What
a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master
Jesus!
Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life
and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven--and the future
starts now! God
is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll
have it all--life healed and whole. 1
Peter 1:3-5 (MSG)
In this week after Easter it
is only appropriate that we focus on the hope we have in living because of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Today we discover the way God brings this hope into our lives. The living hope comes by the new birth. The
translations use the words new birth or born again. There is
no hope for eternal life unless a person is born again by the Spirit of God.
A person has to be regenerated and made
into a new man before he can ever live forever.
Jesus replied, "I assure you: Unless someone is born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God." "But how can anyone be born when
he is old?" Nicodemus asked Him. "Can he enter his mother's womb a
second time and be born?" Jesus answered, "I assure you: Unless
someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. (John
3:3-7)
The living hope comes only by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus
Christ was raised from the dead to live forever in heaven with His Father. How
does His resurrection give us the hope of living forever? By three things:
1.
First, God has proven that He has the power to raise
the dead. There should never be any
question about this; for God, if He is truly God, has unlimited power to do
anything. But His power to raise the
dead and to keep them from ever dying again is now proven beyond all question:
it is proven by the fact that He has raised Jesus Christ from the dead and
exalted Him into heaven never again to die.
2.
Second, the fact that God raised Jesus Christ from the
dead proves that Jesus Christ is exactly who He claimed to be: the Son of God
who came into the world to save men. God would have never raised Christ if He had been a
liar and deceiver. Jesus Christ is the
Savior of the world; therefore, God raised Him from the dead.
3.
Third, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Perfect Man
who lived a sinless life when He was upon earth. Therefore, He
stands before God as the Perfect Man. What
this means is most significant. Being
the Perfect Man, what He has done is acceptable to God. When He arose from the dead, His resurrection
was the perfect resurrection. Therefore,
it can stand for and cover every man’s resurrection. If we are in Christ—if we really believe in
Christ—then God can count us in the ideal resurrection of Christ. God can raise us up to live with Him forever
and ever just as He did with Christ. Remember
why—because Jesus Christ arose and has given us the ideal and perfect
resurrection, and the Ideal can stand for and cover the resurrection of all
others.
Let the scripture
speak for itself: If Christ is in you, though the body is
dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if
the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
His Spirit who dwells in you. Romans
8:10-11
Hallelujah!!
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
