Imagine the buzz if a well-known celebrity appeared on the news and announced that death had been conquered! Yet this is exactly what gave the church its birth and appealing power. There is absolutely no death for the Christian.

“We may search our New Testaments in vain for any of the gloomy graveyard images, the shadows, the darkness, the pains, the bitterness of death which still appears in many of our Christian hymns,” writes J.B. Phillips. “There is no death for the Christian; it has been completely abolished.”

The devil still plagues many Christians, but we should all give him the boot for it is an insult to the work of our blessed Saviour and Lord.

“Must we always tarnish his glory?” Phillips goes on to say.

This last great enemy has been stripped of all his power! Christ went where we never need go. He experienced what we never need experience. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” is a phrase we never need to repeat. Didn't he, by the grace of God, “taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9 KJV)? Didn't he “destroy him that had the power of death?” (Hebrews 2:14 KJV) When he arose, didn't we rise as well? Isn't that what he said? Can't he be trusted? So it's our Resurrection too!

“Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8 KJV).  Look around us at this incredible creation! Isn't this the best news ever? Shouldn't we want to run and tell somebody?

Hallelujah! Christ has gone up with a shout!

Major Bill Kean is the corps officer in beautiful Triton, NL. His weekly coffee doodles complement his passion for preaching and teaching.