Since the children have flesh and
blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy
him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all
their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14–15
War makes
death real to us, and that would have been regarded as one of its blessings by
most of the great Christians of the past. They thought it good for us to be
always aware of our mortality. I am inclined to think they were right. All the
animal life in us, all schemes of happiness that centered in this world, were
always doomed to a final frustration. In ordinary times only a wise man can
realize it. Now the stupidest of us knows. We see unmistakably the sort of
universe in which we have all along been living, and must come to terms with
it. If we had foolish un-Christian hopes about human culture, they are now
shattered. If we thought we were building up a heaven on earth, if we looked
for something that would turn the present world from a place of pilgrimage into
a permanent city satisfying the soul of man, we are disillusioned, and not a
moment too soon. But if we thought that for some souls, and at some times, the
life of learning, humbly offered to God, was, in its own small way, one of the
appointed approaches to the Divine reality and the Divine beauty which we hope
to enjoy hereafter, we can think so still.
When the perishable has been clothed
with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is
written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O
death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is
sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.
Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord,
because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians
15:54–58
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