4 April 2024 - Christ is alive

1 Corinthians 15:14(CEV) And if Christ wasn't raised to life, our message is worthless, and so is your faith.

If Christ has not been raised, then our message and faith is in vain. If the resurrection was not true, it would be a distortion of the character and work of God. If there is no resurrection, then there is no reason to have hope and thus, those who put their hope in Christ are most to be pitied.

But Christ has risen! 1 Corinthians 15:20(PHILLIPS) But the glorious fact is that Christ did rise from the dead: he has become the very first to rise of all who sleep the sleep of death.

Christ is the ‘first fruits of those who are asleep’. The first fruits derive from the Old Testament where the first portion of the crop (or flock) is offered in thanksgiving to God. It means ‘the first act of sacrifice.’

In other words, the first fruits are the first act, or portion, of sacrifice which represents the entire harvest. Christ is the first act of bodily resurrection (first fruits), whereby the bodily resurrection of the dead will follow (the harvest).

In Isaiah 26:19(NIV) it reads: But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise – let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.

If people die, God’s own sovereign purposes are not yet fully realised. Hence the necessity of the resurrection – to destroy death by ‘robbing’ it of its store of those who do not belong to death because they belong to Christ! God’s plan for man is to live forever. Thus, through Jesus’s resurrection this has been made possible.

Ecclesiastes 3:11(NLT) God has planted eternity in the human heart.

Life on earth is a temporary assignment. To make the best use of your life, there are two truths you must always remember: First, compared with eternity, life is extremely brief. Second, earth is only a temporary residence. You won’t be here long, so don’t get too attached. Ask God to help you see life on earth as He sees it. David prays in Psalm 39:4(LB) Lord, help me to realize how brief my time on earth will be. Help me to know that I am here for but a moment more.

May God bless you.