Defeating Death

Focus: John 8:51 – KJV - 51. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.

God did not create any man to die. The purpose of Christ’s coming on earth was for Him, through His death, to restore man to the original template of God which was the immortality of man on earth. Theologians are tempted to say the promise in our focus is not a promise that the physical body will not cease breathing. This is gleaned from the promises of those who had gone before who themselves may not have understood the full import of the coming of Christ. Hence, as they were used to seeing people die, they crafted the word around two deaths: the physical and the spiritual and make it seem that the death Christ spoke about is the spiritual one. A closer look at the totality of the Word of God shows that Christ meant death, even in the physical body.

Enoch lived in a highly corrupt, wicked, and violent pre-flood world. While the society around him choose rebellion and spiritual death, Enoch made a radical choice, he walked with God. To walk with God means to agree with His saying, keep His commandments, and live in constant intimacy with Him. Enoch kept God's sayings for 300 years. Then, one day, his earthly journey ended in a way the world had never seen, for God took him. The New Testament pulls back the curtain on this miracle in Hebrews 11:5 saying: "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him..." Because Enoch’s life was completely locked into the presence and Word of God, he never experienced the decay of the grave. His life serves as a physical prophecy of the eternal reality Jesus promises to every believer in our focus.

The bane of believers’ lives is that they are not able to live in absolute obedience to Christ’s words, teaching and command. Death is an enemy that will be defeated. Its defeat will be borne out of the manifestation of the sons of God, whereby they will relive the position of Christ to declare “O death where is your sting?” if only we all can agree to focus absolutely on Christ never to offend His commands again, we shall soon begin to see miracles of transition devoid of death like that of Enoch, Elijah and even Moses. Yes, the Bible records that Moses died. But how? And where was he buried or what happened to His body? In Jude 1:9, what the angel came for was his body. Hence, his body did not experience decay. He defeated death like everyone of us can, if we stick to Christ in absolute obedience.

Prayer:

Father, I know you love me and I thank you for so loving me. Help me to operate in absolute obedience to your word from now on so that like Enoch, I may live and not die, that I may declare your goodness unto others in the land of the living. Let me be absolutely focused on you and never operate in transgression again, by the help of your Spirit, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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