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God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. Acts 2:24
D.L. MOODY
I can imagine when they laid our Lord in Joseph’s tomb, one might have seen Death sitting over that sepulchre, saying, “I have Him; He is my victim. He said He was the Resurrection and the Life. Now I hold Him in my cold embrace. They thought He was never going to die; but see Him now. He has had to pay tribute to me.”
Never! The glorious morning comes, the Son of Man bursts asunder the hands of death, and rises, a conqueror, from the grave. “Because I live,” He shouts, “ye shall live also.”
Yes, we shall live also—is it not good news?
ERWIN LUTZER
For the Christian, death is simply following Jesus to the grave and entering heaven where He is today. Jesus will never ask us to endure something that He Himself has not already endured. Thankfully, our body will be raised and, “Because He lives, we too shall live” (John 14:19). We will be shepherded through the door of death by the One who was dead and is alive forever more. He will take us all the way home to the Father.
Is it any wonder Jesus invites us to follow Him into suffering? “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account…for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11–12). Someday the suffering will end, conflicts with the world will vanish, and we will be free forever, knowing that it was worth it all. The resurrected Christ will make us alive and Paul says our bodies will be transformed to be like His glorious body.
Let us live in light of eternity for we have trusted a living Savior who has promised to share His resurrection life and eternity with us.
PRAYER
Father, help me to live for Christ in all things without fearing death, knowing that Christ will meet me on the other side.REFLECTION QUESTIONS
How does Jesus’ endurance to death encourage you in what you face?If no suffering is meaningless because of the resurrection, how might that truth change how we endure the little things today?