resurrection

18
Jan
2020

Faith cries out

Originally posted on the Electric Gospel on November 10, 2019.

Faith cries out

by David Sellnow

What happens inside your soul when crisis or disaster strikes your life?  How do you feel?  What do you say? Let me share with you words of pain from someone whose faith was put to the test by devastating losses. When life hurts, have you ever screamed thoughts like this?

  • “Why didn’t I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last? … I could be resting in peace right now, asleep forever, feeling no pain.”
  • “I hate this life! Who needs any more of this?”
  • “God, how does this fit into what you once called ‘good’? … Can’t you let up, and let me smile just once …before I’m nailed into my coffin, sealed in the ground, and banished for good to the land of the dead?”
  • “Please, God … address me directly so I can answer you, or let me speak and then you answer me. How many sins have been charged against me? Show me the list—how bad is it? Why do you stay hidden and silent? Why treat me like I’m your enemy?”
  • “My spirit is broken, my days used up. … I can hardly see from crying so much. … My life’s about over. All my plans are smashed, all my hopes are snuffed out.”
  • “Why do the wicked have it so good, live to a ripe old age and get rich? … Their homes are peaceful and free from fear; they never experience God’s disciplining rod.”
  • “God has no right to treat me like this—it isn’t fair! If I knew where on earth to find him, I’d go straight to him. [But wherever I go, he’s not there.]”
  • “People are dying right and left, groaning in torment. The wretched cry out for help, and God does nothing, acts like nothing’s wrong!”
  • “I shout for help, God, and get nothing, no answer! I stand to face you in protest, God, and you give me a blank stare! … What did I do to deserve this? … Haven’t I wept for those who live a hard life, been heartsick over the lot of the poor? But where did it get me? I expected good but evil showed up. I looked for light but darkness fell. My stomach’s in a constant churning, never settles down. Each day confronts me with more suffering. I walk under a black cloud. The sun is gone.”

Have you ever had thoughts like that in the midst of trouble? If you have, does that mean you aren’t a good Christian? If you scream at God when you feel like God has disappeared from your world, have you failed the test of faith?  Should you be more like Job, famous for his faith when afflicted with suffering?  He lost his family (his adult children were killed). He lost his wealth. He lost his health. And yet he spoke with rock-solid conviction.  Job’s famous words were written down and inscribed in a book forever:  “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27 NRSV).

Perhaps you are more like Job than you realize.  All of the words I quoted to you at first — words of complaint, of accusation against God, of desperation and wanting to be dead — those all were words of Job.  (Bible quotations were from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Referenced verses – Job 3:11,13; 7:16; 10:3,20-22; 13:20-24; 17:1,7,11; 21:7,9; 23:2-3,8-9; 24:11-12; 30:20-28.)

Job’s words of resurrection confidence are surrounded in Scripture by many words of grief and doubt and heartache. People speak of “the patience of Job” — and yes, the patience of a faithful heart remained alive in Job.  But that patience of faith existed in the midst of the frayed nerves and tortured soul of a life under horrible strain. Job’s wife is often criticized for telling her husband to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9) when everything fell apart for them. But I’m sympathetic toward Job’s wife. She was a mother who lost her children and could not be comforted. Her heart was overwhelmed with pain. And Job, too, struggled with that pain. Job wrestled with God in his heart, and went back and forth in his thoughts.  The same person who expressed all the anger and hurt I shared with you a few moments ago also said:

  • “Even if God killed me, I’d keep on hoping.” (Job 13:15 The Message)
  • “All through these difficult days I keep hoping, waiting for the final change—for resurrection!” (Job 14:14 The Message)
  • “Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? … God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. … Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”  (Job 28:20,23,28 NRSV)

