Love Conquers Death: Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time

“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” ~Job 13:15

2,000 years ago, a young carpenter from Nazareth left his home to tell his fellow Jews, and even the outcasts, how much God loved them. The idea of ‘God’s love’ had fallen out of fashion. Ultimate obedience in the most extravagant manor had tarnished the appeal of Judaism, but more than that, it had obfuscated the very God, the very pinnacle, which they served. The carpenter’s ministry was a flash in the pan – bright yet extinguished with matching intensity. His end was strangely violent for one so dedicated to peace. Yet, isn’t that how it always goes? A tolerant society must be intolerant of intolerance to maintain tolerance. Or so we’re told. Many hoped he would live, despite the death threats, but enough wished him dead and so he was. This event, now millennia old, should have been remembered only by a few as if taught in some obscure history class…except his death wasn’t the end of his story, the whole world knows about it, and everyone knows that carpenter’s name. Why? Because God, the Author of All, wrote the ultimate paradox, spoken to us by Jesus and recorded by the Apostle John: “Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies” (11:25).

Love Conquers Death

In the paradox of the cross, love conquers death, for the antidote to the grave is the self-giving love of Jesus.

Jesus Christ had to die so that He could live the Resurrected Life. C.S. Lewis so beautifully put it in his seminal children’s novel The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe after Aslan is resurrected from his death by the Evil Queen, he says if “she would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery, was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.” Jesus was not defeated on the cross. His death was a victory only He could achieve because He was given the power over Death before Time dawned. The antidote to Death is Love. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Jesus is telling us we too can participate in this victorious power—the sacrifice will be great, but the Life will be greater.

Always improve the present moment.