Jesus
said, “I am the resurrection and the life”! It’s one thing to make such a bold
assertion; it’s another to back it up—and back it up Jesus did by rising from
the dead.
“If you
believe that the Son of God died and rose again,” writes George MacDonald,
“your whole future is full of the dawn of eternal morning, coming up beyond the
hills of life, and full of such hope as the highest imagination for the poet
has not a glimmer yet.”
The Son
of God died and rose again, and His resurrection is the guarantee that God will
bring us up and out of the ground: A thinking, feeling, remembering,
recognizable person will live forever.
Living
forever means living out the thought of eternity that God has placed in our
hearts; meeting again one’s believing loved ones lost through separating death;
living in a world without sorrow; seeing our Lord who loves us and gave
everything to unite us to Him forever.
But I see another meaning. Since we have this life and the next, we don’t have to “have it all” now. We can live in broken and ruined bodies for a time; we can endure poverty and hardship for a while; we can face loneliness, heartache, and pain for a season. Why? There is a second birth—life in heaven forever.