Isn’t that the way that faith is in our lives? We go back and forth in our thoughts, between hurt and hope. We cry out to the Lord, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)  If you read the Psalms, you’ll hear words of joy and praise as well as words of anguish and questioning. If you listen to Jesus himself, hanging on the cross, you’ll hear him scream, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) as well as, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46 NRSV). You’ve likely seen this same thing in the lives of Christians you have known, or in your own hearts as God’s people fighting the good fight of faith. I’ve sat with a woman outside the intensive care unit, where her husband was going through organ failure after diabetes had done decades worth of damage to his body.  I’ve sat with the family of an Air Force colonel  who died in a tragic plane crash — not in battle, but while assigned to supervise younger pilots practicing for an air show.  Things happen that seem senseless, merciless, unfair, intolerable.  We cry out in distress and anguish, and at the same time call out to God in hope.  When God seems to have abandoned us, that’s when we cling most urgently to his promise that he never will leave us, never will forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5).

Martin Luther spoke often about how God reveals himself to us in hidden ways, in the midst of pain and suffering and the cross. We tend to want God to show himself by big and bold and obvious blessings happening in our lives. But more often, God’s deepest work on our hearts happens through difficult things we don’t want to endure. In his Heidelberg theses (which he composed when under pressure to defend his teachings), Martin Luther said this:

  • “Now it is not sufficient for anyone and does no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross. Thus God destroys the wisdom of the wise, as Isaiah 45:15 says, ‘Truly, you are a God who hides himself.’” 

God’s greatest work in this world was accomplished when God seemed to be absent from the scene, when Jesus was hanging on a cross, dying in shame, with people shouting obscenities at him.  That’s not where people thought they’d find God. Yet that was how God had chosen to show himself and to save the world, through Jesus’ suffering.  And in our own lives too, we are drawn closer to God, made more dependent on God, when facing life’s agonies and, ultimately, death.  So when the difficult days come, yes, we will cry, we will scream, we will hurt. But we also will trust God is working in his own mysterious ways to draw us closer to himself and to draw us on in the direction of heaven.  Because ultimately, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 NRSV).

The fact that we have faith doesn’t make us immune to hurt. Sometimes we forget that. I’ve known some Christians who’ve undergone a great loss or catastrophe, and they paste on a smile because they think a Christian should never be sad. They don’t allow themselves to grieve because they think grieving would mean they weren’t expressing hope. They may shed a tear at the funeral, but the day after they expect themselves to be putting all the sadness behind them. That’s an artificial understanding of our Christian hope. We don’t pretend we aren’t hurting. We acknowledge the full reality of pain and suffering, of sin and death, of the grave and loss. And at the same time, we cling to hope in the power of the resurrection. Think of Jesus, who broke down in tears when his friend Lazarus died – even while he knew he was going to raise Lazarus back out of his grave. Jesus felt death’s pain even when he had the power to overturn death. We need not gloss over the ugliness and bitterness of awful things that happen to us in this world. In the midst of that ugliness, we still seek God’s face (Psalm 105:4) and believe in his mercy.

When you’re facing loss, hardship, heartache, tragedy, it’s normal for you to cry out in pain. The great patriarch Job cried out again and again, begging God for answers. God remained silent for a time, but he did hear Job and he did finally answer him. And God hears you when you cry too. God is helping you even when you have a hard time feeling his support. He reminds you of his promises. His Spirit helps you hang on and have hope. Maybe you don’t have the patience of Job. Then again, even Job didn’t have the patience of Job! But all of us, as God’s people, will join with Job in confessing our faith. We say:

  • “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27 NRSV).

That is our confidence, our cry of faith, even when this life is so often so full of so much pain. We cry with hurt, but we also cry with hope. How our hearts yearn within us!

Posted by David Sellnow
17
Jan
2020

When winter seems unending

Originally published on the Electric Gospel on April 7, 2018.

