“That through death He might destroy him who had the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14)  

If you’re a saint, death has lost the thing that made it unthinkable, that is, judgment for sin, and suffering for eternity in Hell. Satan used that fear your whole life, up until the moment Christ “made you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Now, you rest in the confidence that Christ’s sacrifice has exempted you from that inevitable fate. Now, every time your Old Man makes you feel guilty, instead of slinking away from Christ in fear, you remember He’s your High Priest, so you, “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having your hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:22). 

 You can now welcome death with intense delight because it can’t deprive you of peace and joy and love. On the contrary, you’ll be free from your flesh dragging you down every moment. You’ll no longer worry about the “wouldas, couldas, shouldas” and “what ifs”, for “God will wipe away every tear from your eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:2). 

 The early church called this the “Blessed Hope”. At least half of salvation Scriptures in the New Testament encouraged persecuted saints to consider trials a “momentary light affliction” when compared to the eternal bliss to be experienced in the “twinkling of the eye”. First century saints walked into Roman arenas singing to God, knowing in a few moments, wild animals would eat them. Their view of the Blessed Hope gave them courage, because they knew for every second, they suffered here, they’d have over ten thousand years in heaven.

 “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye …we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality … ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’" (1 Corinthians 15:52-54).