‘Sermon Snippets’ is an occasional series, taking bitesize chunks from our Sunday sermons. The following excerpt is adapted from a sermon on 2 Timothy 1:8-14, preached by Nathan Burley last Sunday. You can listen to the whole sermon here.
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As I’m sure you’ve noticed, it’s the General Election next week.
If they’re elected, Labour will abolish the Bedroom Tax.
The Tories would abolish inheritance tax on houses worth up to a million quid, the so-called Death Tax.
Imagine if the Lib Dems’ manifesto said, “Forget the Death Tax! If we are elected in 2015, we will abolish death!” If you knew they could do it, you’d vote for it, wouldn’t you!
And that’s just what Paul says Jesus has done. He “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2 Tim 1:10)
He has abolished death. There is no such thing anymore.
Death is our greatest fear. It is the incontrovertible proof that the world is broken and so are we. It’s the weapon our persecutors would threaten us with. It’s the judgement that’s coming for sin.
But Jesus has abolished it! So that the Christian never truly dies. We will be forever with the Lord! Death is done.
John Stott suggests we shouldn’t put R.I.P. on our graves. We should have C.A.D. instead – Christ Abolished Death! What a gospel!
It’s all the more striking when you remember that Paul is writing this letter not just from prison but from death row. Any day now he’ll be executed for his faith in Jesus Christ but still he won’t stop shouting, “Christ abolished death!”
If that’s not a reason to be thoroughly unashamed of the gospel, I don’t know what is.