Always winter … but always Christmas and always Easter

by David Sellnow

Where I live, it seems like winter will never end.  This week a record low temperature was set — in single digits.  Waking up yesterday morning, the wind chill felt several degrees below zero.  Tomorrow a snowstorm is predicted.  And it’s April.There’s a line in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis, that comes to mind:  “It is winter in Narnia,” said Mr. Tumnus, “and has been for ever so long … always winter, but never Christmas.”  Life in the real world can seem very much like that so much of the time. Another way of describing life’s long, cold, dreariness was expressed by Moses many centuries ago:  “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow” (Psalm 90:10).

Yet that message of sadness and pain is not the only word we have from God about our lives in this world.  In reality, while our lives may feel like an endless winter, it is always Christmas for us, and always Easter.  The meaning of Christmas was that God came into this world to share our pain, to take all our troubles onto himself.  It was prophesied (Isaiah 7:14), “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” [which means, “God with us”].  Christ entered into our existence and “took up our pain and bore our suffering. … The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4,5). Christ faced all the worst that this world has to offer and died for us.  But “it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24).  Every Easter, we celebrate his resurrection from the grave and the life eternal we have through him.  And resurrection hope is not just something that prompts us to put on springtime clothing and go to church on Easter Sunday.  God’s mercy “has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3) — a hope that enables us to get up and face each day in the here and now, as well as having assurance of being with God in the hereafter.

It may indeed always be winter in the way our lives feel on this earth.  But in Christ, it is always Christmas, for he is beside us as our Brother, born into humanity with us.  And in Christ, it is always Easter, filled with hope and new life.  Because he lives, we also will live (John 14:19).

Posted by David Sellnow
26
Dec
2019

Martha – An Example for Us

Originally published on the Electric Gospel on July 29, 2014

 

Martha, Martha — an example for us

by David Sellnow

I generally don’t pay attention to all the minor feast days in the Christian calendar.  It’s traditional within the church to designate certain days to remember people of faith from our past.  Persons who died martyr’s deaths are typically remembered on the day of their deaths — the day they went on to be with the Lord in glory.  Others simply have dates assigned by tradition.  I’m not the type to pray to persons from the past. I believe in relying on the LORD God alone.  But we do recognize the lives of trust that our predecessors lived and we desire to emulate their confidence in Jesus. Scripture urges us to ponder how they lived by faith (cf. Hebrews 11).  “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

July 29 is the traditional day for remembering Martha of Bethany, sister of Mary and Lazarus, dear friend of Jesus.  We would do well to think about Martha’s example as a believer.

I’m afraid what most of us remember about Martha — and usually with disapproval — is how she raced about in the kitchen when Jesus came to visit, and was frustrated that her sister wasn’t helping her.  Luke 10:38-42:

Jesus came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Don’t be too judgmental of Martha.  Jesus wasn’t.  His words to her were a warm encouragement, not a stern rebuke.  Martha loved Jesus dearly and opened her home to him.  Who of you would not try to put your best meal on the table if Jesus came to visit?  So often so many of us need the reassurance of Jesus — that we can quit all our racing around and just sit with him and listen to his message of hope.  We don’t have to be the perfect accomplishers of all of life’s little tasks.  We have a Savior who just wants us to be with him.

We would do well to remember another conversation between Martha and Jesus.  Martha’s brother Lazarus became very ill and died … and Jesus had not hurried to go to his friends when Lazarus was ill.  He came to Bethany finally after Lazarus had been in the grave for four days.  The evangelist John tells what transpired (John 11:20-27):

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him ….

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Jesus demonstrated his grace and his almighty power that day, summoning the wrapped corpse of Lazarus out of his tomb and back to life.

 

Martha demonstrated the rock-solid faith of a disciple of Jesus that day, not afraid to question her Lord in prayer (conversation) with him, and also firmly convinced of the reality of his gospel.  Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, who came into the world to give us resurrection and life.

Martha knew that about Jesus.  We know that about Jesus.

Through Jesus “you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:21)

Posted by kyriesellnow
24
Dec
2019

Not dead, but sleeping

Originally published on the Electric Gospel on May 27, 2019.

