The Conquerer of Death

“In our trinity of evil—Satan, Sin, and Death—it is me, Death, that gets the most attention from you humans. All of the supernatural powers know there is a devil whose name is Lucier.¹ They were around when the great God threw him out of heaven.² But I admire his powers to deceive. Why, he even has you blind humans deceived in believing he is only a myth.³ Wow! Are you stupid! And sin? The adversary really had you under his spell. He knows how to make sin look, smell, and taste so good that you fools even consider sin pleasure.⁴ But me—Death—even Satan can't make me look good. That's because I make you look so bad when I get finished with you. Who ever enters a corpse in a beauty contest?!⁵

"But I don't know how much more time I have to terrorize and kill. Satan, Sin, and I thought we had an eternity to live, kill, steal and destroy.⁶  From Adam to Moses, to those Jews living in Galilee when that baptizer John appeared, no one and nothing could stop us.⁷ But then we heard words never spoken for some four thousand years as you humans measure time. "Behold, the Lamb of God."⁸ And there He stood—our immortal enemy—Jesus the Messiah.⁹ The Anointed One. The Savior.

"Most of you dummies didn't recognize or receive Him.¹⁰ But we three—Satan, Sin and I, Death—knew the battle was on. A fight to the finish. So prince Satan attacked with all his power and strategies. Lust to tease the flesh. Lust to tempt the eyes. Lust to trip the pride switch.¹¹ Those three weapons never failed to defeat you humans. But not Him. When He finished with the boss of Sin and me, poor Satan—I mean it—poor prince devil—had to admit defeat and retreat from the field of battle.¹²

"We declared war on Jesus for those three years. We would fill a man with demons, but Jesus would throw them out.¹³ We faced him with the blind, deaf, and dumb to make Him look bad. I mean, who ever gave sight back to a man born blind?¹⁴ He did, that's who! You guessed it—every work He did made us—the fearsome threesome of Satan, Sin, and Death—look weak, beaten, defeated.¹⁵

"We had one final chance to win. We thought we were setting the trap for His death and disappearance. Out of sight, out of mind. But here we go again. The great God—Jesus' Father—made us look like fools. He put the sins of all you humans on Jesus and let Him be the one sacrifice that would pay for your sins and get you off the hook forever.¹⁶ Oh that Cross! Every time I think about it, I get scared to death. When He called out "It is finished,"¹⁷ He meant we were finished!¹⁸ Everywhere His news is preached,¹⁹ prince Serpent, sin, and I, Death, find trouble, trouble, trouble.

"That's because of what happened after we thought we killed Him. You humans think we were fooled for three days until He exposed us with that resurrection. But we weren't fooled like you blind humans. Jesus was already on the attack. Why, He invaded hell itself²⁰ because He has the keys of hell, and me, Death.²¹

"After three days it wasn't just Jesus' spirit that was on the loose. The great God put on a terrifying display of His might when He literally raised Jesus—yes, His very body that I thought was dead, dead, dead—back to life again.²²

"He was the big winner. Jesus conquered us—Satan, Sin, and me, Death, and the great God put on a display that was seen throughout the universe and beyond. All of our invisible evil might—principalities, powers and rulers of darkness—were disarmed and made a terrible example of what happens to those who oppose God.²³ Now everywhere the news of that Cross and resurrection goes, our prisoners go free.²⁴ We can't stop it! That other Trinity—you know, that holy One—marches on.²⁵ God the Father exposes Satan as ugly and weak. The blood of Jesus the Son cleanses you people from all sin.²⁶ And God the Holy Spirit not only gives Christians the power to live for what pleases Christ, but even view death as gain.²⁷ Imagine! Gain! I take my best shot and kill their bodies and all that does is what that revolutionist Paul said: "absent from the body, present with the Lord."²⁸

"Well, I know that the two I work with—Satan and Sin—are finished. That's only a matter of time.²⁹ But at least I thought I, Death, might win a third of my war against humans. I can't touch your souls or spirits, but at least I wanted your bodies to rot and disappear. But now, your great Creator won't even let me have that! He plans for those who love Him to have it all made new in the likeness of Jesus—body, soul and spirit.³⁰ Those who trust HIm inherit a Kingdom of righteousness, joy, and peace.³¹ But me, Death? My future is limited to time. And time is running out."³²

¹ Isaiah 14:12

² Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:12-17; Rev. 12:10

³ 2 Cor. 2:11; 11:14

⁴ Hebrews 11:25

⁵ James 2:26

⁶ John 10:10

⁷ Romans 5:14

⁸ John 1:29

⁹ John 4:25-26

¹⁰ John 1:1

¹¹ Gen. 3:6; 1 John 2:16

¹² Matt. 4:10-11; Luke 4:13-14

¹³ Luke 8:27-33

¹⁴ John 9:19-35

¹⁵ Luke 11:20

¹⁶ 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24

¹⁷ John 19:30

¹⁸ Matt. 28:18

¹⁹ Matt. 28:19-20

²⁰ 1 Peter 3:18-20

²¹ Rev. 1:18

²² Eph. 1:20

²³ Col. 2:15

²⁴ John 8:36

²⁵ Matt. 28:18-20

²⁶ 1 John 1:7

²⁷ Acts 1:8; Phil. 1:21

²⁸ 2 Cor. 5:8

²⁹ Rev. 12:12

³⁰ Rev. 21:5; 1 Cor. 15:33-54

³¹ Romans 14:17

³² Rev. 10:6; 12:12

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL, with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Cecilia Contreras