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; Psa. 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; Psa. 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 spir
