Day 21

Our physical resurrection is dependent on the physical resurrection of Jesus.

“We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.”  —2 CORINTHIANS 4:14

Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, was once asked if he spends time pondering his own death. He answered, “I have never thought much about that because I don’t attach much importance to what happens after I die.” That is entirely logical if death is simply a long sleep from which we never awake. 

If we have any sense of certainty of a future life, what is the basis of that certainty? Every religion offers some hope for life beyond the grave, whether it’s a paradise beyond the sky, reincarnation in another life, or simply passing your life onto your children and children’s children. 

What, if anything, gives the Christian confidence in what Scripture tells us about the future life being true and reliable? Paul answers that in this verse: “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence (2 Corinthians 4:14). We have a prototype of our resurrection – it is the resurrection of Christ. Our physical resurrection is dependent on the physical resurrection of Jesus.

Therefore, if His resurrection can be disputed, so can ours, but if His resurrection is confirmed, then so is ours. The futuricity (if I can invent a word) of our resurrection is based on the Historicity of Christ’s resurrection – that is Paul’s argument here. When people argue that no one has ever died and come back to tell us, we have to say that is not true. The resurrection of Christ in which he broke the bonds of death is part of the gospel that gives us confidence in the future. 

We are not engaging in wishful thinking. If we based our confidence only on the teaching of Jesus, we might at times doubt, for we would have no undergirding of his statements to confirm them. Many have made noble statements about themselves and spoken words of wisdom, but the uniqueness of Jesus, and the confidence of a future life is confirmed by His resurrection from the dead “…the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep”. (1 Corinthians 15:20)

The Christian life is not primarily about getting into heaven when we die – marvellous as that is, but about God getting into us now, and that relationship extending for eternity. Our eternal life is dependent entirely on Christ’s eternal life. Here is our confidence, spoken by Jesus Himself, “Because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:19)