- 43. Death and Hell will not stand
Isaiah 28:18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
Death and Hell are defeated at the Cross and the Empty Tomb. At The End Death and Hell are cast into the lake of fire, overcome forever, never to reappear again ever. Meanwhile, between these times, between the resurrection of Christ and our own resurrection, the times in which we are living now, the defeat of Death and Hell are considered as defeated and overcome. Death and Hell have no more power over us even today while we live under the shadow of death and the prospect of hell.
Our covenant with death is disannulled, and our agreement with hell does not stand. Each of us personally entered into a covenant with death and hell when Adam sinned, when Adam agreed to die and go to hell. Every human being since is born with the same covenant agreement. We assented to eternal death and to the everlasting punishments of hell when we were born in the likeness of Adam. We agree with this covenant every time we sin in thought, word, deed, and desire. Adam started it all and caused all the trouble, but we were in Adam and every one of us would have done the same thing. That is the human condition, and each of us is guilty of original sin and actual sins. Death is a separation from God and Life; Hell is the eternal separation from God forever.
But the gracious Lord annulled that covenant and broke that agreement. He sent His own Son, conceived and born as a human without sin and without that deadly and hellish covenant. He broke that covenant when He died innocently on the cross, and He smashed the agreement that we had with hell. Therefore, because of Jesus the just consequence of sin, eternal death, has been disannulled and forever destroyed. Because of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ this agreement has been violently destroyed forever. This is a promise; this is a guarantee.
The overflowing scourge has passed through Jesus; Sin and Death is trodden down for us, for our good, and for our eternal future.