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Friday, March 21
For since through a man death, also through a man the resurrection of the dead ... (1 Corinthians 15:21)
A ship left its harbor as a crowd stood at the dock and waved to those aboard. They stood and watched as the ship sailed toward the horizon, growing ever smaller and smaller. Then finally it disappeared as they said, "There she goes." Meanwhile, others gathered at the harbor on the other side of the voyage stood and watched as the ship grew larger and still larger. And they said, "Here she comes."
The first shore is temporary, the second forever. This life is the dot before the line, the second before eternity. Which deserves your greater investment? C. S. Lewis notes:
"If you read history you will fi nd that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in" ... aim at earth and you will get neither."
Are you aiming at heaven or earth? I'm sure your words would articulate the right answer, but would your actions? What about your bank account? Jesus advised us to "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:20).
Have you? Will you?
What God's word means
Paul now shifts from agriculture to anthropology. There are no verbs in Paul's Greek original, so that the stress of his sentence lies fully on the nouns: man and death, man and resurrection. Death is an indisputable reality. According to Scripture, it came through a man, the result of Adam's sin. Remember God's rst recorded word to the rst man: "You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17).
When he sinned, all of creation "fell" (Romans 8:22). Now, for us all, "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). As Scripture says, "it is appointed for man to die" (Hebrews 9:27). Paul explained, "just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned" (Romans 5:12).
Here's the Apostle's point: just as our death is certain, so is our resurrection. If death could come through a man, also (the word is emphatic in the Greek) through ("because of") a man the resurrection of the dead. What the first Adam did to us, the second Adam did for us.
Why Easter matters
Benjamin Franklin claimed, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Actually, there are billions around the world who are either too young, too old, too poor or too powerful to pay taxes. But so long as the Lord tarries, there are none who will escape death.
For early Christians, however, resurrection was just as certain as death and far more powerful. They knew death to be transitory but the life beyond to be permanent. They could testify with Paul, "for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). This was not wishful thinking but factual truth. Because of Easter, our heavenly glory is as real as our earthly grave.
How to respond
French poet Jean Cocteau observed, "The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying." Yours is walking toward you as well. It may nd you today, or it may not. Death is an actor standing behind the curtain, waiting for his cue. No one in the audience knows when he will appear.
What about that fact frightens you today? Physical pain? Grief at being separated from those you love? The loss of work undone and life unlived? One second past death, Christians who have stepped through that valley have been overjoyed with what they found on the other side. Their resurrected life is now so real that their death is never thought of again. Like a baby that has no memory of the transition from her mother's womb to her mother's arms, those who have died in Christ are held in his joy forever.
C. S. Lewis noted, "There are better things ahead than any we leave behind." Matthew Henry counseled, "He whose head is in heaven need not fear to put his feet into the grave." That's because death cannot kill what cannot die.
What is your greatest fear regarding death? Name it, then entrust it to your Father's providence and power. Now say with David, "I trust in you, O Lord; I say, 'You are my God.' My times are in your hand" (Psalm 31:14-15). Are yours?
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