Faith in the Resurrection
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.”
Job 19:25–27
Thousands of years before Jesus came to the world as the Saviour and Messiah who had been promised, those who knew and believed God had a great faith that this life is not the end—that there is an eternity beyond this life. Job lived long before there was a written promise of the resurrection recorded in Scripture, yet in the midst of his great trial, he declared with confidence that after his death he would see God in his physical body.
The death of Christ alone could not be the end of the story for us to have salvation. It was necessary that He also rise from the dead. Paul wrote, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The resurrection is just as much a part of the gospel as the cross.
The fact—not a myth or a legend or a tradition, but a historical, demonstrated fact—that Jesus rose from the dead is the evidence that all of God’s promises concerning our future are reliable. The power that overcame death and the grave guarantees our place in Heaven. This is the message of the resurrection. It is the center and source of our hope. It is the greatest miracle in all of human history. The empty tomb is an assurance that God will fulfill all of His commitments to us, and that one day the Lord will return to take us home.
Job 19:25–27
Thousands of years before Jesus came to the world as the Saviour and Messiah who had been promised, those who knew and believed God had a great faith that this life is not the end—that there is an eternity beyond this life. Job lived long before there was a written promise of the resurrection recorded in Scripture, yet in the midst of his great trial, he declared with confidence that after his death he would see God in his physical body.
The death of Christ alone could not be the end of the story for us to have salvation. It was necessary that He also rise from the dead. Paul wrote, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The resurrection is just as much a part of the gospel as the cross.
The fact—not a myth or a legend or a tradition, but a historical, demonstrated fact—that Jesus rose from the dead is the evidence that all of God’s promises concerning our future are reliable. The power that overcame death and the grave guarantees our place in Heaven. This is the message of the resurrection. It is the center and source of our hope. It is the greatest miracle in all of human history. The empty tomb is an assurance that God will fulfill all of His commitments to us, and that one day the Lord will return to take us home.
Today’s Growth Principle:
We should live every day in the reality of the resurrection and the certainty of Christ’s return.
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