Back to Talks about Jesus
Apart from Christ we have no knowledge or understanding about death and the life God offers us in Christ after death. We may hold one of a variety of theories about death, but they all end in the same place. All teachings apart from a physical resurrection claim that once our body is dead, that is the end of our body. In our fallen and lost condition, we have no knowledge or hope in what Jesus taught about the resurrection of the body. We may believe that there is something after death, but that something is a far cry from our being the physical being God intended for us to be when He made creation. Whatever we believe, being that it is not the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the hope of our being raised from the dead bodily, our belief is based on myths, deceptions, and false teachings that are not grounded nor originate from our heavenly Father. As far as our having some kind of body, if we think there is some existence after death, then we either imagine it is some ghostly body that is not physical, or we believe that we will be reincarnated into a completely different body and be a completely different person. But that is not the truth proclaimed by Christ and his disciples. Our view of this life is all we have from a bodily perspective. Thus, we live either seeking to satisfy our flesh, or thinking that our physical existence is a type of prison that we need to try and escape. Both views are completely wrong from a biblical perspective, but we don't have a biblical perspective.
Praise be to God that we don't remain in that condition once we come to believe the gospel message we hear regarding Jesus. We may hear nothing about Jesus for a portion of our life, but when we eventually begin encountering him, it is likely that it would be in conjunction to the two major holy days within the Christian faith. We are likely to hear about the birth of Christ which we celebrate as Christmas, and about his resurrection from the dead which we celebrate as Easter. His incarnation when he took on flesh, and his resurrection, when his dead body was raised from the dead by God the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. It may be a while before we grasp these truths about Jesus, but for us to mature in Christ, we will hear them, believe them, and hold firm to them by faith. As we grow in our knowledge and love of Christ, we come to see that death was not God's intent for His creation, but the result of our unbelief that resulted in disobedience. Sin results in death. So, we come to understand that in Jesus? death, sin was dealt with, and in his resurrection, the curse of death was addressed. Sin and death are defeated by the cross of Christ and in his resurrection from the dead. Thus, we begin discovering that the Bible speaks a lot about Jesus? resurrection. In fact, the promise of salvation from sin and death is received through faith in Jesus having been raised from the dead. For if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. In Christ, we learn that death is not the end. We come to believe that Jesus and the Bible as a whole teaches that there is life after death. In his resurrection, we learn that this life is not a disembodied existence, but a life lived with a body. Not only do we hear about Christ's resurrection in the Gospel accounts, but we encounter it over and over in the various New Testament letters. We also find the promise of the resurrection in the Old Testament such as in the Psalms and in Daniel. The more we come to understand Jesus? resurrection and what the Bible says about the ages to come, eternal life, the more we come to realize and believe that the promise of a bodily resurrection includes us. In fact, we discover in the book of Revelation that all will be raised from the dead in order to stand before God. The Day of Judgment will be a day in which humanity stands before God in bodily form. Some will inherit eternal life, and some will experience the second death. We understand that God's desire is that we have life. Jesus came that we might have life. As a result of our having faith in Christ and understanding what is taught about death and resurrection, we live our life differently than we had before. We begin seeing our present physical body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. We know that in the resurrection our bodies will be changed, but since we don't know exactly what all that will mean, we honor God here and now in part by honoring our bodies. We don't live to fulfill our fleshly desires and lusts as we once did. Rather, we crucify our fleshly desires and lusts and live in light of the resurrection, offering ourselves, both body and soul, as a living sacrifice to God. We are recognizing more and more that the gospel of God's kingdom is for both our body and our soul. This insight is challenging to us at times as we seek to honor God with our body as well as our soul. We are learning to love God with all of our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength, which is our body. For a time we may look for rules about how to live a holy life. We may submit to rules that lead us to be harsh to our body and also to others. But as we grow, which includes dying to ourselves, we move from rules to love.
--Needs content--
In moving from rules to love, we offer ourselves fully to the lordship of Jesus Christ. We have grown to have a confident hope in the resurrection into eternal life in Christ's kingdom. The clearer the resurrection is to us, the clearer it is in our mind and heart that the world is deceived regarding sin and death. We know that we have been raised to new life. A new life that is lived here and now, with the promise of a bodily resurrection to live in eternity. But it is not enough that we know this truth. Because we are Christ's disciples and have been commissioned to go and make disciples, we have an increasing hunger to talk to others about Jesus. One of the things we talk about is the resurrection. Perhaps we broach the subject by asking friends and family about their view of death. If they don't have faith in Christ, their view won't be in a resurrection. So we tell them about Jesus? death and resurrection. We tell them about the resurrection and judgment to come. We speak of eternal life and how we can begin to live the eternal life, the life in the kingdom of God, here and now. For them to really see what we are saying, they will need to come to faith in Christ. Some people will become Christ's followers through our sharing the gospel and some won't. That is outside of our control, we are called to be his witnesses, and that is what we do. We witness to Christ, his teachings, his life, death, and resurrection. We speak of life in Christ and invite others to enter the new life, life in the Spirit of God. We speak of him because we love him and our faith is fully rooted in him. We speak because we have good news to share. News about Christ that is good news for all of creation. That good news includes Jesus? bodily resurrection and the promise of ours.
Back to Talks about Jesus
Back to Home Page