The Grace of God and the Resurrection from the Dead

Posted by Pastor Pat on March 7, 2009

Resurrection truth is a deep and settling expression of God’s richest grace.  In the absence of such truth our own selfish desires and appetites would consume us.  Life would cease having sunrises of hope

(1 Cor. 15).  The despair would be oppressive and mankind would become more cannibalistic in their greed and self-indulgence.

Without a resurrection from the dead this life would be a “period” instead of a “line.”

It is all too easy to allow this truth to slip away from our psyche.  In so doing, we are robbed of a compass in the midst of life’s storms.  It is the resurrection from the dead that feeds the hungry and quenches the thirst of the parched.  Hope . . . the word has lost much of its punch.  What is hope?  Hope is hearing the news of a child’s safety, of a positive doctor’s report, of a financial need being met.  Jesus Christ is hope.

This hope was declared with an exclamation point in His resurrection from the dead.   As we consider the resurrection there are several truths we need to be reminded of.

First, it is the resurrection from the dead where reward for God’s faithfulness to complete that which He has begun shall be given

(Luke 14:14).  When the New Testament Church gathers at the Judgment Seat of Christ (called the Bema Seat Judgment) there will be an unprecedented declaration of God’s faithfulness in finishing that which He alone began, who alone sustained and now completes.

The resurrection of our Lord affirms this.

Second, our final resurrection shall be the complete and utter demise of death’s sting (Luke 20:36; 1 Cor. 15:54).  His resurrection from the dead removes the victory and sting of death for me (1 Cor. 15:55).

Death no longer stands as victor over a conquered foe.

Third, it is the resurrection from the dead that comforts us in our time of earthly loss (John 11:24).

As believers our departure from one another is only a temporal transition from one world into the next.

Our good-byes are never final.  Our losses are never terminal.

Fourth, Jesus Christ is the embodiment of resurrection life and those who believe in Him will live even though they die (John 11:25).  To preach Jesus is to preach a resurrection from the dead (Acts 4:2; 17:18).  The two truths are in tandem.  They are inseparable.  We must never lose sight of the resurrection truth as it is woven into the very fabric of our Lord’s message.  It is the dye that colors the fabric of life with brilliant, breath-taking hope.  It is His resurrection from the dead that causes us to be born again to a living hope (1 Pet. 1:3).

Fifth, it was His resurrection from the dead that declared Him to be the Son of God with power (Rom. 1:4).  God the Father declared Jesus Christ to be His Son through the resurrection from the dead.  It was the divine stamp of approval that resonated through time’s corridor.

Jesus Christ approved of God.

This day is to be a day of great rejoicing as we reflect on our Lord’s resurrection from the dead.  We have been recipients of grace, may we now become conduits of grace to those around us.  May grace continue to reign at Waukesha Bible Church.