Before we can answer this question, we must note that God is different from us in one very important way.

He is righteous and keeps His word. If He says that `the wages of sin is death', then it is so. Sin must be paid

for by death. God cannot simply forget about our sin, for He would then be breaking His word, and if He did

this, He would be no longer righteous. Our sin must be paid for by death, and this is what the Lord Jesus Christ

has done for us. He took our place and bore the punishment which was really due to us. Read 1 Corinthians

15:3 :

`Christ died for our sins'.

Read also Romans 5:8. God's great love to us was shown when the Lord Jesus Christ died for us.

The Lord Jesus did not remain dead, but after three days was made alive again: God raised Him from the

dead. His resurrection proves that our sins have been fully paid for, and we have now only to believe in Him in

order to be saved. We can see just how important the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is, by reading

1 Corinthians 15:17 :

`If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins'.

Our belief in the Lord Jesus would be pointless apart from His resurrection. We would still be in our sins and

have to pay for them ourselves by death. How thankful we should be that God raised Him from the dead, and

that by believing in Him, we have been saved from our sins.

The Lord Jesus has saved us by His death and resurrection, both are important, but only if we believe in

Him. Read John 3:16 :

`For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should

not perish, but have everlasting life'.

God's love to us was shown when He gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to pay for our sins, but we must

accept Him as our Saviour. We do this by believing in Him, and we then have everlasting life.

We saw that a sinner is a person subject to death. We are all sinners so we are all subject to death. The Lord

Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Read 1 Timothy 1:15, where we are told this. He came to save us

from death.

We can say first of all then that, to be saved means to be saved from death. This does not mean that we will

not one day die, but that death will not be able to hold us, we will be saved out of it. So death will not have the

victory over us. See what believers can now say about death in 1 Corinthians 15:55 :

`O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?'

We who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ can now think of dying as though it meant going to sleep. In

1 Corinthians 15:18 (which you may look up) we read of those believers who have died, and they are called,

`they which are fallen asleep in Christ'. We are not frightened of going to sleep at night, for we know we shall

wake up in the morning. When we die it will be like this, so there is nothing to be afraid of. The Lord Jesus

Christ has taken the fear out of death and we will be saved out of it. Read 2 Timothy 1:10 and note the words:

`Our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death'.

The word `abolished' here means `brought to nothing'. The Lord Jesus has broken the power of death so that it

cannot hold believers, and therefore we need not fear it if we are trusting in Him.

Through Adam all die; through the Lord Jesus Christ believers will be saved out of that death and made

alive. Read l Corinthians 15:22 :

`For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive'.

The important thing, as we noticed before, is relationship. Being related to Adam means that we are sinners

subject to death. Being related to the Lord Jesus by believing in Him means that we shall be saved out of that

death and made alive.