Christ the Ruler of Death and Hell

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. - Revelation 1:18

    ‘I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.’ (Revelation 1:18)

    Death is the king of terrors. All men by nature are prisoners in bondage under the fear of death. How men strive against this enemy! People are willing to endure any misery if they might escape death. In our generation, we have seen human beings subjected to inhuman agonies as doctors practice their skills on them, trying to find a way to overcome, or at least postpone death. Men seem ready enough to submit to most any torture if they might only live a little longer. All men by nature fear death above all things. And this fear of death among men is a most reasonable thing. After death men must face the terror of hell! What can be more horrifying than hell? Endless torment! Unceasing agony! Eternal torture! In hell, the worm of the awakened conscience, eating away at a man's soul, never dies. In hell, the fire of God's wrath, burning in a man's being, shall not be quenched. Who can describe the torments of the damned? Who would dare try? In hell, body and soul shall forever suffer the unmitigated wrath of almighty God! This is the second death. It is an eternal awareness of, but an eternal separation from all bliss, all comfort, and all grace. Hell is to be forever banished from heaven, with heaven in plain view! Hell is to be forever banished from Christ, with Christ and his redeemed ones ever before your eyes! From that place of torment, none shall ever escape. Death and hell are the just rewards of sin. But sinners do not have to go to hell!

    There is One who is sovereign over death and hell. There is One who has the power to deliver us from the fear of death and the torments of hell. He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the sinner's Substitute. He says, ‘I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen.’ Then, as the result of his life, death, and resurrection as the God-man Mediator, our Savior declares, I ‘have the keys of hell and of death.’ Death for us is an unsurveyed land of darkness before which we tremble; but Christ has explored and conquered that land. Now, as a sovereign King, he holds the key to the iron gates of death. Hell is a horrible region of terror, a kingdom of darkness, and an habitation of evil; but the Lord Jesus Christ sits as King over hell just as fully as he sits King in Zion; and he will deliver all who trust him both from the fear of death and the power of hell. Nothing in heaven above, in the earth below, or in hell beneath the earth is out of his control (Ps. 115:3; 135:6). The sovereign dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ extends to the whole of his creation. No province is beyond his rule. No man is free of his dominion. No power threatens him. Let every believer rejoice in the fact that Christ sits King upon the throne of universal dominion and sovereignly rules everything everywhere. Nothing happens by chance. Nothing is free of Christ's dominion. The Lord our God has prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. Our Savior's sovereignty over all things should encourage us to trust him in all things and not be afraid. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, says, ‘I have the keys of hell and of death.’

    Who has these keys

    As you read Revelation 1, you cannot help noticing that it lays particular stress upon the Man, Christ Jesus. He who holds the keys of hell and of death is one of us. John describes him as ‘one like unto the Son of man’ (v. 13). He is not quite the same, because he is now glorified; but Christ in heaven is essentially the same as he was when John laid his head upon his holy chest. We must never try to separate our Savior's manhood from his divinity, nor his Godhood from his humanity. Christ in heaven is still a Man. This fact is full of hope and comfort to the fallen sons of Adam. He who rules the universe is a Man. He who has the keys of hell and of death is a Man. Yes, he is the God-man. We rejoice in that fact. But still he is a Man, a Man like us, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. God has entrusted the dominion of the universe to the glorified Man, Christ Jesus (Heb. 2:6-9; Phil. 2:9-11). This Man established righteousness in the earth as the federal Head and Representative of God's elect by his holy obedience to the will of God (Isa. 42:1-4, 21; Rom. 5:19). This Man died under the penalty of God's law as the sinner's Substitute, fully satisfying divine justice for all his people (1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). He made atonement for us. He is the propitiation for our sins. He obtained eternal redemption for us. By his blood, God is both just and the Justifier of all who believe. This Man arose in triumph over the grave and reigns in glory as the Mediator-King of his redeemed (Zech. 6:12-13). This Man is the Hope of men (Isa. 32:1-2). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world as a Man to save men. He lived for men. He died for men. He arose for men. He received gifts for men. He intercedes for men. And he rules in heaven for men. Immanuel, God with us, is his name; and ‘Immanuel’ means God for us, too! God became a man, that men might live by him (John 3:17); and now the Man-God holds the keys of hell and of death so that he might surely accomplish his purpose (John 17:2). Not one of those shall perish whom he has undertaken to save!

