Death could not hold Him

Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. – Acts 2.22-24

Peter’s message went right to the point. Peter tells the Jews that though Jesus, according to God’s purpose and will and knowledge, delivered Himself to the Jews. They took Him with their ‘lawless’ hands and crucified and killed Him. He laid the guilt on them.

But that wasn’t the end. God raised Him up and loosed the the pains of death because death could not hold Jesus.

Death was, as we hear in a modern hymn, crushed to death. Death had no victory and no sting because Jesus defeated death. It had no power. Death, the greatest power on earth, had no power over of Jesus.

Because death could not hold Him, when we receive eternal life in Him death has no power over us. We all fear death. Even Christians who approach death can have doubts and trepidation. But we need not fear. Death is nothing more than a transition from the physical to the eternal. It is only a release from this broken and cursed world to the perfect and peaceful world of eternal life.

Death is beaten. Eternal life has the victory. Thanks be to God for the victory He has given us in Christ.