Fear of Death...Is it necessary

NoOne

Gone but not forgotten.
Most people live in almost constant fear of death. They do not like to think that man’s days are as grass and all his glory as the glory of a fading flower (Psa. 103:15,16). They do not wish to face up to the fact that “it is appointed unto men once to die” (Heb. 9:27).

This is natural, for God’s Word declares that death is “the wages of sin” (Rom. 6:23) and “after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27) and the “second death” (Rev. 20:14). This is why I Cor. 15:56 says that “The sting of death is sin.”

Yet the Psalmist David was not afraid of death. He said: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” — but note the reason: “for Thou art with me” (Psa. 23:4). David had come to know God and had been graciously delivered from the fear of death. But we, today, have an even greater reason to be free from the fear of death, for 1,000 years after David, Saul of Tarsus, the chief of sinners, was saved by grace and was sent forth to proclaim the “gospel [good news] of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).

He went forth to tell men how “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3) and robbed Satan of all his claims against us:

“That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2: 14, 15).​

When the Apostle himself neared death, he said: “To die is gain” (Phil. 1:21), “to depart, and to be with Christ… is far better” (Ver. 23), and “the time of my departure is at hand… henceforth there is laid up for me a crown…” (II Tim. 4:6-8).

Pastor C.R. Stam
 

Israel

BANNED
The fear of death in its manifold and manifest forms is so part and parcel of man's construction that till Christ's victory it was the handiest tool in the Devil's armament.

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Of course the Devil does not want a man to squarely face the reality of his own death straight on and begin asking questions he knows only God can and will answer. Better to camouflage and apply it in derivative forms and attach to these a relativity for comparison, with a moral form of buttressing to his ends that serves him all to well.

Let men fear failure, so he can inject his own concepts of success, let a man fear appearing foolish or stupid, so he can strive to appear clever and well informed according to the Devil's measure, let a man fear a concept of poverty, cowardice, disrepute, lest he discover its (their) true meaning, and strive to acquire, possess, exalt himself for its own sake...thinking, (till he hears the Lord's rebuke) that his life is consistent with the abundance of his possessions. Anything to cause a man to pursue being something "in this world" that he never consider the vanity of it all when placed against the reality of death.

All the places the Devil has tagged as loss to be grieved, have their tendrils extending out from death. Touch this thing...and you touch the third rail...failure (according to man) ignorance (according to man)...basically any loss of stature in a world whose values he has perversely established...and one is easily maneuvered.

Till...Christ makes one too hard to handle...except of Him.
 
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