DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS

He Is Risen!

What if death were merely a sacred part of living, which religious zealots turned into a scare tactic to make people feel guilty about their behavior and be afraid of some divine judgment and hell, so then they can be manipulated to follow some religious system which robs them of their human goodness and cosmic significance? But death is scary, ugly, painful and inevitable because God told Adam and Eve, “The day you eat from the tree I have commanded you not to eat, you will die.”(Gen 2:17) “The soul who sins is the one who will die.” (Eze 18:20) “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6:23)

Behind the lie that death is some natural event in the experience of life and existence, and as sacred as being born and living, is the devil, who lied to Eve: “No, you aren’t going to die if you rebel against God.” The devil wants to deceive us so that he can keep us away from the only comfort, the only solution, the only way to face death, which is found in three words an angel said to some women at the empty tomb of Jesus one Sunday morning, “He is risen!”

Am I afraid of death? Yes. Am I afraid of death? No. Because of Jesus, both answers are correct for you when you put your faith in the truth of God’s Word and the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection. Did I grieve when my mother died? Yes. Did I grieve when my mother died? No. Who is not sad when the mother who gives you birth and raises you dies? But she died confessing this truth: “Death has been swallowed up in victory…Where, O death, is your sting?... But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1co 15:54) “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” (Job 19:25)

The Bible calls death the “last enemy to be destroyed.”(1co 15:26) That tells it like it is. My human nature fears death because it IS God’s punishment for all sin, and I have sinned. I am not afraid of death because Jesus “died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” (1co 15:2) This Jesus died as God who shared our humanity, “so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-- that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Heb 2:14) Death will not separate me from God, from my Savior Jesus and my believing loved ones!

Jesus brought us a message of infinite importance: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (Joh 11:25) Happy Easter, all of you! Jesus is risen!

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