It's Not Over Yet

This past Sunday, we celebrated the resurrection from the dead, to new life, of our Lord Jesus Christ. That event changed
the world of the apostles and everyone they spoke to, forever, in a foundational way. Nothing was ever the same again! Over and over, the sermons and speeches the apostles gave were focused on the facts that Jesus was the Son of God, that he died for us and as the climax (could I have a drum roll, please?) that he rose from the dead. Even though the odds were stacked against a normal person, with Roman guards and a huge stone securing the mouth of the tomb, Jesus walked out again because he was no normal person.

In 1 Cor. 15, Paul picks up the theme and relates it to two important facts:  the doctrine preached in the church that the dead will be raised; and the hope the resurrection gives all of us, in all our trials and problems in life today. Somebody was going around gabbing that the dead would not be raised. Paul says "well then, we are the most hopeless people on earth!"  BUT, he says (with heavy emphasis, in the Greek grammar) as a matter of fact Christ has been raised (v. 20) -- a fact to which he, and many others, could testify from personal experience. Paul defends the resurrection of the dead by insisting that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised (v. 13-15) and therefore our hope is not in vain. 

In sum, Paul is telling us Jesus' resurrection shows: 1) this life isn't all there is, and 2) death, as a passing from this life, isn't final either. Many of us have said farewell to relatives or friends in the last year or so. We know, and we can hold onto, the truth that a greater life is waiting for us on the other side of the grave. So we don't have any despair or lack of trust that our loved ones are safe with God.

It's not over yet...in fact, it's barely started. This life is just the beginning, the barest little sliver of a crack in the door to eternity. The most exciting time we can experience here, is just a toothpick-sample-sized piece of the rewarding life Jesus has given us, being face-to-face with God forever (Rev. 22:4). Even the longest life on earth isn't even a single frame of the everlasting movie of eternity.

It's not over yet! And that's such a powerful idea, I'm thinking of having it carved on my tombstone. In about 50 years or so.