You Can Face Tomorrow
Every once in a while, someone comes along and claims that we don’t need to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can still be Christians without the miraculous or supernatural elements of the Christian faith, they say. But the tragedy for them and anyone who follows such a claim is that the implications of there being no resurrection don’t just make the Christian life difficult; they make it ridiculous.
If there is no resurrection, Paul pointed out, then those who have died trusting Jesus have utterly perished, and there is no hope of ever seeing them again. If we try to live a Christian life without the resurrection, then “we are of all people most to be pitied.” In fact, Paul says, “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” (1 Corinthians 15:32). If we don’t believe in the resurrection, then we ought to buy into all the clichés that so many say (but few truly believe)— “This life is what you make it” and “He who dies with the most toys wins!”
Enticing as such platitudes may be, we all have a sneaking suspicion that death is not the end. God has put eternity into our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and there is no scraping it out—no matter what force of rational skepticism or indulgent hedonism we apply to it. We know, by design, that there is more to life than life itself.
We also know that tomorrow, and in every tomorrow, there will be sadness, pain, loss, fear, and disappointment. How can anyone cope? Without the resurrection, we can’t. That is why Paul reminded the Ephesians that before being brought near to Christ, they had “no hope” and were “without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).
“But Christ has been raised.” And those five words make all the difference, not only to eternal life but also to life today. If you take God at His word and trust Him in faith, then there is never any reason for hopelessness. You have “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). No matter what difficulties await you—and today, and tomorrow, there will be some—you will always have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (v 4). “Because he lives, I can face tomorrow,” goes the song.[1] So can you—and you can do so with joy.
How is God calling me to think differently?
How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?
What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?
One in Christ
11Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called kthe circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12remember lthat you were at that time separated from Christ, malienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to nthe covenants of promise, ohaving no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were pfar off have been brought near qby the blood of Christ. 14For rhe himself is our peace, swho has made us both one and has broken down tin his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in uordinances, that he might create in himself one vnew man in place of the two, so making peace, 16and might wreconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17And he came and xpreached peace to you who were yfar off and peace to those who were znear. 18For athrough him we both have baccess in cone Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer dstrangers and aliens,4 but you are efellow citizens with the saints and fmembers of the household of God, 20gbuilt on the foundation of the hapostles and prophets, iChrist Jesus himself being jthe cornerstone, 21kin whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into la holy temple in the Lord. 22In him myou also are being built together ninto a dwelling place for God by5 the Spirit.
Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, 2022, The Good Book Company.
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