No Fear of Death

 Happy Resurrection Sunday!

"For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins. It would also mean that the believers in Christ who have died are lost.  If our hope in Christ is good for this life ONLY and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world."(1 Corinthians 15:16-19 GNT).

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the major tenets of our faith.  Without the resurrection there is no hope for us after death.   Hebrews 9:27 says, "Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation."(Message).  Unless Jesus returns for the Church before we die, we will all face death.  Hebrews 2:15 says, "Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and FREED all who cower through life, scared to death of death."(Message).

We don't have to fear.  We don't have to fear death.  One man asked another man if he wanted to go to Heaven. Several times the man responded, "No!"  The man asking was puzzled, and asked the question differently, "You don't want to go to Heaven when you die?"  The man said, "Sure, I do ! But I thought you were getting up a load now!" LOL!  We don't want to die today, but we are not afraid of death.  I personally agree with the Psalmist, "I will move past my enemies with this one, sure hope: that with my own eyes, I will see the goodness of the Eternal in the Land of the Living."(Psalm 27:13 Voice).  

The Apostle Paul encouraged us, "On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:

Death swallowed by triumphant Life!  

Who got the last word, oh, Death?

Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?

It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!"(Message).

No wonder Jesus said, "I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of."(John 10:10 Message).

Love and prayers, Cynthia