No matter who you are, you are growing older with every minute. This is an undeniable F-A-C-T. You might be a very nice person or the complete opposite. Young or old, rich or poor, someday your earthly body will fail you and you will die. Depressing isn’t it?
However, one of the reasons I follow Jesus of Nazareth is hope. Hope that someday I will be victorious over death and decay. I WILL BE VICTORIOUS BECAUSE JESUS WAS VICTORIOUS! Because Jesus lives, I will live. His resurrection from the grave is what is in store for me. This past Lord’s day, I heard an excellent lesson about the resurrection of Jesus. The good news is: It was the first of several lessons on the topic from the 15th chapter of the book of 1st Corinthians.
The Bible says...
1 Corinthians 15 ( World English Bible )
1 Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
8 and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was bestowed on me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
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54 But when this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
AND
1 John 5 ( WEB )
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.
If you believe the documented fact that Jesus died for our sins and that he now is living, your faith will be rewarded at the moment of your demise. And that reward is not temporary, it is permanent! Until that day, I will live in the knowledge that with Jesus Christ, I WILL BE VICTORIOUS. Can you say that? If not, then put aside whatever is preventing you from obeying the Gospel and become a Christian NOW!