Jesus Christ is the divine originator of life.
Chew on that for a moment.
Consider why those without Him are wretches, even preferring murderers over the “Prince of life.”
But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.
— Acts 3:14-15
Murderers take life in order to impart death. That is their modus operandi - to control others by wielding death as a weapon. Only with Jesus Christ, the grave couldn’t hold Him, “knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him” (Romans 6:9). The one thing darkness can never overcome is light, for it is defined as the absence of light. So as long as eternal life, the “Light of men,” exists, darkness shall never overcome anyone righteously standing in it (Him).
Murderers are perplexed by the resiliency of those walking in His light. The light is offensive to those abiding in darkness because it shows them up as weak.
In Him was life [and the power to bestow life], and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it].
— John 1:4-5 [Amplified]
The wonderful truth about the Light is that we believers are fellow partakers of it, being “in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). This means that even though someone may take our earthly life, it is impossible for them to extinguish the Light in us. We have been given eternal life, never to be overcome by darkness.
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
— 1 John 1:5-7
The scariest thing for a human to face is death. To face it at the hands of a murderer makes the proposition downright horrifying. Yet, the reality for believers is that the threat of losing our current life is really a powerless gesture - “we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
Nobody has any real power over us, once saved. What’s the worst anyone can ever do, murder us? Big deal, that’s a promotion for a believer - “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21)! This enrages unbelievers because they are still suffering the throes of death, enslaved, living in fear of the very thing we believers have been set free from for all of eternity - death. Neither death, nor the threat of it, has any control over us. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith” (1 John 5:4).
Our faith delivers us, gives us confidence, conviction, and freedom. We have only one Master now, Jesus Christ, and He’s already overcome death, itself.
America is under siege with public shootings (schools, churches, concerts, etc.). Shall we hide in caves or rest in the truth of the matter? Despite the constant threat of death at the hands of wretched murderers, our faith says, “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11).
Death begets death. Those living in death are murderous at heart, even if they never pull a single trigger. However, neither “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4) nor his agents have any real power over us, this we must understand - for eternal life is just that, eternal, and it cannot ever be stamped out.
And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
— 1 John 5:20
Enjoy your precious life in Christ, my friends. Consider yourself untouchable. The Prince of life has saved you. Even the grave cannot hold you now.
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins
