- 133. Deliver
2 Corinthians 1:10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.
I was delivered from death; God does deliver in the present; and God will deliver us in the future. Our whole life is covered, past, present and future. The hardest tense to believe is the present. We pretty much know Christ delivered us in the past; we are fairly confident that He will deliver in the future at death and after; but we are not always so ready to believe He does deliver today in the present. The present problems and worries are crushing in on us and we want help right now. This promise says you have deliverance now. If God did deliver and He will deliver, then He is delivering today.
God, through Christ has delivered us from so great a death. We trust in Christ that He will yet deliver us at our last day on earth and also at the Final Judgment. That He “doth deliver” in the present moment is the heart of the promise that we need to take hold of every day. How does He deliver us from death in the present time? He delivers us from the fear of death and from slavery todeath.
God is delivering us from the fear of deathby faith in Christ. The Christian is truly not afraid to die; he does not want to die, but he is not afraid; he knows that death is the opening up of life eternal, in which there is no death at all, ever. Many Christian martyrs through the years have demonstrated that when the fear of eternal death is taken away and the fear of temporal death is removed because it only leads to life, then they choose eternal life in place of temporary life. All fear is gone.
We are also being delivered from slavery to death. Death does not hold us in its grasp and determine for us what we do. We have surrendered to the God of Life and God’s Love becomes our Master. We are free to determine what to do according to the Law of God, which does things that lead to life instead of death. One example (out of thousands): we choose to love our spouse instead of commit adultery; one choice produces life while the other produces death. We are delivered from death’s rule.