I am the resurrection and the life

 


John 11:25–26 

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 

and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. Do you believe this?”

Tobit’s Thanksgiving to God

   Then Tobit said: 

    “Blessed be God who lives forever, 
    and blessed be his kingdom. 
    For he afflicts, and he shows mercy; 
    he leads down to Hades in the lowest regions of the earth, 
    and he brings up from the great abyss, 
    and there is nothing that can escape his hand.  Tobit 13:1–2 

When The Last Trump Sounds

This well-being, as has been said, begins in baptism, which signifies death and the resurrection at the Last Day. Therefore, so far as the sign of the sacrament and its significance are concerned, sins along with the person are already dead and the person has risen again; so the sacrament has taken place. But the work of the sacrament has not yet fully happened, that is, death and the resurrection at the Last Day are still before us. 

The significance of baptism—the dying or drowning of sin—is not fulfilled completely in this life. Indeed this does not happen until a person passes through bodily death and completely decays to dust. As we can plainly see, the sacrament or sign of baptism is quickly over. But the spiritual baptism, the drowning of sin, which it signifies, lasts as long as we live and is completed only in death. Then it is that a person is completely sunk in baptism, and that which baptism signifies comes to pass.

Dirk G. Lange, “The Holy and Blessed Sacrament of Baptism,” in The Roots of Reform, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand, Kirsi I. Stjerna, and Timothy J. Wengert, vol. 1, The Annotated Luther (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), 208–209.

Oberlin Social and Sabbath School Hymn Book. “Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?” has since challenged Christians in their commitment to Christ and His service with the realization that an earthly cross always precedes the heavenly crown.
 
 Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free? No, there’s a cross for ev’ry one,  a cross for me.
The consecrated cross I’ll bear till death shall set me free, and then go home my crown to wear, for there’s a crown for me.
  How happy are the saints above, who once went sorrowing here! But now they taste 
 unmingled love, and joy without a tear.
  O precious cross! O glorious crown! O resurrection day! Ye angels, from the stars come down and bear my soul away.

Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1996), 311.


Alive Through Christ’s Death (Romans 6:1-11)

But this is the point I want you to understand a Christian is not simply a person who gets forgiveness, a Christian is not simply a person who gets to go to heaven, not simply a person who receives the Holy Spirit.  He is a person who has become someone he was not.  

He is a Saint, a child of God, a divine masterpiece, a child of light.  A born son, a citizen of heaven. Not only positionally, not only judicially, but actually.  Becoming a Christian is becoming a new creation.  That’s what we are.  And that’s what we see as we look at our lives.  

I don’t see my own life as perfect by any stretch of the imagination.  I see sin in my life, but I hate it.  That’s the evidence of my new nature.  John Newton who was a dissolutant, dissipated debotched sinner of the worst ilk was converted by amazing grace.  And wrote so many hymns like that.  One thing that he wrote that is not in his hymnology sums up what Paul is saying here.

     This is what John Newton said.  “I am not what I ought to be.  I am not what I wish to be.  I am not what I hope to be.  But by the cross of Jesus Christ, I am not what I was.”  That’s it.  That’s a new creation.  What a gift.  Let’s bow in prayer.  Our Lord we have just touched the surface of this so much could be said and I pray that your Holy Spirit would make these things clear through all our hearts.  We thank you that you’ve shaped us and made us into new creations.  And we’re not what we ought to be and we’re not what we want to be and we’re not what we’re going to be, and neither are we what we used to be. 

Father, how glorious a gift is this to have all things passed away and be made new.  To be granted love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self control the fruit of the spirit.  To be given the knowledge of the truth, the power of the spirit, oh Father, how rich we are.  We thank you for the miracle of transformation.  That accompanies justification.  We pray that this sanctification, this transformation which was begun at that moment of our faith will progress and continue along the path towards Christ’s likeness.  Ever increasing until Jesus we see.  We pray in his great name, Amen. 




 





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