Like the bee, death has but one sting, and that one was lodged in the body of Christ Jesus on the cross. And since that is true, death may alight upon the believer, but there is no sting in it for him. Its power to torment is gone. Death is no longer the jailer of the grave, but the porter that opens the gate of paradise.
Thus it is that death is the Christian's possession. What a marvelous change! Viewed from nature's standpoint, man belongs to death; but from faith's standpoint, death belongs to man. In the old creation there is not so much as a single thing which death does not take from man; in the new creation, on the contrary, there is not a single thing which death does not give to him. There is not a privilege, not a blessing, not a dignity, which he possesses as a Christian that he does not owe to death. He has life through death; forgiveness of sins through death; everlasting righteousness through death; eternal glory through death-all through the precious death of Christ.
Glorious fact! Death belongs to the Christian. Since that is true, should he any longer fear it? Surely not, for its character is so completely changed that if it should come to him, it could do him only the very best service; namely, to dissolve his connections with all that is mortal; to snap the link that binds him to scenes of sorrow and trial; to deliver him from a world of sin and wickedness, and introduce him to a scene of ineffable bliss, holy repose, and unbroken communion.