Our theme for this month: “Life on this side of the cross”
Our Bible verse for today: “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 (CSB)
Our thought for today: “What the resurrection means for us.”
The resurrection of Jesus was the most important event in history. Death is the great enemy of the human race. But when Jesus arose from the grave, He defeated death once and for all. From that moment forward, any person who places his or her faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins receives the gift of eternal life and that person will never truly experience death.
In Biblical terms, true death is eternal separation from God and true life is to spend eternity in the presence of God. In that respect, no child of God ever experiences death. Physically we do experience the process of this mortal body dying, but the instant this body ceases to function our spirit is released from it and we are immediately in the presence of God. That’s what Jesus was explaining to Martha in John 11:25-26.
What happened in that scene was that Jesus’ friend Lazarus was sick, and so his sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus to come to them so he could heal their brother. But by the time Jesus got there Lazarus had already been dead and in the tomb four days. In verses 25-26, as Jesus and Martha stood in front of the tomb, Jesus asked Martha if she believed that her brother would live again. Martha gave a theologically correct answer indicating that she knew that because of his faith in Christ, her brother would indeed live for eternity in the presence of God. That’s exactly the response Jesus was looking for. Jesus also intended to return the mortal body of Lazarus to life in just a few moments but first, He wanted to establish this important theological truth for Martha and for the rest of us too: Faith in the resurrected Christ leads to eternal life.
This is what the resurrection of Jesus means for us. Because He lives, so will we. Because He defeated death once and for all, we too are now freed from the curse of death. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55 “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death is your sting?
The answer, of course, is that death now has no sting. Because He lives, so will we.
Oak Hill Baptist Church