“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”
Acts 2:22-24
Every one of us has experience with death in some way, and in no way is it fun. Death is a lot of things: it is painful, it is sad, and it separates us from those we love.
However, there is one thing it cannot do for those who follow Christ: it has lost its power of agony over us. Among the myriad of things that the resurrection of Christ does for his followers, it takes away the sting and the power of death entirely (1 Cor. 15:55–57). We no longer have to worry ourselves about what comes after this life, because God demonstrated it to us in Christ. We know what is coming for us and for other faithful followers: Jesus was raised and so we shall also be raised.
Peter goes on in his first epistle to say that this is God’s mercy towards us that we are born again to a living hope because of Christ’s resurrection (1 Pet 1:3). God has shown us his love, mercy, and grace in immeasurable amounts, but no more so than by resurrecting Jesus so that we can know that death was not the end for Christ, so it is not the end for us. It was impossible for death to hold Jesus, so it will be impossible for death to hold his followers. Death could not sting Christ, and it will not sting us. Death could not bring agony to Christ, and he ended its ability to bring agony to us.
Christ knew he would be raised so he did not fear death, so neither do we as his followers; we welcome it, knowing that the promise of our resurrection is as true as the fact of Christ’s resurrection.
Because Christ was raised, we have hope of a future. “Therefore, comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thess 4:18).
– Andrew (Gif) Gifford
Dalraida church of Christ is a congregation of Christians that meet in the mid-town area of Montgomery, Alabama. Our goal and purpose is to seek and follow God and His Word in everything that we do in life.