BY GREG CRUM
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” I Corinthians 15:19-22
There are better days on our horizon. Soon and very soon we are going to see our King. In a world that pushes a message of doom and gloom (because that’s all that’s ahead for them), it’s necessary to remind ourselves of the truth of the Resurrection that opened the way for our resurrections one day. For every believer in Jesus, no matter how grand this life has been for them, the best is yet to come!
Last week we began to write of one of the most fundamental principles of Christianity: the fact that Jesus was raised from his borrowed tomb on the third day after his death on the cross. This fact was the central theme of the earliest believers’ testimony.
As you read through the book of Acts and the epistles of the New Testament, you can readily see how it was at the forefront of their minds and on the tip of their tongues. This focus evidently served them well; the growth of the earliest church was phenomenal to say the least. That begs the question: shouldn’t we follow their lead and emphasize the resurrection more in our testimonies to others? Perhaps we would begin to see the same results they saw all those years ago!
We left off last week thinking about the Holy Spirit’s role in that most wonderful event in human history. We imagined what that moment must have been like in both Heaven and Hell as a power greater than 10,000 atom bombs went into Jesus. He shook off the forces of darkness on his way out of Hell and the grave.
It’s fun to imagine what happened in those few moments, but this is one instance in which I know our imaginations can’t do reality justice. I know it was more awesome than I can conceive. With that said, we may not know exactly what took place in Hell those three days and what that resurrection moment looked like, but I do know this—the good guys won in the end and because they won, we can too!
That brings us to an important point, another reason that the Resurrection should be in our minds and hearts just as it was in the hearts of the earliest believers. Earlier we referenced the Holy Spirit’s role in the Resurrection, and you may have thought, “That’s cool, but how does that affect me today, tomorrow and the next day?”
Well, in this way: If the Holy Spirit raised Jesus (which He did), and if He is living inside of you (Sure hope you are born again and He does), then there is a promise in God’s Word that He’ll raise you too!
Remember Romans 8:11? That same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells inside of every believer and He will “quicken” or make alive our mortal bodies on that Day! Talk about something to look forward to! That should give us hope in a hopeless world and remind us each day that we have our greatest life in front of us.
Brothers and sisters, some people live this life thinking their best days are in their past. Not ours! We have our best days ahead of us because of the Resurrection. We don’t “YOLO,” we live for eternity. And for the blood-bought children of God, those are endless days of better than we’ve ever lived! We have good things right around the next bend, friends. Let’s remember that when the world tries to get us down, we have the Resurrector on the inside of us. Let’s lean into this Resurrection power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and allow hope of a better day to sustain us until that reality is the breath we breathe.
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.