    What do these keys imply

    Keys represent ownership, dominion, authority, and control. The man who carries the keys is in charge. The picture of Christ with the keys of death and hell is intended to show us that the Lord Jesus Christ has the rightful and actual dominion over death and hell. He actually rules the domain of death and hell. Unto him belong the issues of death (Ps. 68:20). And he rules even the dark chambers of hell. The rule of Christ is so thorough and absolute that even the devices of Satan are subject to him. They are either restrained by him, or they are overruled by him to serve his own glorious purpose. The keys of hell and of death in the hands of our Savior say, ‘Christ is Supreme, Lord, King, and Sovereign Ruler of all things.’ His dominion extends to all the universe, even death and hell. Either willingly or unwillingly, all things serve him. NOTE: The word translated ‘hell’ is ‘hades.’ It includes all the region of the lost and the damned. But it is not limited to that alone. It includes both heaven and hell. It refers to the abode of departed spirits, either in bliss or in torment. Our Lord Jesus Christ is King in heaven, King over hell, and King over death.

    Christ our Lord holds the keys of death (Ps. 68:18-20). As our Savior is sovereign over the lives of men, he is also sovereign over the deaths of men. All men live and all men die by the will of Christ and by the hand of Christ (1 Sam. 2:6). Christ takes men and women out of this world when he pleases, as he demonstrated with Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). And he has already appointed the hour of every man's departure from this world. None live beyond their time, and none die before their time. This fact is comforting to all who believe. Our hearts rejoice to sing:

    ‘For now the future holds no fear,
God guards the work begun:
And mortals are immortal here,
Until their work is done.’

    Yet, let every rebel be warned. His day is marked. God has set a day and prepared the instrument by which he shall be slain!

    If our Lord is pleased to do so, he has the power to deliver his own elect from death's grip, even when it appears that death will surely take them. The illustrations of Christ's power over physical death are numerous: (Matt. 8:5-15; Luke. 8:49-56; John 4:46-50; 11:43-44). What he did while he was upon the earth, our Lord can do today. Christ Jesus still has power to deliver his own from the jaws of death (James 5:14-15). I do not believe the charismatic's claim to gifts of healing. Those gifts ceased with the apostles. The faith healers of today are mere pretenders! However, I do believe in the sovereign power of Christ. When it is according to his will, for the glory of his name, and for the good of his people, he still delivers his own from the very jaws of death. The fact that I am writing these lines almost 20 years after my doctors thought I would be dead is proof of my Savior's power over death!

    The Lord Jesus Christ will raise the dead to life again at the last day. He raises those who are dead spiritually to life in the new birth; and he shall raise the dead literally when he comes the second time (John 5:25-28). He said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live’ (John 11:25).

    As he holds the keys of death, our Lord Jesus Christ also holds the keys of heaven (John 14:1-6). Jesus is the Lord of heaven! Child of God, Christ has gone to prepare a place for you. When your place is ready, he will come for you, and call you home. Christ will open those gates of pearl, and lead you into the heavenly city. His key opens the gate. Once he has led you into the blessed city, he will shut you in, just as he shut Noah in the ark. His key bolts the gate.

    ‘Far from the world of grief and sin
Christ will securely shut us in!’

    When Christ shuts us in, he will shut all our sorrows, trials, and troubles out, forever (Rev. 21:4-6). There, in heaven's vast domain, Christ our Lord sovereignly rules as Lord and King. He rules among his redeemed ones. Those glorified spirits around the throne serve King Jesus perfectly. He rules among the angelic hosts. He rules all things from heaven, because he is determined to bring his ransomed ones to heaven.

