“JESUS, THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE”

Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live…” (John 11:25). Our hope of life after death rests upon these words. Without this hope, we have no real reason to live, nor any reason to have scruples. Indeed, a life without faith and hope of life beyond physical existence is “vanity and a striving after wind” (Eccl. 2:26).

It is sad to read of some whose love of “all that is in this world” (1 John 2:15-17), drove them to a persecution level of hatred toward those who preached a resurrection from the dead through Jesus (Acts 4). Most of their ancestors of the nation of Israel doubted God’s power to fulfill His oath to Abraham (1 Cor. 10). Their lack of faith also turned to rebellion and persecution of God’s messengers and appointed leaders. They boasted of being Abraham’s seed yet failed to acknowledge that the blessing of Abraham was through the righteousness of faith, regardless of physical lineage (cf. Rom. 4; Gal. 3). They rejected the message of the prophets, that Christ was a confirmation of the “promises made unto the fathers” (Rom. 15:8).

Jesus was the one promised to bring a blessing upon all families of the earth (Acts 3:25). That blessing has come because Jesus lives. His soul did not see corruption. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father and has given us the Holy Spirit as assurance of our eternal inheritance (cf. Rom. 8; Eph. 1). Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, is God’s assurance to us that all who die in faith, will be raised to eternal life. As God raised the Lord, God will raise up us through His power (1 Cor. 6:14).

“He is risen” declared the angel (Matt. 28:6). Because He lives, we have the, “…promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). Let us pray for one another lest there be, even the slightest resentment of Jesus’ resurrection, simply because of what we are called upon to give up in this life (cf. Heb. 11:25-26).