On this Memorial Day, I think back to the funeral of a military officer a number of years ago. I’ve adapted words that I shared on that day for the benefit of other families who have lost a loved one in military service.

This is for God’s glory

by David Sellnow

Jesus had a very dear friend named Lazarus.  Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, also were very dear to Jesus. They lived in Bethany, a short distance outside Jerusalem. Jesus had been a guest in their home. They were followers of his. They believed his teachings and knew of his miracles. They relied on him as their Savior. So it was natural for them, when they had a problem, to turn to Jesus for help.

Lazarus had become ill. His sisters immediately sent word to Jesus. “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick” (John 11:3). They assumed Jesus would come quickly; they knew Jesus could heal their brother.

However, when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, “he stayed two days in the place where he was” (John 11:6). In the meantime, Lazarus died. By the time Jesus came to Bethany, Lazarus had been in the grave already for a couple of days. Martha went out to meet him and said, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died” (John 11:21).

Think of the pain and bewilderment that Lazarus’ sisters felt: “Jesus, you knew and loved this man; he knew and loved you. We told you he was sick. We called for you to come because we were in trouble. Yet you let him die. You dawdled for two days while he was breathing his last. Why, Lord, why? How could you do this? Why didn’t you help? You had the power to stop this, and instead you let our brother die! Why? Why?”

Dear families of those who have given their lives in the service of our country: You’ve ve likely asked yourselves similar questions concerning the loss of a loved one. “Why, Lord, why?” Such questions are never easily answered. But when we face a tragic and untimely death, the loss of someone who is beloved of Christ, the words and actions of Christ when Lazarus died give us some insight. There are three key things Jesus said and did at that time. When he first heard that Lazarus was sick, Jesus had said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it” (John 11:4). Then, speaking to his disciples about Lazarus’ death, Jesus said, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep” (John 11:11). To Martha, Jesus also gave an absolute promise:  “Your brother will rise again. … I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies” (John 11:23,25). Finally, to prove his words, Jesus came to Lazarus’ tomb, had the stone rolled away, and called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” (John 11:43) – and the dead man came out of his grave, once again alive.

What Jesus did for Lazarus is not fiction. It is not fairy tale. It is fact. What Jesus did for Lazarus he will do for each of his people who fall asleep in him. Yes, he calls it “falling asleep.” Several times Jesus used that expression to refer to people who died. Sometimes he was laughed at for speaking that way.  Once, at a wake where mourners were wailing over the death of a young girl, Jesus said, “Why do you make an uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but is asleep” (Mark 5:39). The mourners laughed and ridiculed him. But for Jesus, waking someone from death is no more difficult than waking someone from sleep. Death is not the end. It is a temporary state from which God, by his mighty power, will raise us up again. He will reconstruct each person, whether buried in the ground or scattered on the seas or blown apart in battle. The limits of our human mind may object to such a thought, but it us God’s truth. He guarantees it. And he has the authority and ability to do it. He did it for Lazarus, whom he dearly loved. He will do so for your loved ones too. He will raise each of us from our graves. We wait for the coming of the Last Day, when God’s promise to resurrect every one of us in Christ will be fulfilled.

The part of any death that’s hardest for us to understand is how such a thing could be for God’s glory. In Lazarus’ case, God’s purpose was seen rather quickly, within a few days. Jesus had said that Lazarus’ sickness would not end in death, and that God would be glorified. And so it was. The sickness brought about death, but the story didn’t end there. Death was reversed. The miracle was witnessed by many. The Son of God, Jesus, revealed his grace and power. The reputation of Jesus’ name grew, and people put their faith in him more and more.

