Let the Doubter Come and See

Is this, then, a slight proof of the weakness of death? Or is it a slight demonstration of the victory the Savior has won over it, when the young men and young women who are in Christ despise this life and train themselves to die? For a human being is by nature afraid of death and of the dissolving of the body. But here is the most startling fact: the one who has put on the faith of the cross despises even what is naturally fearful, and for Christ’s sake is not afraid of death. [a]

Fire has the natural property of burning. Suppose someone said there was a substance that did not fear its burning, but instead proved it weak, as asbestos among the Indians is said to do. Anyone who did not believe the story and wished to put it to the test would, at any rate, be convinced of the weakness charged against the fire once he had put on the fireproof material and touched the fire. Or if anyone wished to see the usurper bound, he could at any rate go into the country and realm of the one who conquered him, and there see the man who was a terror to others brought down to weakness. So too with a man who is still unbelieving, even after so many proofs, after so many who have become martyrs in Christ, and after the contempt for death shown every day by those who are outstanding in Christ. If his mind is even yet in doubt whether death has been brought to nothing and come to an end, he does well to wonder at so great a thing. Only let him not prove stubborn in his unbelief, nor hardened in the face of what is so plain.

The one who has the asbestos knows that fire has no power to burn it, and the one who would see the usurper bound goes over to the empire of his conqueror. Just so, let the one who does not believe in the victory over death receive the faith of Christ and pass over to his teaching, and he will see the weakness of death and the triumph over it. For many who were once unbelievers and scoffers afterward believed, and so despised death that they even became martyrs for Christ himself.