RESURRECTION!

R is for redemption.

E is for eternal life.

In a few days, it will have been three months since my Daddy took his last breath in this world. As you can imagine, the word “death” has taken on a whole new meaning for my immediate family. While we’ve experienced the death of other friends and loved ones, for my mother, my brother, and myself, this one has touched our hearts in ways we probably never expected.

Death has become very personal. We’ve looked into the face of death and found ourselves powerless to stop it.

I know that many of you reading this understand. We mourn and grieve with our friends and extended family at the passing of their loved ones, but when it comes into our house in such a personal way it strikes a bit deeper. We feel the loss more keenly, the separation more profoundly.

I’m so thankful that even though we had no ability to stop the progression of death, Jesus did!

It seems I’ve believed in the resurrection of Jesus my whole life, although that knowledge became personal to me when I accepted God’s gift of salvation at age seven. Since that day, I’ve never questioned that He really is the Son of God, that He actually came into our world through a virgin’s womb, and that He lived a perfect, sinless life, and was crucified as an innocent man on a cruel Roman cross. There’s never been a doubt that He was laid in a borrowed tomb, and on the third day came out of that grave and appeared in a glorified, resurrected physical body – raised from death to life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

These are facts that are the bedrock of my worldview, and the reason I can get up every morning and face a chaotic, gone-crazy, wicked, evil world – a world without my Daddy in it – with absolute hope and a deep abiding joy.

Why?

Because Jesus’ resurrection promises that all who believe have eternal life, and because of his faith in Jesus Christ, my Daddy is experiencing the fulfillment of that promise right now.

I will see my Daddy again.

I know this without a doubt because when Jesus was resurrected, He conquered the greatest enemy: death. We are free from its power; it is no longer an enemy to fear, but a friend that releases us from this world into the life God always intended us to have – eternal life.

Hebrews 2:14-15 – Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. 

John, the beloved disciple, gave first-hand, eye-witness testimony to the resurrection of Jesus, along with many others.

1 John 1:1-3 – What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life – and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

1 John 2:25; 5:11 – This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. … And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

Paul describes all those eyewitnesses (including himself) – giving credible, historical evidence that Jesus died and rose again.

1 Corinthians 15:1-8 – Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

How did my Daddy obtain eternal life? How did I? How can you?

Romans 10:8-12 – But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

John 3:16,36 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. … He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

John 6:40,47 – For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. … Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

John 17:3 – This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What a difference it makes to look death in the face with the hope of eternal life springing up in my heart. I can mourn the loss of my father’s presence in our lives, but not as those who grieve without hope.

I will see my Daddy again.

My earnest hope and prayer is that you will too.

Jude 1:20-21 – But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.