◄ What Does 1 Corinthians 15:20 Mean? ►

Christians have the most wonderful and blessed hope. It is a hope that is based on scriptural facts, and the Word of God can never be broken. It is a future hope that is linked to the past, and a hope that starts and ends with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul was one of many hundreds who were eye-witnesses of the risen Lord Jesus, but Paul was also unique in the encounter that He had with Jesus of Nazareth, for Paul saw the risen Lord Jesus was in His resurrected, ascended, and glorified body. No surprise that the blessed hope that we all have in Christ is the most wonderful assurance which was given to us at our rebirth and is established by the Word of God, with an inheritance that is kept for us in heaven.

It reminds us that because Christ is risen from the dead, we too shall rise. Because of His Resurrection we have an assurance that all those that trust in His name will also be resurrected. He has promised that all who die in the Lord shall never die but have the light of life, when we shall ever be with the Lord.

The first-fruit of a tree is the precursor that more fruit will follow. And Christ is the first Man to have risen from the dead. He is the First-Fruit from the grave and His Resurrection is a pledge and a guarantee that the rest of the harvest will certainly follow. Christ is risen from the dead, and He has become the First-Fruits of all who 'sleep' and because He lives, all those who are positioned IN Christ will also live.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the complete assurance that all who have trusted on His name will be raised from the dead, with a new resurrected body that will be like His glorified body. The Lord is the Head of the Church and because He arose from the grave, He is the eternal witness that the Church, which is the Body, will also be raised: "For the perishable shall be clothed in the imperishable and the mortal will take on an immortal covering." Those whose bodies are perishing in the grave will rise imperishable and those that are alive and remain will put on immortality. Paul goes on to write: "But when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'"

It was because the deathless Son of God, Who has eternal life within Himself, became the perfect Son of Man and gave Himself as a willing sacrifice for the sin of the whole world, that He broke the power of sin and death in the life of ALL who trust in His name. His death paid the price for sin, but His Resurrection broke the power of sin and death forever in all who believe, and together we will live with Him in glory.

Because He lives we too shall live. Praise His wonderful name.

Praise the Lord for the power of the Cross of Christ, and thank You, Father, for the death and Resurrection of Jesus. Thank You that my sins were dealt with at the Cross, and death has lost its sting through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. In His name I pray, AMEN.