Life and Death

Death is a really big problem for us. The resurrection of Christ advertises to us the availability of the ultimate solution. Many misguided philosophers prefer to speak of the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection as metaphor, principle or some inspirational concept. But if Christ’s resurrection wasn’t real, then the reality of a solution for our very real problem is lost.

The Bible presents the resurrection of Christ as the physical prototype of our own resurrection:  life, real death, time, real life again (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20).  Only the “real life again” is promised to be without all the effects of sin – which include deterioration, pain, weakness and susceptibility to death (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:42-43).

The catch is that this enjoyment of an ageless, painless, disease-less physical existence is held out for those who take Jesus at his word. At a funeral of his friend, face to face with every human’s ultimate problem, Christ declared the essence of the Christian message: “I am the resurrection and the life, he who trusts in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). That is precisely the solution we need.