If Christ's death destroyed the Devil and his power of death, so too it sets free "those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
No doubt the Savior's death sets believers free from death, and even from the fear of death.
But what is that bondage engendered by the fear of death from which we are set at liberty?
The fear of death sets lost man inevitably onto the path of works righteousness. Because the law subjects sinners to death (which is the means by which the Devil draws mankind into death and Hell), lost man will seek to avoid death by the keeping of the law.
But righteousness by the works of the law is a bondage from which the lost can never be freed, for sinners cannot keep the law.
The strength of sin is the law, Paul wrote. Thus humanity is trapped in a cycle of the fear of judgment and death, driving us to seek ways to satisfy the law, which in turn convicts us of sin and points to the awful judgment.
But Christ's death has delivered those who trust in His rightousness and His sacrifice from the bondage of law-works motivated by fear of death.
Indeed, Believers are no longer slaves to the law, but sons of God in Christ. Our motive for obedience is not self-rightousness prompted by fear, but an expression of love for the One who has redeemed us. We have not the spirit of bondage but the spirit of adoption, crying Abba Father!
Oh how the Devil wants to drag us back down into a bondage of self-righteous works motivated by fear! The whole Roman Catholic system is the worst example, but Paul exhorts us to Stand Fast in the Liberty by which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled in any yoke of bondage!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
