky.
Aerodynamics overcomes gravity and enables the plane to fly.
That’s what Christ’s resurrection has done for us.
He died to take the power of our weight, our sin, our bondage from us.
Jesus has set us free.
By His resurrection, we have power. We have a force greater than our sin.
“What is the surpassing greatness of His power toward those who believe…He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead...” (Ephesians 1:18-20)
Not only does He forgive our sin, He enables us to live a life free from sin when we accept His power. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (Romans 8:2)
We don’t have to try to be good. We can’t. (The weight of the plane is too much to lift.) But because of the resurrection Christ, He gives us the power to live as we should.
“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
Because of His resurrection, we don’t have to fear death.
We have all sinned. We all die. Death is the result of our sin. But His resurrection gave us the power to overcome sin and death. We have nothing to fear, not even death.
“By a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” (I Corinthians 15:21-22)
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)
“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:54-57)
By His resurrection, we can live free from the guilt of sin, free from the power of sin and free from the consequence of sin by the work of Christ.
How?
1. Tell God you’ve sinned (Nobody’s good enough to stand before a holy, righteous God.)
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
2. Accept His work on the cross which paid for your sin. (His death was our only acceptable substitute before the holy God.)
“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
3. Live under the power of His Spirit Who will enable you to live a life that pleases Him.
“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
Do you fear death?
Come to the Savior Who takes away that fear and gives you the power that lets you live.
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I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
I write about what matters...to Him.
Sonya Contreras
Author of Biblical fiction, married to my best friend, and challenged by eight sons’ growing pains as I write about what matters.
Faith
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More faith articles are found here:
under the Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Or here:
under the Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Articles on Suffering can be found here,
under Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
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You are right, the one greatest fear is death, yet it comes to us all. You have such a great way of putting this all together, our fear and our hope which overcomes the fear. I'm still behind on your articles, but do so appreciate them when I read them. God bless.