He IS Risen...Indeed

Haven't been able to focus on anything blog-worthy lately as my attention has been on my father in law's health issues. He's currently in hospice care as the last few days of his life pass. What a gift of God's grace to allow my wife's father Bud to have the time to gather with family and say goodbye, to make his wishes clear, to impart final words of wisdom. Once more showing the mercy and grace of our Lord.

But that's not what I'm thinking about right now. Approaching the culmination of this Holy Week, my mind is on the reality of the resurrection of Christ. The Christian's cry of celebration on Resurrection Sunday is this: "He is risen!" A clear, direct, unambiguous statement of fact. And not that He has risen, or that He was risen. He IS risen. Not just a past event, but a present reality. He rose from death to life, and He remains alive, in a resurrected state. Christ's resurrection isn't of the same category as those of Lazarus or others in the Biblical record who were raised from the dead. They didn't stay alive, they had to eventually die again. But Jesus Christ has risen, and is risen, never to suffer death again.

And all who have trusted in Him and His sacrificial death on the cross will likewise share in that resurrection. He not only resurrects us to spiritual life in regeneration so that we can respond to Him - He also guarantees that even though we may physically die, we have life eternal like His, and will ultimately be resurrected in a manner like His as well, never to perish again.

In fact, through personal faith in Jesus Christ, my father in law is facing the end of his physical life with the sure promise of eternal life and resurrection in Christ. How anyone can face death apart from that blessed hope and assurance, I can't imagine.

I Am Not Ashamed

"Those who objected to the Christian gospel ridiculed it, mocking it because of its absurdity. For there is nothing more ridiculous than the word of someone who preaches that the Son of God was born and brought up by Jews, who rejects neither the cross nor death, who says moreover not only that Christ rose from the dead but that he ascended to heaven as Lord of all, that he will raise everyone else from the dead, and other things the apostles preached. The pagans mocked these things and ridiculed them, thinking that they would make the apostles shut up. Therefore Saint Paul, feeling obliged to reply to this opinion of the apostles, began his teaching thus: I am not ashamed of the gospel."
- Gennadius of Constantinople, Sermons

(From The City)