«　WEEK 38　DAY 5　»

　　Rev. 1:17-18 …I am the First and the Last and the living One; and I became dead, and behold, I am living forever and ever; and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

　　Phil. 3:10-11 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if perhaps I may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.

　　Due to the fall and sin of man, death has come in and is now operating on earth to collect all sinful people and to bring them to Hades, the place where the dead are kept. In the church life, however, we are no longer subject to death and Hades. Christ abolished death on the cross, and He overcame Hades in His resurrection. Although death tried its best to hold Him, it was powerless to do so (Acts 2:24). Christ is both God and resurrection (John 1:1; 11:25), possessing the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Because He is such an ever-living One, death is not able to hold Him. He delivered Himself to death, but death had no way to detain Him; instead, death was defeated by Him, and He rose up from it. With Christ, therefore, death has no sting, and Hades has no power. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 635-636)

　　Because Christ is the One in the church who is the Holder of the keys of death and Hades, death and Hades should not have any power over us. In the church life the keys of death and Hades are in the Lord’s hand. It is impossible for us to deal with death; we simply do not have the ability to handle it. Whenever death enters, many will be overcome by it. But if we give the Lord Jesus the ground, the opportunity, and the free way to move and act among us, both death and Hades will be under His control. However, whenever the Lord Jesus does not have the ground in the church, death immediately becomes prevailing, and Hades becomes powerful to hold the dead ones. It is crucial for us to see that Christ has the keys, the authority, of death and Hades. Death is subject to Him, and Hades is under His control.

　　The Lord was persecuted to death. But that death was not the end—it was the gateway into resurrection. When He entered into death, He came to the threshold of resurrection. This indicates that the suffering church should not be frightened by persecution or terrified at the prospect of being killed…, for once she has passed into death, she also will be on the threshold of resurrection.

　　Christ’s resurrection was also His victory over death, Satan, Hades, and the grave (Acts 2:24). Satan, death, Hades, and the grave form a group. Christ, the Son of Man, was not only vindicated by God and was proved to be a success in His achievements, but He was victorious over death, Satan, Hades, and the grave, all of which are a great concern and trouble to us. The Son of Man overcame death and destroyed Satan (Heb. 2:14). The keys of death and of Hades are now in His hand (Rev. 1:18), and He is victorious over the grave. Such a Christ is walking in the midst of all the local churches in His recovery, taking care of them as the golden lampstands. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 636, 4154, 4156)

　　In the history of mankind Jesus was the only person who walked into death and walked back out. He walked into death to take a tour of death in order to study death firsthand. After He finished His tour through death, He simply walked out of death. Death had no hold on Him. He conquered death, subdued death, and walked out of death. This was the resurrection of Christ, the incarnated God and the redeeming God. We were redeemed by His walking into death and coming out of death (Eph. 1:7; Rom. 4:25), and now death has no power over us (1 Cor. 15:54-55), for we are in Christ, the redeeming One. (CWWL, 1973-1974, vol. 1, “The Vision and Experience of the Corporate Christ,” p. 479)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 59