September 8 – Scattered or Buried

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”   Romans 8:11  (ESV)

Our promise today is found in the letter to the believers living in Rome.  It is and encouragement for them and for us.  A logical statement of “If....Then”  We can look at it from the conclusion first.  We can know that after we die, and our earthly (mortal) bodies are buried in the ground, they will one day be given a new life and made whole.  No matter what the measure of decay or scattering of ashes, God's Spirit will give new life to our new bodies.  We know this can happen and will happen because it is promised.  The same Spirit of God that lives in us is who raised Jesus from the dead and restored his human and earthly life with a new spiritual life.  So, if the Spirit of God has done that for Jesus,  and since the Spirit of God dwells with us, we are assured that one day after we die, the Spirit of God will regenerate and make new our bodies with a new spiritual life that will be eternal. 

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December 17

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Hebrews 2:14-15 (NIV)

Behind all the interesting stories of the coming of Jesus as a babe in Bethlehem is a very important truth. It was all a part of God’s plan to reach out to us in our need. That baby born in Bethlehem was the Son of God taking human form to set us free from the fear of death. Now we can think of the death of our bodies as opening the gate for us in a glorious future – an unending future. And this is true because Jesus lived as a human being and died as a human being and he was raised in his transformed body to a new life. And this process was set in motion by the virgin birth of Jesus!

March 27 - Resurrection Sunday (Easter)

“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” Matthew 28:6 (NIV)
 “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”  Romans 4:25 (NIV)

What a wonderful message the women heard when they went to the tomb where Jesus had been buried.  Jesus was the Son of God and it was the power of God that raised Him from the grave.  This was wonderful news for these women, for all the followers of Jesus then and ever since. Why was it such great news? The resurrection was all a part of God’s great plan. That plan was not complete when Jesus died for our sins – His resurrection provided a new life for us. The resurrection proved who Jesus was, the righteous Son of God. It proved that His sacrifice was acceptable to God.