¹⁵ … and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

The fourth purpose of Christ’s incarnation and death in this section of Hebrews is to bring freedom from the fear of death. Death is something we all will encounter, there are no exceptions. I will die. You will die. The fear comes from a variety of perspectives. Death is the cessation from life of our human experience as we know it. From the time of our birth and our first hints of self-awareness, life is seen through our human eyes, processed by our human brains, experienced in our human, physical bodies. What happens when all that stops? Death is an ominous, uncompromising black door. Rich and poor, young and old, male and female, we all will die. Sooner or later. The mortality rate continues to hold steady at 100%.

Death generates fear in us, despite the heroic bravado of some who think they can stare death in the face. But the other side is an unknown, or at least so obscured as to render us completely unable to prepare for what will happen after death. Even the atheist must admit the cessation of life in itself is foreboding, if this life is all there is.

Death signals to some the danger of insignificance. To others it bodes the fear of judgment. To all, there is the fear of the process of death with all its indignity, pain and suffering. We so don’t like to deal with death because real death is messy, and in fact, horrible. So what hope is there? Is that the end game for all of humankind? Do we simply resign ourselves to the fear of death, something we all must face, and so do it with a certain amount of stoicism?

No! Christ came to free us from that fear, by assuring us of a hope that goes beyond the grave. As the apostle John says, “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). Because of Christ’s death, fear is removed, we are no longer controlled by it. Before Christ, the ultimate self-preservation instinct was clearly operative, because from our “center-of-the-universe” perspective, the most important thing ultimately is my own self-preservation. Death was to be feared because it was the greatest threat to my self-autonomy, my self-centeredness. But now that Christ has died, through faith He is now the center. And because He has defeated the one who holds the power of death, He now commands my allegiance and rightful place as the center of my life.

I no longer fear what’s on the other side of death because a risen Savior, One who is greater than the angels, greater than the one who has the power of death, has been raised. I am free to use my life, even my death, for His glory.