"Shiver me Timbers"
Monday, October 30, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Resurrection Life
Resurrection Life
Make no mistake about it. True Christianity has a couple of core doctrines that transcend imagination and rationality. After all the ways of God are above our ways and God’s thoughts are above our thoughts.
The first is incarnation. As John 3:16 said : “God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son.” God’s son “Immanuel” is the one who came to be with us, live with us, die for us and be the first born from the dead. Somehow God became man, with the seed of God miraculously being carried by a young virgin girl, named Mary. A daughter of Eve would be involved in bruising the head of the serpent as it states in Genesis. Through child bearing a woman would play a role in the salvation of the earth. Is it miraculous? Yes. Can I fully understand it? No.
Indeed Christianity is a matter of faith. It transcends logic. It surpasses understanding. It is miraculous. Faith is the “substance of things not seen.” It is not placed under a microscope and examined. God examines. He does not always subject himself to scrutiny. As C.S. Lewis wrote about the Christ image, the Lion, Aslan—“He is after all a wild lion, you know.”
The second is the resurrection. People don’t like the concept. The fact that Jesus Christ would not stay in the tomb is deeply disturbing to the world. The fact that He promised resurrection life to his followers, even more disturbing. The resurrection was such a reality to the early disciples that 11 of the 12 died martyr’s deaths. They “disdained life” looking for a better life to come.
Today many an author has made money from writing about how Jesus did not really die but somehow was spirited away and got married and lived a normal life or his body was removed and buried elsewhere. To them, the resurrection is too impossible to be true. But to the Christian, the resurrection is the cornerstone of the faith. It shows up in our earliest creeds. And many of us have died with the hope of being resurrected when Christ returns.
Oh, did I forget to mention that we believe Christ is going to return. Oh yeah, that causes problems too. It means that there is accountability. We believe that evil is punished and good is rewarded. Yes, that is an uncomfortable belief. In the book of John, it says that the world received him not because its deeds were evil. And so resurrection is a very uncomfortable concept because it suggests that there will be a judgment, an accounting for what we do and do not do. And we do not like to hear that.
Resurrection life is witnessed to even in nature and creation. It shows up in our seasons. The glorious Fall turns to the death of winter. Just when things get their worst, and we have had enough of snow and cold, there comes the harbingers of Spring. And the very rolling around of our seasons witnesses that there is resurrection life.
There is the daily resurrection of the sun. It dies in the evening and all becomes dark. Things appear to be over. Darkness has come. Next, we see the rays of light and dawn is upon us.
There is the cycle of life. Our relatives are old and death is near first to them and next to us. Yet in the cycle we seen new animals and people born. As the caskets are filled with one generation, another generation is born. It is a type of resurrection that appears in our lives and deaths.
Resurrection is witnessed to in the heavens, on earth and in the cycle of our lives. So why is it so hard to believe.
Resurrection is the hallmark of the Christian. And I believe that belief in a resurrection is a key doctrine and belief of the Christian life.
Not long ago, our family was in Branson and we passed a cemetery on a Sunday morning after church. Now cemeteries are places of death. Yet in it was glorious life. We went in to see the beautiful maples. Pretty soon other cars were stopping and older people not so far from the grave themselves got out to see the wondrous maple foliage.
One of the older men said : “Something really special is going on here.” He was right, something special was going on. There was a type of resurrection life going on in the cemetery. In this City of the Dead, maples had begun to turn. God was still alive. Glory came even to the cemetery. And for a few seconds, the living joined the dead in the presence of the Glory of God. It was but a taste of what the future holds.
Some pictures are posted above.
Make no mistake about it. True Christianity has a couple of core doctrines that transcend imagination and rationality. After all the ways of God are above our ways and God’s thoughts are above our thoughts.
The first is incarnation. As John 3:16 said : “God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son.” God’s son “Immanuel” is the one who came to be with us, live with us, die for us and be the first born from the dead. Somehow God became man, with the seed of God miraculously being carried by a young virgin girl, named Mary. A daughter of Eve would be involved in bruising the head of the serpent as it states in Genesis. Through child bearing a woman would play a role in the salvation of the earth. Is it miraculous? Yes. Can I fully understand it? No.
Indeed Christianity is a matter of faith. It transcends logic. It surpasses understanding. It is miraculous. Faith is the “substance of things not seen.” It is not placed under a microscope and examined. God examines. He does not always subject himself to scrutiny. As C.S. Lewis wrote about the Christ image, the Lion, Aslan—“He is after all a wild lion, you know.”
The second is the resurrection. People don’t like the concept. The fact that Jesus Christ would not stay in the tomb is deeply disturbing to the world. The fact that He promised resurrection life to his followers, even more disturbing. The resurrection was such a reality to the early disciples that 11 of the 12 died martyr’s deaths. They “disdained life” looking for a better life to come.
Today many an author has made money from writing about how Jesus did not really die but somehow was spirited away and got married and lived a normal life or his body was removed and buried elsewhere. To them, the resurrection is too impossible to be true. But to the Christian, the resurrection is the cornerstone of the faith. It shows up in our earliest creeds. And many of us have died with the hope of being resurrected when Christ returns.
Oh, did I forget to mention that we believe Christ is going to return. Oh yeah, that causes problems too. It means that there is accountability. We believe that evil is punished and good is rewarded. Yes, that is an uncomfortable belief. In the book of John, it says that the world received him not because its deeds were evil. And so resurrection is a very uncomfortable concept because it suggests that there will be a judgment, an accounting for what we do and do not do. And we do not like to hear that.
Resurrection life is witnessed to even in nature and creation. It shows up in our seasons. The glorious Fall turns to the death of winter. Just when things get their worst, and we have had enough of snow and cold, there comes the harbingers of Spring. And the very rolling around of our seasons witnesses that there is resurrection life.
There is the daily resurrection of the sun. It dies in the evening and all becomes dark. Things appear to be over. Darkness has come. Next, we see the rays of light and dawn is upon us.
There is the cycle of life. Our relatives are old and death is near first to them and next to us. Yet in the cycle we seen new animals and people born. As the caskets are filled with one generation, another generation is born. It is a type of resurrection that appears in our lives and deaths.
Resurrection is witnessed to in the heavens, on earth and in the cycle of our lives. So why is it so hard to believe.
Resurrection is the hallmark of the Christian. And I believe that belief in a resurrection is a key doctrine and belief of the Christian life.
Not long ago, our family was in Branson and we passed a cemetery on a Sunday morning after church. Now cemeteries are places of death. Yet in it was glorious life. We went in to see the beautiful maples. Pretty soon other cars were stopping and older people not so far from the grave themselves got out to see the wondrous maple foliage.
One of the older men said : “Something really special is going on here.” He was right, something special was going on. There was a type of resurrection life going on in the cemetery. In this City of the Dead, maples had begun to turn. God was still alive. Glory came even to the cemetery. And for a few seconds, the living joined the dead in the presence of the Glory of God. It was but a taste of what the future holds.
Some pictures are posted above.
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