Where is the glory of God for those whose lives are cut short prematurely today? God’s glory is there, but it is painfully hard for us to see. Those loved by the Lord live on in the eternal light of the Savior. But at present, all we see is the emptiness that is left behind. We grieve. We feel their absence. And that hurts. For the families of lost service members, when they died, you died too. You died on the inside. And you didn’t get to wake up looking into the loving eyes of your Lord in heaven, as your departed loved one did. God has asked you to stay behind in this world, now especially bleak for you without your beloved in it. But the glory of God still will be revealed in this. God, who has crushed your spirit, will strengthen and support you and revive you again. He will uplift your soul. You will never be the same; your lives will be changed. But God will give you reasons to hope and will work to draw you closer to him than you’ve been before. His purpose in life, in death, in all things, is to bring each of us nearer to him in faith. He has a plan, even when horrible tragedy strikes, to bring about blessing for each of his children. Bu remember–he counts blessings in spiritual, not material terms. What matters most to God is increasing and deepening your reliance on him, so that your hearts will be ready on the day he chooses to call you home to himself, to go and be with him, where your loved one now has gone.

You dear family members who are remembering lost loved ones, I know you know these things. I know that your faith in your Savior is still alive and breathing. Nevertheless, even as you hang onto hope in Jesus, you still will mourn. And no one can fully know how you feel. Friends  and acquaintances will have a sense of your loss, but few can relate to the depth of loss you’ve experienced. And you yourselves have never felt heartache as severe as this. But keep the faith and take courage in this: There is someone who has experienced the loss of his One and Only Son. The Father in heaven watched his own Son, Jesus, die a bloody, heart-wrenching, horrible death, nailed to a cross in agony. It was a death so devastating that the sun stopped shining when it happened. But it was not a death without purpose. Jesus’ death was for our ultimate and eternal good. By his death, Christ became our Redeemer from death. He has taken our lost loved ones on angels’ wings to be with him. And God will fully, miraculously restore the bodies of all his people in glory. We have hope in a Savior who will do these things for us and a Father who understands the pain we feel. We believe that God is glorious and great and good, and that the only reason he allows death to occur to us is as a way to usher us into the glory and greatness and goodness of heaven. That is where those who have died in the Lord have gone. By faith, that is where we will follow also.

Dear God, make it so.

Posted by Electric Gospel
24
Dec
2019

Go and make disciples

Originally published on The Electric Gospel on May 30, 2016.

Go and make disciples

by Jacob Heyn

What is the mission of the church?  This question is simple to answer. Jesus himself gave us this mission when he said, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).  The Lord repeats the mission when he says, through the apostle Paul, that he “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).  Now, we might ask the question that Pontius Pilate asked Jesus (John 18:38): “What is truth?”  Jesus himself answered this question (even before it was asked) when he told Pilate that “everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37).  Truth is everything that Jesus tells us.  Everything that we read in the Bible is the truth that we are to share with the world.

As Christians, we have heard the message of the truth, the truth that both tears us down, but also builds us back up.  The truth hurts us by telling us that we are sinners and that there is nothing we can do to be saved.  It tells us that because of our sins, God is going to punish for all eternity in hell.  And yet the truth doesn’t stop there.  It tells us that despite all of our sins, God still loved us even though we messed up his perfect creation.  He looked at us in our sin and how we failed every day trying to earn our way into heaven, and he determined to do something to help us.  He didn’t want to send us to hell for all eternity; he wants us to be with him in heaven.  He did what no one else could.  He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be our substitute.  Jesus, though he was tempted just as we are, lived the perfect life that we could not even dream of doing (cf. Hebrews 4:15).  He then willingly took the blame for all our sins, for all the sins of those who came before us, and for all the sins of those who will come after us.  He took the punishment that was meant for us and died for all our sins.  He didn’t do this for himself so as to better himself; he did this for us so that we could be with him in paradise.

And Jesus’ story didn’t end with his death.  After being buried in a tomb on Friday, on Sunday he rose from the dead, sealing his victory for us.  Because of his resurrection, we know that we will live again with him in heaven.  This is just amazing!  A God who is perfect and demands perfection—who is just, punishing those who deserve to be punished—chose to take our punishment, the punishment that we deserved, because he loves us so much.  Words cannot describe the feeling that one gets when hearing this message.  It makes one want to just tell everyone about it!  We just want to share this feeling with everyone we meet.  Jesus’ words, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” may seem like a command that one must obey, but it’s not like that.  His words give us a commission that we want to carry out, because the love that we receive from Christ through this gospel message is something that we are eager to share with the world.

