email : Webview : Duane Brooks - Every Day with Jesus

August 3, 2018

1 Corinthians 15:16-19

For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

New International Version (NIV)

                 Calvin Miller once said the first thing Jesus said when he emerged victorious from the tomb was, “Ta da!” Although the scriptures do not say this, I understand what Calvin meant. None of them thought Jesus would rise, even though he had said he would. Many of us believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead on the first Sunday. He awakened not as a spirit but as one with a new body. He ate fish, but he also went through walls.

                Do you believe that your body will be physically raised from the dead? We say Christians are in heaven and we bury their bodies. Absent from the body our loved ones are present with the Lord. Our theology of heaven may hamstring us here. We envision heaven as a mysterious place in the clouds. Why would we even need a body there? Just as Jesus was raised in a new body, someday every Christian’s body will be raised, rejoined to our spirits to live forever in the final heaven which comes down as a city from the sky to the earth. Back on this earth, we will need bodies and we will have them.

                Some in the first century saw resurrection as a mere metaphor. In the twenty-first century we talk about heaven without thinking about our future resurrection. For Paul, the resurrection of the body was important. Christ’s resurrection necessitates and facilitates ours also. We will live with God in a city called heaven and we will have real bodies. The advent of Eastern mysticism in our country encroaches on the teaching of scripture. Why does it matter? If Christ has been raised, so will we be. So as he says in 15:58, we can be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work because we know that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. A tombstone of a believer in Louisiana captures it in a word, “Waiting.” When Christ comes the dead will be raised imperishable, we will be changed and we will live with God forever.

Pray with me:

Father, we thank you for the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we live in our imperfect, dying bodies here, remind us of the resurrection day when we will live in perfected bodies forever with you. Help us to live with an eye to the sky until you return. This is our prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This year we focus our Every Day with Jesus readings on Jesus’ story. With references to Tallowood's Read Through the Bible in 2018 daily reading plan, let's focus our undivided attention on Jesus and follow where he lead. He will not fail. Neither will we!
Joyfully,
Duane

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