March 3, 2025

RELEASED FROM DEATH

Hebrews 2:14-15

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Encouraging Words

The perspective of Easter, or Pascha as we call it in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is quite a bit different than the Western Church. We do not believe that God had to kill His Son in order to forgive us of our sins. When Adam sinned, the world and all of its inhabitants became slaves to the consequences of sin, which is death. We sin because we fear death. Jesus became human like all of us and also retained His God-ness. He lived a perfect, sinless life, and allowed Himself to die like every other human being. The end game here is that He came back to life, preparing the way for the rest of humanity to be able to rise from death as well. He died in order to break the bondage that death had on all of us. We, the Orthodox Christians, proclaim this every year at our Paschal celebration when we sing, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!” Hallellujah!