    Our Lord Jesus Christ also holds the keys of hell (Rev. 20:1). It is Christ himself who shall cast the wicked and unbelieving into hell (Matt. 25:31-34, 41). Christ will shut every rebel up in the pit of the damned, from which there is no escape (Luke 16:26). Even now, our Lord Jesus Christ sovereignly rules over Satan and the demons of hell. The prince of darkness is under the dominion of King Jesus! (See Luke 8:28; John 12;31; Job 1:8; 2:6). Satan is a bound slave of King Jesus, an oarsman in the ship of providence, a beast which Christ has harnessed to accomplish his own purpose. Do you see how these keys represent the sovereignty and dominion of our Lord Jesus Christ? He is King over death, King over heaven, and King over hell! There is no province over which Christ does not totally rule. But how did our Savior get this universal power?

    How did Christ get the keys of death and hell

    It is certainly true that Christ holds these keys by divine right, because he is God over all. There can be no dispute about that fact. Since Christ is God, Creator and Sustainer of all things, he is Owner of all things in heaven, earth, and hell. God has the right to do with his own whatever he will, and he always does (Matt. 20:15; Ps. 135:6). But this Man, Christ Jesus, holds the keys of death and of hell by right of his mighty conquests as our Mediator and Representative (John 17:1-5; Isa. 53:10-12; Ps. 89:19-27). In order for Christ, the Man, to ascend the throne of universal dominion, in order for him to be seated upon the throne of God, he had to make certain conquests as a Man. At every point where the first Adam was defeated, Christ, the last Adam, must be triumphant. This Man, the Lord from heaven, had to endure and prevail over the temptations of the devil (Heb. 2:10, 17, 18; Matt. 4:1). He had to establish righteousness in the earth by obeying both the letter and the spirit of the law as our Representative (Rom. 5:18-19). He had to overcome the weakness and frailty of the body of flesh, learning obedience by the things he suffered (Luke 22:42-44; Heb. 5:8). He had to be made sin for us and satisfy the demands of the law and justice of God against us, so that he might save us from our sins (Rom. 3:24-26; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13). And he had to rise from the dead in triumph as our victorious Savior (Ps. 16:9-11). Thanks be unto God, all that was required of our Substitute, he has accomplished! He said to the Father, ‘I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do’ (John 17:4). It is this Man, Christ Jesus, who now reigns as King over death and hell to save his people (John 17:2). The Man shall reign sovereignly forever until he has saved all his elect and put all things beneath his feet, even until all his enemies are completely vanquished (Isa. 45:20-25). He will save all his covenant people. He will subdue all his enemies. At last, he will make all things new! This Man, Christ Jesus, holds the keys of hell and of death as the reward of all that he has done as the Mediator and Surety of the everlasting covenant.

    What does our Lord's dominion say to us

    Our Lord says, ‘I have the keys of hell and of death.’ John Gill wrote, ‘This is an expression of the sovereignty, power, and authority of Christ; and is designed to encourage and support the believer in his present concern and anxiety of mind.’ Our Savior had laid his hands upon John, and said, ‘Fear not.’ This is what he said to calm John's fears: ‘I have the keys of hell and of death.’ Behold the sovereign Christ with the keys of death and hell in his hands, and be not afraid. Fear not the troubles and the trials which you must face in this world. Christ is on his throne. All is well! Fear not the powers of hell itself. Jesus Christ rules all things. Satan cannot harm you! Fear not the valley of the shadow of death. For the believer, death is only a shadow. You shall not die, but live, and declare the wondrous works of the Lord. You must pass through the valley; but you will pass through it. Christ will see you through! Fear not the unseen world of eternity. You are only going home! If you trust Christ, your sins are gone. You have all the righteousness God requires. You shall live forever. You have nothing to fear!