Posted by Electric Gospel
24
Dec
2019

Forgiveness brings peace

Originally published on the Electric Gospel on January 29, 2016.

Forgiveness brings peace

One of the readers of this blog sent a moving account relates what it’s like for a person when his view of God is misshapen by persons who fail to focus on God’s great love for us in Christ.  Author’s name is withheld because of the deeply personal nature of the account.

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To live without forgiveness is to live without peace. It is going through every day wondering if you have been good enough. Day after day, you constantly have to make sure you did everything you were supposed to do. When you go to bed at night, things that may have been left undone may creep into your head as you drift asleep. You must make sure you have done every little thing that you may have not done right. If you do not, says your conscience, you might go to hell if you die.

Someone in your life holds grudges against you. You never can seem to get this person to forgive you no matter what you do to make up for what angered him or her. The silent anger of this person burns against you even though you beat yourself up as a terrible human being. You are told that you should feel terrible. You are told that it is good to feel that way. You are never told you are forgiven. You “know” that you are hopelessly wicked. You get upset with yourself, believing you are a very bad person. How can you ever be good enough? Your soul is tormented by the thoughts that maybe you are not sorry enough for your sins, or maybe you really don’t have faith. You don’t know where you will end up if you die. The thought of death can bring terror that will rob you of sleep.

The fears of what God may do to you rob you of so much peace and scare you so much, you push them out of your mind. You try to stay busy with things so you don’t have to think about your terrible situation. You try to push your fears out of your mind–but they won’t leave. There is no peace, at least it has not become a reality to you.

You imagine God like the person in your life who held grudges against you, whose silent anger burned against you and turned a deaf ear to your cries for forgiveness. You fall into sin and feel that God has turned his back on you. He is not there to help you because he wants nothing to do with you–at least that is what you feel. You feel God’s anger burning against you as you beg for forgiveness. You feel that God will not listen to your prayers because you have been too bad. Life in this sinful world as a sinner is torture. Your conscience screams in pain.

Then something happens. Someone helps you learn about forgiveness and even says, “I forgive you.” You are shocked in a good way. You see that there are no strings attached and you don’t have to earn this forgiveness. You learn that is the way God forgives. Jesus came to die for you, before you ever were sorry for even one sin. He wants you to be his precious child. You learn that you do not need to try to pay for your forgiveness by beating yourself up. In fact, you can’t pay for your forgiveness. It is impossible. That is why Jesus came and paid for all of your sins. He took them all on himself and died so you would be forgiven. You are completely washed by Jesus’ blood. When God looks at you he no longer sees your sin, he sees Jesus’ perfect righteousness. Your forgiveness is not dependent on how sorry you are. It is not dependent on your faith’s strength. It is a fact that was completed a long time ago when Jesus said, “It is finished.” His resurrection is proof that you are forgiven.

Forgiveness is so wonderful for you. You like to just think about the wonderful things God has done for you! You think about Jesus and how he died for you and how amazing that is. Because of your past when you lived in the law, without forgiveness, you see forgiveness as something completely amazing.

Forgiveness brings peace.

Posted by Electric Gospel
24
Dec
2019

Jesus is Resurrection; Jesus is Life

Originally published on the Electric Gospel on April 20, 2014.

This post was originally shared on an Easter Sunday.

 

Jesus is Resurrection; Jesus is Life

by David Sellnow

There was a time when people laughed at Jesus. In fact, they were crying and screaming in sadness, but what Jesus said sounded so strange that they burst out laughing in the middle of a funeral.  A young person had just died. A young girl, twelve years old, had been deathly ill, and death had followed.  While she was dying, the girl’s father, a man named Jairus, had come to Jesus asking for help …but even before Jesus could come to Jairus’ house, someone was sent from there to bring the sad news. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher any more.”

