April 12

“I have the same hope in God as these men–that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked!” — Acts 24:15

A hope of resurrection to a believer in Christ–ought to be a wonderful inspiration in the earthly life. The grave is not the end; we shall come again from it in new beauty, and shall live on forever. Not only did Christ teach that the dead shall rise again–but he himself went down into the grave and then came out again, after three days, alive! Thus he showed the reality of resurrection; one man died and rose again, and may not all? But his resurrection meant more than that. He was the head of his people, and as such–his victory was for them. He met and conquered death for them.

Now death is a vanquished foe. Paul puts it very strongly, and says that Christ abolished death. Jesus himself put it no less strongly when he said, “I am the resurrection and the life . . . whoever lives and believes in me–shall never die!” There is no break, no interruption, in a Christian’s life, in what we call dying. The spirit lives more really, fully, gloriously, a moment after death–than ever it lived before. Then the body which goes down into the grave, ‘sleeps‘–that is the Christian word–sleeps in Jesus, until the resurrection, when Christ will come and call it up; not the old earthly, worn-out, sin-corrupted, mortal flesh and blood–but a new, strong, glorious, incorruptible, immortal, spiritual body, to live with Christ forever!