Read
God's People
12If we preach that Christ was raised from death, how can some of you say the dead will not be raised to life? 13If they won't be raised to life, Christ himself wasn't raised to life. 14And if Christ wasn't raised to life, our message is worthless, and so is your faith. 15If the dead won't be raised to life, we have told lies about God by saying he raised Christ to life, when he really did not.
16So if the dead won't be raised to life, Christ wasn't raised to life. 17Unless Christ was raised to life, your faith is useless, and you are still living in your sins. 18And those people who died after putting their faith in him are completely lost. 19If our hope in Christ is good only for this life, we are worse off than anyone else.
20But Christ has been raised to life! And he makes us certain that others will also be raised to life. 21Just as we will die because of Adam, we will be raised to life because of Christ. 22Adam brought death to all of us, and Christ will bring life to all of us. 23But we must each wait our turn. Christ was the first to be raised to life, and his people will be raised to life when he returns.
Reflect
Every time I pass a certain road sign, I want to hug a bureaucrat – or whoever named the grid road that branches off the bleak but busy highway I travel often. Perched on two poles of blonde wood, the regulation green Highways Department sign with six-inch high white letters reads “Victory Road.”
It reminds me of another sign – the cross of Jesus Christ. Like the one on Highway #10, God posted it on the shoulder of life’s frenzied highway. Surrounded by the bleakness of humanity’s sinful condition, for two thousand years the cross has pointed the way to victory.
For believers in Christ, that’s what his cross represents. After bearing the sin of the world, after three days in the grave, He emerged from the tomb. Alive. Triumphant. Victor over the power of sin. Victor through every difficulty. Victor over the sting of death. Victor forever.
Because of Jesus’ resurrection we can leave the deathbeds, funerals and gravesides of believing loved ones with hope in our hearts – in spite of the tears in our eyes. Because he rose, we too can rise above the stings of life and death. And because he lives today, we can be confident that resurrection day will come for us too. By God’s power and on his trustworthy promise, we can know that our death is merely a door we pass through.
“One day you are going to read that Dwight L. Moody is dead,” D. L. Moody stated. “Don’t believe it. I am more alive than I have ever been.”
Victory in Jesus, our Saviour. Forever.
Christ is Risen – Matt Maher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bJzhkWVANc
Respond
Father of all life, Victor over all death, remove from me any fear of tomorrow. Remind me that through your Son, resurrection is not an empty promise but a confident certainty.
Kathleen Gibson
Kathleen began following Jesus at six. The Word and words have captivated her ever since. Her career has included time as a freelancer, columnist, broadcaster, conference speaker, workshop leader and magazine editor. She has authored two books and currently works full-time as constituency and communications assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament. Kathleen and her husband, Rick, spent thirty years pastoring churches across Western Canada. They have two children and six grandchildren. Publications: Practice by Practice, the art of everyday faith, 2010, Word Alive, Winnipeg; West Nile Diary, one couple’s triumph over a deadly disease, 2009, BPS Books, Toronto; Sunny Side Up, Faith and Life newspaper column, published weekly since 2001. (Also posted weekly at www.kathleengibson.ca/sunnysideup); 90 second inspirational radio spot, Simple Words, airs on a syndicated program in over twenty countries