“He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal body.” Romans 8:11 NIV
“The human spirit instinctively knows you are created for something more.”
My thoughts today are about “mortality and immortality.”
Just weeks ago, we said a final farewell to Gayle’s sister, and a dear friend called last evening after saying goodbye to her dad. With every added birthday I celebrate, and with every somber farewell said to family or friend at graveside, I am more keenly aware of my mortality. I don’t think that I am morbid about that fact, but I am realistic that in this life there is more time behind me than ahead.
No one really likes to think about their own mortality, the real fact that life as you now know it is not forever. Such thoughts stir up a sense of vulnerability and uncertainty. But the one who is afraid to die will never be able to fully and freely live. It is not about how many days are in your life, but how much life you put into each day you are given.
Yesterday was Easter, and Jesus’ Resurrection is the single most powerful and eternal reminder that life is about immortality, not mortality. Paul understood this truth when he wrote, “That mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident.” 2 Corinthians 5:4 NKJV.
Solomon observed that “God has put eternity in their hearts.” Ecclesiastes 3:11. Something deep inside the human spirit instinctively knows that you are created for something more than these all too brief years. At creation, God purposed immortality for you, and His plan has not changed. I have a growing number of family and relatives waiting in Heaven, and that makes Heaven dearer and ever more real to me. They encouraged me in my faith here; one day they will welcome me home.
“For this mortal must put on immortality . . then shall be brought to pass the saying, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory!’” 1 Corinthians 15:53-53 NKJV. Salvation is the only means by which man is again given the possibility of immortality through faith in Christ. The Resurrection of Jesus is the singular assurance that immortality is available to anyone who confesses Jesus as Savior and Lord. Jesus confidently declared, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believes in Me will live even though he dies . . because I live, you also will live.” John 11:25/14:19 NIV.
Here is Easter’s Resurrection truth as it applies to your daily life. “It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s.” Romans 8:11 The Message.
My prayer for you today is that you not miss the eternal “place prepared for you.”