1 Corinthians 15:17-19 AMP
…and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless and powerless [mere delusion]; you are still in your sins [and under the control and penalty of sin]. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If we who are [abiding] in Christ have hoped only in this life [and this is all there is], then we are of all people most miserable and to be pitied.
His death, his burial, and his resurrection, that is the foundation of our Christian faith. As the scripture says, if Christ has not been raised from the dead then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost, but that is not the case because we know that he was raised from the dead.
The bible says that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank God for the BUT in that scripture.
One benefit of the resurrection is eternal life because we have believed in him. Please take note that we have eternal life now, it is not something we will be given after we die, it is something we are given when we believe in Jesus!
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1 John 5:11 AMP – And the testimony is this: God has given us eternal life [we already possess it], and this life is in His Son [resulting in our spiritual completeness, and eternal companionship with Him].
With this understanding, we do not mourn as the world mourns when one dies, we mourn because we feel the pain of the separation from the one who has died or slept as the bible puts it, but we have a hope on the inside of us that the world cannot understand because we know that this individual has not really died because they have eternal life and we will see them again!
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 AMP – 13 Now we do not want you to be uninformed, believers, about those who are asleep [in death], so that you will not grieve [for them] as the others do who have no hope [beyond this present life]. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again [as in fact He did], even so God [in this same way—by raising them from the dead] will bring with Him those [believers] who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
Because Christ is risen, death has lost its victory and the grave has been denied. We who were once dead in sin are now alive in Christ Jesus.
Reflections
- What is the closest person you have ever lost?
- What do you understand by eternal life and that as a believer, you have it now?
- What are your reflections on Matthew 10:28?
