Death Is Crushed to Death

Death Is Crushed to Death.  Occasionally, God weaves our problem within his solution to our problem. Ironic, yes, and certainly paradoxical, but not contradictory because God “cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:17).

At times in the natural order of the universe, too, the problem itself becomes integral to its solution. For instance, the best substance to get lint out of the dryer’s lint trap is lint. Certain stickers will only unstick with the grip of the sticky side of the sticker itself. Don’t ask me how, but the smell of the smoke of an extinguished candle removes the smell of smoke in the room. Antibodies and antidotes derived from disease can cure disease. Our blood has properties that stop our bleeding. Our tears start processes that lessen our need to cry.

Biblically, God sometimes repurposes our problem within his remedy. For instance, God institutes his solution on a tree (Christ’s cross) to solve our problem with a tree (Adam’s tree). Christ’s crown of thorns was made from, but ultimately repealed, Adam’s curse of thorns. A holy meal (Lord’s Supper) replaces an unholy meal (forbidden fruit). Crooked Jacob was strengthened and straightened by taking on a limp. The indictment of sin spoken to guilty David, “You are the man” (2 Sam. 12:7), reverberates yet also evaporates at the presentation of the innocent Son of David by Pilate, “Behold the Man” (John 19:5). 

John Newton captured the paradox of grace in verse two of Amazing Grace: “‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear / And grace my fears relieved.” A better slavery to the best Master sets the captives free (John 8:36). Fear drives out fear. Death defeats death. “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’”(1 Cor. 15:54-55).

 

It is not death to die

To leave this weary road

And join the saints who dwell on high

Who’ve found their home in God

— Henri Malan (1787-1864), translated by George Bethune (1847)