Wednesday, November 14, 2007
1 Thessalonians 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
DAY OF RESURRECTION
Can you imagine that day? Go ahead and try. Picture it in your mind's eye.
With a mighty shout the Lord Jesus suddenly appears from heaven. The mighty voice of an archangel sounds forth to every corner of the earth. The trumpet of God, clear and penetrating, summons all nations to the Lord's throne of judgment. Does God have our attention?
What happens next? The dead in Christ rise from their graves. From every cemetery, every unmarked grave, from beneath the desert sands, and out of the watery depths, they all come forth.
Abel, Noah, Moses, Paul, and every other believer we have come to know from the pages of Scripture rises from his grave.
Your Christian family members and loved ones are there, in the flesh, alive, standing by your side. Your little girl who went to the grave so long ago, she's there too, never to leave your side again.
Red, brown, black, yellow, and white, people from every nation and tribe, their faces flushed with joy, look with adoring eyes upon their Savior and King.
Those who are still alive on the day of His return are changed in the twinkling of an eye. The bodies of every blood-bought saint are glorified -- now powerful, beautiful, and deathless. Is anything too hard for God?
Yes, even the bodies of the ungodly rise from their graves. But these rise not to life, but to everlasting shame and contempt.
This is the incredible Day of Resurrection. This is finally what it's all about. This is why God came into our flesh, lived a holy life under the law, died upon Calvary's cross, and rose triumphant from His own grave. This is your farewell to this world of sin, heartbreak, and death. This is the final good-bye to every hospital bed, wheelchair, and bottle of medicine. This is the dawn of God's never ending morning of joy unspeakable!
Forever with the Lord!
Amen! so let it be.
Life from the dead is in that word,
'Tis immortality.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 616:1)