But upon hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed” (Luke 8:49-50).  Healed from death? Who ever heard of such a thing?

When Jesus arrived at the house, it was full of people wailing and moaning and mourning. In true Jewish custom, they made quite a scene: tears streaming down their cheeks, hair disheveled, falling on the floor, groaning and bellowing, not a dry eye in the house. It was then–when Jesus entered that house–that the mourners went from hysterical crying to uproarious laughter in an instant. What the great and wise rabbi Jesus said struck them as hilarious. Jesus said to them, “Stop your wailing. She is not dead but asleep.”  They laughed at him, knowing that she was, in fact, dead (Luke 8:52,53).

But within moments, Jesus proved that they were dead wrong. He took the girl’s hand, said to her, “Get up” …and she did!  “Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up” (Luke 8:55). Her parents were astonished. Everyone was amazed. For Jesus, bringing to life a dead person was no more difficult than waking someone up from sleep.

Jesus has an entirely different perspective on death than we normally do. Jesus’ whole definition of life and death differs from what we normally think. The words on which I’d like you to focus especially today come from the story of another resurrection miracle that Jesus performed.  In talking to his dear friend Martha, just after her beloved brother Lazarus had died, Jesus spoke these powerful words: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25,26).

You see, according to Jesus, Lazarus had died but he had not died. Lazarus had died but he also would live again. Let me explain how Jesus explains life and death.

Life, according to Jesus, is when we are enjoying the blessings of God. When we enjoy the blessings of God in our bodies, we are physically alive. Our lungs breathe, our hearts beat, our hands and feet move.  Only by God’s blessing and his sustaining do we have physical life. When God decides it is time for us to pass from this life, those blessings are suspended, and physically we die.

But there is more to life than the body. God also created each of us with a soul. When we enjoy the blessings of God in our souls, we have faith in him, we have a relationship with him, we have life through him. Our spirits never die. The blessings of God upon our spirits began the day we were baptized and haven’t ceased since. We are blessed in faith throughout life and blessing awaits us beyond this present life.  We will live on with the Lord.  That is why Jesus could say, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  Our loved ones who have died have not really died–not their spirits.  They are alive still, living with the Lord, standing side by side with Jesus right now. We see only the physical aspect of life and death, but there is a spiritual and eternal reality that we don’t yet see, which nevertheless is absolutely true.  Those who have died in faith are yet alive, living and reigning with Jesus (cf. Revelation 20:4), who lives and reigns with the Father and with the Spirit, the one true and loving God, forever and ever.

But that’s not all. Jesus also said, “Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies.” The physical body dies, but Jesus pledges, with his word of power, that he will bring the body back to life. The daughter of Jairus and the man named Lazarus were two examples, demonstrations Jesus gave of just what he can do. By his miracles of resurrection, he was promising that he will do the same in the end for all of his people.

By his own resurrection, after he was crucified, Jesus proved that he has absolute power over death and the grave. A giant stone and armed guards of soldiers could not keep Jesus’ resurrection from happening. Likewise, there is nothing that can keep Jesus from providing the same resurrection for us, his people, when his final time arrives. On that day, “we will all be changed–in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). We will be changed from dead to alive, from being troubled by all the ailments of our frail bodies to being freed from all ills in eternally glorified bodies.

“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said. That’s exactly who he is. In him and because of him, we have life now and will have it always.  In him and because of him, we will experience one day the resurrection of our bodies into life and joy unending, that now we can barely even imagine.  In that day of resurrection, we won’t have any back pains or body aches or cysts or cancers or any other disease or pains or wounds.  All will be healed completely by the Lord and made perfect in every way.

Jesus, keep our hearts strong as we wait for that day!

Posted by Electric Gospel