When we are young, we don’t consider our death. As we grow older and our years on Earth increase, the inevitability of our death will make itself known. We realize our death is coming and there is nothing we can do about the timing of its arrival. At some point, we need to embrace death so that we can live in peace in our remaining years. That embrace is only possible if our death is not the end but the beginning of something new and wonderful.

Jesus embraced His death because He could not offer us forgiveness without His death and resurrection. “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14).

Jesus became God’s sacrifice so He could break the power of death that is fueled by fear. He could only do this by taking on our lives and experiencing all we have to deal with in this life. He embraced His earthly death because His death had a resurrected purpose. 

This was a byproduct of the Lord’s sacrifice, “Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying” (vs. 15). Coming to understand the scope of the perfect sacrificial love of Jesus is what will dismantle the fear of our passing and introduce a new way of thinking. 

“Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God” (vs. 17). 

The Father asked Jesus to leave the benefits of His heavenly life as the protected Son of God and assume the place of our earthly suffering. The Lord did this to overcome the fear of dying. Spiritual fearlessness is only possible when we no longer fear our death.

In this life, we have been freed from the fear of dying because of the sacrifice of Jesus. Living in that freedom will become a powerful testimony in a world where the inevitability of death is either masked or ignored. That fearlessness will reveal the mercy and faithfulness of God in ways that living in fear of death could not comprehend.