Quite a number of years ago, I talked with my mother, who was then a senior citizen, about the reality of death. “Oh,” she said. “I’m not worried about that. I came to terms with death in 1948” (that is, about 40 years earlier). She did not elaborate, but that was about the time her mother died and the time her first child was born.

It is true that many people are “all their lives…held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:15). People often seek ways to “stay young.” They might avoid talking or thinking about certain subjects, avoid doing certain things, avoid living life to the full. In seeking to be free from the inescapable, inevitable reality of death, they live their whole lives in the bondage of the fear of death. Their fear saps their energy and immobilizes them. They spend their whole lives struggling under a heavy burden of fear. What a joy it would be for them to be free of that fear!

Fortunately, while death is inevitable, fear of death is not. My mother was living proof of that. We are all going to die. There is no question about that. Yet fear of death need not enslave us. Hebrews 2 says what my mother experienced—that Jesus can free us from the fear of death. How? First, He suffered death in solidarity with humanity and will be with us through death, whenever it comes. In the dark valley of death, we will not be alone. Second, because Jesus died and was resurrected (overcoming the evil one, who has the power of death: Hebrews 2:14), we can be assured that He will also resurrect those who put their trust in Him. Third, because He has been to heaven and knows what awaits us there, He can assure us that our ultimate future there will be very good, far better than here. Those who put their trust in Jesus can indeed be free, no longer enslaved by the fear of death.