“But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Corinthians 15:57 NLT

We have victory over sin, and the death that is a result of sin, through the only death that ever mattered. Sin is separation from God which leads to destruction because without God’s stabilising power our selfishness leads to all destruction. I heard this talk yesterday, which a good friend shared with me. [http://www.pineknoll.org/resources/audio/atone_and_pict/atone_and_pict_02large.mp3]. Listen from 45:00 in particular.

This was a talk from Dr Graham Maxwell recorded in 1993. One very interesting statement that Dr Maxwell made was that the wages of sin is death not meaning our death but Jesus’ death. The point here is that the hosts of heaven did not think that God would willingly relinquish His power and willingly be tortured and die on a cross. They were surprised and shocked that God did that. Until Jesus/God died on that cross there was some doubt in the minds of many of the heavenly beings placed there by the devil’s comments with regards to sin leading to death or choosing a divergent path leading to death. The wages of sin was death of God. God’s willing sacrifice of death in this physical realm. Further than that it was also God’s willing participation in everything that we have experienced in this life – yet without sin. Jesus, on our planet, in our realm was really God living among us – living and dying exactly as every one of us will do and have done. The wages of sin were death for God. That was the important death. God willingly died to show the depth of His love – which is eternal. God showing how much He loves us. God died to show us that we can die too but yet live – live eternally. Amen.