Tag: Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:16-23 Authorized (King James) Version

¹⁶ For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: ¹⁷ and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. ¹⁸ Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. ¹⁹ If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. ²⁰ But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. ²¹ For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. ²³ But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his .

Word of God for the Children of God

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Each Easter Sunday, we rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus from death to life.

We recognize His resurrection isn’t just a miracle for Him, it’s a miracle for us, too.

Because He rose from the grave, we will also rise.

Too often, though, we will miss the hope His resurrection and the celebration of Easter bring into our lives.

We will focus so much on Jesus rising from the dead that we will also forget to rejoice in what it means for us and our eternal futures.

Savior Jesus, the first to rise from the grave, freed from sin and death to live forevermore, is also the first in history to be raised to life in a glorified body.

As the Apostle Paul explained,

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21).

In Biblical days, believers set aside the firstfruits of their harvest as an offering to God.

This act of sacrifice symbolized and consecrated the entire harvest to come.

Scripture records others being raised from the dead before Jesus, Colossians 1:18 describes Him as the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead.

Those raised before Him eventually died again, but Jesus lives forever, never to die again:

“And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.”

Paul explains to us in Romans 6:9, “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him.”

Jesus Is the Promise 

Because Jesus now lives in His glorified body, He is the promise of our own glorified bodies to come.

Through His life, His death, and resurrection comes the promise of a harvest of living souls who will also be raised from death to life.

Jesus is the firstborn from the dead—the Son of God who rose victorious from the grave, overcoming, destroying death, breaking its power, and conquering it forever.

The Apostle John wrote,

“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood” (Revelation 1:5).

Jesus Defeated Death

Matthew 27:50-53 describes Jesus defeating death once and for all, as well as the extraordinary events that took place at His crucifixion and resurrection:

“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

Although they would physically die again, they would live forevermore.

As 1 Corinthians 15:54 explains it, “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’”

Should Christians Be Afraid of Death?

While visiting an elderly member of our church, I read the passage in John 14:1-6 where Jesus promises to prepare a place for us.

When I was finished reading, she said she did not understand why it should take the Lord so long to get her place ready.

She added, “I don’t need anything fancy.” Instead of being afraid of death, she could not wait to be with the Savior.

But not every Christian faces death without fear.

Shortly before he died, my dad asked,

“Will God accept me when I die? So much has gone wrong in my life.” Someone else asked me, “Will everything be all right when I die?”

If you are afraid of death, be willing to admit it.

The apostle Paul calls death “our last enemy.”

We have been created to live.

It was the fall into sin that brought death into our lives.

It’s natural for us to want to live and keep on living.

So it’s also natural to fear death, which can be painful and a bit scary—even terrifying. But Jesus came to free us from sin and from the threat of death.

He gave up his own life for our sake, and then he rose from the dead, so “death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54).

Only the Lord can take away our fear of death.

We have the guarantee that even as we near death, we don’t have to be afraid because God will be there with us and will take us to live with him!

He said it Himself in John 11:25: “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die.’”

But also asked this ….

John 11:25-26 Amplified Bible

²⁵ Jesus said to her, “^[a]I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, relies on) Me [as Savior] will live even if he dies; ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in Me [as Savior] will never die.

Do you believe this?”

Psalm 27 English Standard Version

The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation

Of David.

27 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold^[a] of my life;
    of whom shall I be afraid?

² When evildoers assail me
    to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
    it is they who stumble and fall.

³ Though an army encamp against me,
    my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
    yet^[b] I will be confident.

⁴ One thing have I asked of the Lord,
    that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
    and to inquire^[c] in his temple.

⁵ For he will hide me in his shelter
    in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
    he will lift me high upon a rock.

⁶ And now my head shall be lifted up
    above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
    sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

⁷ Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
    be gracious to me and answer me!
⁸ You have said, “Seek^[d] my face.”
My heart says to you,
    “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”^[e]
9     Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
    O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
    O God of my salvation!
¹⁰ For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
    but the Lord will take me in.

¹¹ Teach me your way, O Lord,
    and lead me on a level path
    because of my enemies.
¹² Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
    for false witnesses have risen against me,
    and they breathe out violence.

¹³ I believe that I shall look^[f] upon the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living!
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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1 Corinthians 15:20-28 New American Standard Bible

The Order of Resurrection

²⁰ But the fact is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. ²¹ For since by a man death came, by a Man also came the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, so also in ^[a]Christ all will be made alive. ²³ But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, ²⁴ then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to our God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. ²⁵ For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. ²⁶ The last enemy that will be abolished is death. ²⁷ For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is clear that ^[b]this excludes the Father who put all things in subjection to Him. ²⁸ When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.

Word of God for the Children of God

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Scripture abounds with examples of what I call the Divine Adversative.

This is about God directly intervening to reverse the effects of our sin.

