Life From Death

Life From Death

If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished! And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world. But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. –1 Corinthians 15:17-20

Useless faith. Who wants that? Faith that is just going through the motions of religiosity, that offers no real possibility for the change that we crave, no confidence of a life beyond this one, is useless, powerless, impotent. We want the kind of faith that gives purpose and meaning to our lives now, and we want more than that. We want the confident expectation of salvation from this life into the next—life full of peace and perfection. We want death-defying faith that gives us confident hope!

Death-defying faith is made possible only through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If Jesus had just lived a perfect life, it would give us an example to conform our lives to, but it wouldn’t supply the resources we need to live a holy life. If Jesus had just died, it would have paid the price to cover our sins so that we would not have to pay, but it would not provide the power to overcome sin and the effects of sin in our lives. It is the resurrection of Jesus that provides not only the power we need to live a life pleasing to God today, but the promise that life will not end when our bodies die. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is what secures our hope for today and for the future!

If Jesus was not raised from the dead, then placing our hope for now and for the future in his hands is useless and foolish. If the Resurrection didn’t happen, our hopes are limited to this life because there is no hope of life to come. But the truth is, the Resurrection is real. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again” (John 11:25). Life out of death—for Jesus and for us. That’s real hope.

Resurrected Savior, though sometimes it seems as if your bodily resurrection was too long ago to have any meaning in my life today, I see that its power reaches through the years to offer me hope for eternal life, and I am grateful.

DIGGING DEEPER