The fear of suffering pain, along with the fear of needing to rely on the care of others, leads many people to imagine what a ‘good death’ might look like. For some, it means being in control of when they die — the key is choice and self-determination. Beyond death they either believe there is nothing or presume that things will be better than they are now. Those who believe in Jesus, however, have something better to hope for than the absence of physical suffering. On their behalf, Jesus has actually abolished death. He has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Whatever their final weeks and days look like, believers fall asleep in Jesus and wake up to see Him face to face. David Dickson reflected on Jesus’ victory over death. He shows that if we relinquish self-determination in order to entrust ourselves to Jesus, death’s destroyer and our deliverer, fear is displaced by peace and contentment.

Jesus has destroyed Satan

Paul tells us that Jesus took the nature of His people, “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14–15).

Sinners, without Christ, are under the sentence of death, both temporal and eternal. Satan has the power of death (as the hangman has power over the pit and gallows), to take away those who are not delivered from his power into torment at death.

However, Christ has destroyed Satan’s power and tyranny on this point, on behalf of all His elect, and true believers.

The way Christ has overcome Satan is by His own death, ransoming His own. In order to do this, it was necessary for Christ to be a mortal man, as well as God. This is how He was able to die.

Love to the “children,” that is, the elect who were given to Him, made the Son of God come down, and make Himself a man also. Christ, in His human nature, is as much a man as any of the elect, having flesh, and blood, and bones, just as we do. His flesh and blood is not only similar to ours, but a part of our substance. He has come of the same stock of Adam and Eve, as surely as we have, of the same substance, and not made either by creation out of nothing, or by transubstantiation of some other thing.

Jesus delivers believers from the fear of death

As well as destroying the devil, another fruit of Christ’s death, is the delivery of believers from the bondage of the fear of death, in which they lie before belief. He “delivers them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:15).

There is a natural fear of death, and the devil, and hell, rooted in all people, always. It may not be always felt, yet it is easily wakened. This fear puts people in bondage. Because of it, they do not dare to meditate on death, or God’s judgement, or hell, as deserved by themselves.

However, Christ’s death delivers His people both from the danger of this evil, and from the bondage of this fear also. None but a child of Christ’s can have solid and true courage against death, neither is there a free man in the world, except the true Christian.

Hope in Jesus anchors the soul

After speaking of the solidity of the ground on which the believer rests, Paul also shows the stability of the grip which the believer takes of these grounds. “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Heb. 6:19).

He uses the simile of the grip which a ship’s anchor takes when it is cast on good ground. There is “hope,” meaning “the thing we hope for,” as well as “hope,” in the sense of “how we lay hold of it.”

Albeit we have not gotten full possession of the promises in this life, yet we get a grip of them, by faith and hope. Hope’s grip is not a slender imagination, but solid, and strong, like the grip of an anchor.

The believer is not exempted from being some experience of tossed about by trouble, and temptations, while he is in this world. Indeed, believers are subject to these things, as a ship on the sea. Yet, whatsoever upheavals there may be, all is safe — the soul’s anchor is cast within the veil, into heaven — the soul is secure.

Paul attributes to the anchor all kinds of good properties. It is weighty, solid, and firm, it will not drag, nor bow, nor break, it is so sure, and steadfast. Again, it is sharp, and piercing; it has entered into that within the veil, that is, into heaven, represented by the sanctuary beyond the veil. And so the ground is good, as well as the anchor, to hold everything fast.

Jesus is waiting for His people to join Him

Speaking of heaven, where believers have cast their anchor, Paul says, “whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 6:20).

What commends our anchor-ground is that Christ is there, where the anchor takes hold, as our “forerunner.”

Calling Christ our “forerunner” calls to mind that Christ was once in the ship of the church militant Himself, tossed about and tempted as others, albeit without sin. Yet He has now gone ashore, to heaven, where the ship of the church is seeking to land.

In that He has gone ashore as our forerunner, His landing is an evidence that we who are following after Him will land there also. He goes before to make our entry easy. He is forerunner for us, on our behalf, for our advantage, to prepare a place for us.

The fact that our anchor is there where Christ is, means that it must be all the more secure, for He is there, to hold everything fast, until He draws the ship to the shore.

Then also, Christ has entered into heaven as our “high priest for ever.” He is invested in an office for us, the office of the high priest. He is the truth and the substance of the priest as a type. His priesthood is for ever, and so for the benefit of His people in all ages. We now, as well as others before us, may have the benefit of His intercession.

He is said to be “made” a high priest after His entry into heaven. Although He was priest for His church from the beginning, yet it was never declared so clearly until after His ascension into heaven, when He sent down tangible blessings on His church, and continues to do so still ever since that time.

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