He's so good...

...how about a SECOND and longer Old Lutheran Quote today?

The contempt of death and the gratitude for it (i.e., for how God uses the devil's work to eliminate the devil's work!), proclaimed by the apostle and the saints, is the goal and perfection toward which the whole life of Christians should strive, even though very few are so perfect. Thus in the Epistle to the Romans Paul also calls Christians righteous, holy, and free from sin, not because they are, but because they have begun to be and should become people of this kind by making constant progress. For even saintly men have been frightened by death and the judgments of God...

Therefore such people should be consoled and encouraged, first through Christ Himself, who, in order to omit nothing that one could desire from the most pious priest, not only underwent death for us to overcome it for us and to make it deserving of our contempt, but also, for the sake of the weak in faith, took upon Himself, overcame, and sanctified the very fear of death, lest such fear be scorned to our damnation. Otherwise it is truly a sin to be unwilling to die and to bear death. Therefore consider. What more should the most merciful Savior have done but did not do? He took sin completely away. He left death, but He left it conquered. Besides, He made the fear of death harmless—the fear one has even though death has been conquered and should not be feared.  (Luther on Hebrews 2 again)