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Everyone wants to avoid pain or delay the coming of death. Therefore, the author of Hebrews describes all people as being "held in slavery by their fear of death all their lives" (Hebrews 2:15). The oppression of death is indeed very real. As people age, their physical weakness forces them to accept the inevitable fact that this day will come. This is the fate that no one can escape after sin entered the world. However, the Almighty True God, who created the universe, had prepared a plan of redemption before the creation of the world. After humanity sinned, He gradually revealed His redemption plan, aiming to resolve the tyranny of death. First, He fulfilled the promise that eating the forbidden fruit would result in death. The skins that covered Adam and Eve's shame came from the animals that died in their place (Genesis 3:21). When Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, God prepared a ram to replace Isaac's life as a sacrifice (Genesis 22:13). The Passover in Exodus shows us that the lamb, which could take the place of a person, had to be flawless and perfectly good. Its blood saved an entire household (Exodus 12:1-14). The Israelites, after leaving Egypt, were to offer sacrifices in remembrance of God's redemption. Except for grain offerings as thanksgiving offerings, every sacrificial ceremony required the shedding of the sacrifice's blood, meaning that the sacrifice's death paid the price of death for the sins of the entire nation of Israel (Leviticus 1-5). Throughout history, God conveyed that the role of the sacrifice was substitution, and the quality of the sacrifice was perfection. These sacrifices were merely a foreshadowing of the one-time, eternally effective atoning sacrifice—Jesus, the Lamb of God. He had to die to pay the price of death for all people of the past, present, and future (Romans 6:23). He was a perfect man without sin because He was God Himself who became man and came into the world (John 1:1-14) to fulfill His promise of redemption (Genesis 3:16). Only He could take the place of sinful people with His sinlessness (1 Peter 3:18). This promised Redeemer, the Messiah, is the suffering servant (Isaiah 53). The Lord Jesus is also fully God. He resurrected on the third day after His death, proving that He was sinless and could not be held by death. He conquered death and resolved the issue of death (Acts 2:24), freeing those who had been enslaved by the fear of death all their lives (Hebrews 2:14). When the Lord Jesus announced His death for the third time in this passage, He added many details. He knew that it would be the scribes and priests who would kill Him. They would hand Him over to the Gentiles (Romans) for execution (Mark 10:33). The Lord Jesus was fully aware of the humiliation and torture He would endure, and that He would die on the cross, but He chose to obey, fulfilling the promises of God in the Old Testament (Philippians 2:7-8). He completed the mission of redemption and returned to the right hand of the Most High in heaven (Philippians 2:9, Hebrews 1:3). The apostle Paul said that the death of the Lord Jesus became a propitiation, enabling all who believe to pass from death to life (Romans 3:23-26). The Lord Jesus also asks everyone, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26). Have we answered the Lord Jesus' question? Do we still place our hope in this visible life? (1 Corinthians 15:19) What is our hope? (Romans 8:21-25)
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