We note the example of this in the resurrection of Jesus.

Christ’s resurrection has reversed everything!

Life conquered death, good conquered evil, and love conquered all.

As Paul explains, if Christianity is no more than a “feel-good” faith that helps us behave better in this life, we’re pathetically hopeless.

If that is the case, then we have no help from God in this life and no hope for the next, if there is life after death.

So it would be better to abandon all hope for ourselves as well as for those who have already died.

All of this would mean the resurrection is merely a figment of desperate faith.

But then comes this thunderous Divine Adversative: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adversative

Hallelujah! We have a hope that extends from our life here on earth to eternity itself. Rather than being defeated by the curse of sin and death, “in Christ all will be made alive,” just as Christ himself is alive for eternity.

All of our hope—and indeed all of our life—is certain, because God said, “But Christ!”

1 Corinthians 15:14 is referred to as “the lynchpin of the gospel.” As Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”

Without the resurrection, we have nothing on which to build our faith.

All we have is a famous person who taught noble ideas about life and an ethical system on which to build our society.

But that’s just for this life. Without the resurrection, we have no hope for surviving death. And if that’s the case, then why bother believing in Jesus?

Paul goes on, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.”

And in the first sermon of the New Testament church, Peter preached, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we all are witnesses of it” (Acts 2:32).

Paul wrote that the resurrected Jesus “appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time.”

We are called not only to profess our faith that Jesus was raised but also to understand that this is the lynchpin of our faith.

Everything hangs together on Christ’s resurrection!

You and I Can Face Tomorrow

Every once in a while, someone comes along and claims that we don’t need to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We can still be Christians without the miraculous or supernatural elements of the Christian faith, they say.

But the tragedy for them and for anyone who follows such a claim is that the implications of there being no resurrection don’t just make the Christian life difficult; they make it immeasurably ridiculous.

If there is no resurrection, Paul pointed out, then those who have died trusting Jesus have utterly perished, and there is no hope of ever seeing them again.

If we try to live a Christian life without the resurrection, then “we are of all people most to be pitied.”

In fact, Paul says, “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” (1 Corinthians 15:32).

If we don’t believe in the resurrection, then we ought to buy into all the clichés that so many say (but few truly believe)— “This life is what you make it” and “He who dies with the most toys wins!”

Enticing as such platitudes may be, we all have a sneaking suspicion that death is not the end.

God has put eternity into our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and there is no scraping it out—no matter what force of rational skepticism or what indulgent hedonism we may apply to it. We know, by design, that there is more to life than life itself.

We also know that tomorrow, and in every tomorrow, there will be sadness, pain, loss, fear, and disappointment.

How can anyone cope?

Without the resurrection, we can’t.

That is why Paul reminded the Ephesians before being brought near to Christ, they had “no hope” and were “without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).

“But Christ has been raised.”

And those five words make all the difference, not only to eternal life but also to life today.

If you take God at His word and trust Him in faith, then there is never any reason for hopelessness.

You have “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

No matter what difficulties await you—and today, and tomorrow, there will be some—you will always have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (v 4).

“Because he lives, I can face tomorrow,” goes the song.[1] 

So can you—and you can do so with joy.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit ….

Praying ….

Psalm 145 Complete Jewish Bible

145 ⁽⁰⁾ Praise. By David:

⁽¹⁾ I will praise you to the heights, my God, the king;
I will bless your name forever and ever.
² Every day I will bless you;
I will praise your name forever and ever.
³ Great is Adonai and greatly to be praised;
his greatness is beyond all searching out.
⁴ Each generation will praise your works to the next
and proclaim your mighty acts.
⁵ I will meditate on the glorious splendor
of your majesty and on the story of your wonders.
⁶ People will speak of your awesome power,
and I will tell of your great deeds.
⁷ They will gush forth the fame of your abounding goodness,
and they will sing of your righteousness.
⁸ Adonai is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger and great in grace.
⁹ Adonai is good to all;
his compassion rests on all his creatures.
¹⁰ All your creatures will thank you, Adonai,
and your faithful servants will bless you.
¹¹ They will speak of the glory of your kingship,
and they will tell about your might;
¹² to let everyone know of your mighty acts
and the glorious majesty of your kingship.
¹³ Your kingship is an everlasting kingship,
your reign continues through all generations.
¹⁴ Adonai supports all who fall
and lifts up all who are bent over.
¹⁵ The eyes of all are looking to you;
you give them their food at the right time.
¹⁶ You open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
¹⁷ Adonai is righteous in all his ways,
full of grace in all he does.
¹⁸ Adonai is close to all who call on him,
to all who sincerely call on him.
¹⁹ He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
²⁰ Adonai protects all who love him,
but all the wicked he destroys.
²¹ My mouth will proclaim the praise of Adonai;
all people will bless his holy name forever and ever.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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