God’s grace has been uniquely focussed and expressed through Jesus Christ, and it is now available to everybody.  Paul previously described God’s salvation, and the calling to be holy like Jesus, as being God’s free gift which is given to repentant sinners without demanding that they do anything to earn it (2 Timothy 1:9).  

It was achieved by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which was planned before the beginning of time (Ephesians 1:4).  The idea, which was hidden in God’s heart and prophesied in the Old Testament Law, has now been fully revealed (1 Peter 1:20).  When Christ Jesus rose from the dead, He destroyed the natural principle that ‘death is the end’.  Although death remains an enemy, it will be finally eradicated (1 Corinthians 15:26) when the return of Jesus ushers in the new heavens and new earth – when sin and Satan are disposed of for ever.
 
Jesus also uniquely defines life.  He was the creation life-giver (John 1:4) and the eternal life-giver of all who put their trust in Him (John 10:28).  So, the gospel enables us to see death and life in a new light.  Before we received the gospel, we had no hope of immortality with God.  Without the gospel, human beings can only flounder in hopeless ignorance or invent a false hope.  That is why it is so important to tell people about Jesus.
 
Humanly, we may be anxious about rejection, worried about suffering, and unable to see beyond our present circumstances.  However, in Christ we have been brought into a new life, and we do not need to fear death because that life will continue infinitely in the presence of God.  A new confidence comes as we trust in the salvation which Jesus has bought for us.  In the same way that Paul wanted to encourage Timothy not to dilute his ministry because of fear (2 Timothy 1:7-8) - we also must look to the cross of Christ and His death-defying resurrection to give us fresh confidence to live and speak for Jesus every day.