Joy! Death is not the end . . .

Rhetorical question: How many times does God have to say something before it is true? Because there is no Hebrew word for RESURRECTION and very little in the OT that describes it, a NT religious group called the Sadducees said there is no resurrection. Some have punned “this is why they are ‘so sad you see.’”

The OT does say more than one thing about the afterlife. Daniel 12:2 says, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Job said in Job 19:26, “And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.”

David also declared in Psalm 17:15, “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” and the prophet said in Isaiah 26:19, “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.”

Four OT people were raised from the dead, not many yet this shows the power of God to do it. Not only that, Jesus’ statement to the Sadducees in the NT refuted their idea by saying that the OT saints were not dead but still alive!

Mark 12:26–27. “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

The NT echoes the words from Daniel:

John 5:25–29. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of this marvelous truth. While spoofed, denied, and mocked, there is no other Christian doctrine so vital. Without this, we have no hope or ultimate purpose for living!

1 Corinthians 15:12–19. “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

Much is said in the NT about the resurrection of Christ and how that affects all who believe in Him. It is a demonstration that Christ is God the Son. It also forms a picture of our relationship with Him in dying to sin and being raised to new life as Romans 6:5 confirms: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” As God’s resurrection power works in us, we are changed and filled with hope, not only in this life but for our eternal life with Him.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. When I see a video of a transplanted heart from a donor put into the body of another person and that heart begins beating all by itself, it is one more declaration of the power of God regarding life over death. When I look at a photo of my sister, I am certain that she is more alive than ever. This is not wishful thinking; the Spirit of God puts in me a deep awareness that she is with Jesus. When I watch the news of whole towns burning up and apartments collapsing, and hear about Christians being persecuted and killed for their faith, I know that all who die in faith are not destroyed — they have gone to glory — because of the power of God and the promise of resurrection, of life after death — just like Jesus.