Title: The Death That Brought Life
One penalty. One cross. One unspeakable joy.
In Eden, God warned:
“In the day you eat of it, you will surely die.”
Death was the consequence.
The curse.
The door that closed behind us when we chose our own way.
Death—man’s greatest fear.
Man’s greatest punishment.
Man’s most relentless enemy.
But what did God do with the very thing that was meant to end us?
He turned death into the way back to life.
“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”
(Luke 9:23)
Now the cross—the cruel symbol of Roman execution—
becomes the holy instrument of transformation.
Jesus doesn't tell us to escape death.
He tells us to enter it.
To deny the flesh.
To carry our cross.
To die—daily.
Why?
Because on the other side of death…
is joy.
Not surface-level happiness.
Not shallow peace.
But unspeakable joy—
the kind only found after surrender,
after obedience,
after something inside you dies
so something eternal can rise.
There is no resurrection without a cross.
There is no power without submission.
There is no true life until something dies.
God didn’t remove the curse.
He redeemed it.
Death, once our end, became His beginning.
He wrote the story backward—so glory could fall forward.
And now…
The very thing that once meant separation
has become the sacred threshold of union.
Because God is the Great Rewriter.
He takes what’s cursed, and He carves a crown out of it.
He takes what was broken, and He builds a throne from the pieces.
He takes what was buried—and He resurrects it in glory.
His pen is the Holy Spirit.
The ink is the blood of His Son.
And whatever He writes becomes new.
Every word. Every line. Every chapter.
All of it soaked in grace.
All of it destined for glory.
So today, don’t fear the cross.
Let it do its work.
Let it kill what cannot live in eternity.
Let it bury what the Spirit will raise in power.
Because on the other side of your cross…
is joy unspeakable
and life unimaginable.
“For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross…”
(Hebrews 12:2)
The death that brought life—
is now the path we walk
toward glory.