10. "I am alive for evermore . . . and have the keys of hell (hades) and death"--1:17-18. This is the awe-inspiring declaration that by his own death of the cross, he became Lord of Death, and of the hadean world, because its gates could not prevail against him. He is therefore the Lord of “ both the dead and the living” (Romans 14:9)--by his death and resurrection, of which his appearance to John was the visible proof.