This March I attended four funerals within a 10-day time span. That makes up a large number of people who now have huge holes in their hearts and lives.
In this world we face many enemies. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:26 that “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” Death will one day no longer intimidate. Death will no longer threaten. Death will no longer rob us of our loved ones. Death has not always been and death will not always be.
Those who believe in the theory of evolution must believe that death has always been a part of life, but the Bible says differently. Romans 5:12 says, “…through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” This one man was Adam. When God created the sun, moon, and stars, the lions, and the antelopes, the birds, and the fish of the sea, and finally the crown of his creation — man and woman, the Bible says in Genesis 1:31, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”
Death is not “very good.” Would you agree? This means that death was not in the beginning. Impending death was not wired into God’s creations. Death was a byproduct of man’s sin, of man’s disobedience to God’s command.
Adam and Eve, the first humans on earth, had everything they ever needed and more, but Satan tempted Eve to lust after the one thing they were forbidden to eat. Not only that, but he also tempted her to lose her trust in God’s character, which she did, so she ate, and she gave to her husband, and he ate as well. You are no different and neither am I.
Death entered the world, but humanity was not left without a promise of future victory. 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 reads, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
The first man went and made a mess of things for everyone, but Christ came, Jesus Christ, God in Human form (1 Timothy 3:16), and he undid man’s catastrophic failure. Sin requires death, and Jesus paid the full price for sin by dying in our place, and after three days in a tomb, Jesus rose from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:17 reads, “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
Side by side with Christ’s crucifixion, him rising from the dead is the beating heart of Christianity. It wasn’t his death alone that secured our forgiveness. It was his death and his resurrection. Jesus didn’t just die and rise to give us love and comfort now. He did so to give us an eternity with him in resurrected bodies, free of disease, sin, and the ability to die. Even when life on earth is at its best, is that really enough? To live a life enjoyed, 60, 70, or 80 years, then perish?
I don’t know about you, but for me that is not enough. Many of us are scrambling to squeeze as much fun and achievement out of life as possible before we breathe our last because all of our hope is in this life, but now I can rest in the fact that life is bigger than the here and now. I was created for eternity. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.” (John 11:25) Those who believe in Jesus and obey his gospel (1 Thessalonians 1:8) have eternal life. Thank you, Jesus, for rising from the dead that we may too.