Afterwords -- week 17 (Easter)
"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:22-24 ESV)
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April 16, 2022
Dear friends,
This past week has been busier for me than usual: food pantry pick-up; dentist visit; two study group meetings; joined a longtime friend for evangelistic outreach on a nearby campus; finished our spring semester (and first year) of the Bible Studies Institute of Blacksburg; and officiated a funeral at the veterans' cemetery.
But uppermost in my mind now is the wonderful truth of the resurrection of Jesus our Lord! His resurrection is connected to his atoning death, so that we are recipients of a completed work of redemption. "It is finished." He died for us, and we died with him. He rose from the dead, and so we have new life. One day we shall rise with a body like his and shall reign forever with him in glory. Even now we have full and meaningful lives as God's children, and we follow Jesus with all that we are and have. Francis Schaeffer wrote,
"Our redemption is not just some far-off, transcendental thing relating only to the world of ideas. It has to do with the full person. Just as our future salvation will involve the full redemption and resurrection of the body, so also in this present life our redemption is to mean something in terms of our physical bodies." (The Finished Work of Christ)
I was looking back on some of my previous posts relating to Jesus' resurrection, and here are a few...
-- Why was Jesus' face cloth folded?
-- What do we learn from the post-resurrection seaside breakfast?
-- What does Jesus' resurrection mean?
-- Read Paul Ribbe's Easter Sunday prayer from years ago.
OTHER ARTICLES.
-- What are the minimal facts that even skeptics accept about the resurrection?
-- Listen to former atheist Lee Strobel on the resurrection.
FINAL QUOTE.
“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.” (Timothy Keller, The Reason for God)
Well, that's it for Easter week!
Sandy
[Image credit: painting above is "The Empty Tomb" by George Richardson.]