(ii)
(ii) G.Allan Brown
Death is something that overtakes everyone in the natural course of things. There are only two notable exceptions to this in the history of humanity set out in the Old Testament. It is the penalty of sin, “by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; and thus death passed upon all”, Rom. 5: 12. So the whole human race lies under that penalty. The wonder of what we know in Christianity is that the only Man who ever stood upon this earth upon whom death had no claim, the Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless One, actually went into death. Why? Death had no claim upon Him. He went there on our behalf. He hung upon the cross. He met the judgment of God on sin, vicariously. That word simply means that He did it on behalf of others, He did it on our behalf, He went into death on our behalf!
For three days He lay in death. Another has said, He did not lie there for one moment longer than was necessary for what He had come to do. Death had no claim upon Him. He lay there on our behalf, and then He came out of the grave!
That brings me to these verses we have read, “Where, O death is thy sting? Where, O death thy victory?”. Can you imagine that death and sin would ever have the upper hand? Our Saviour God has seen to it through the death, and the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ, that death has been overcome and not only has it been overcome, but it has been overcome victoriously so that the challenge is laid down. Where is your victory? Death? There is a Man out of death, a glorious Man at the right hand of God, the One who is coming soon to raise all the sleeping saints, all who have put their trust in Him; He is going to raise them, and “we, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord” (1 Thess. 4: 15), are all going to be changed and taken up to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That is victory. May every one of us in this room know something of that victory, the triumph over the power of death so that you are not afraid to die. Is there anyone in this room afraid to die? That is a very sobering thought, because it is appointed unto man, “once to die, and after this judgment”, Heb. 9: 27. It has been said already, one day we will all have to meet our God. Do you want to meet God in your sins? Or do you want to meet God in a glorified body, like unto the body of our Lord Jesus, to be eternally with Him? May none of us miss the blessed portion that belonged to our beloved sister. We can say that of her without any hesitation, without any doubt whatever, that the body which is going to be laid in the grave, will be raised, a spiritual body, a glorious body, like unto His own glorious body. What a thought! May none of us miss the blessedness of this.
EDINBURGH
17 June 2004
(At the burial of Miss C.Stout)