Victory over death

“I am your chosen one. You won’t leave me in the grave or let my body decay.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭16:10‬

Now this quote here is a prophecy of King David, who was also a psalmist. He talked about this event we commemorated yesterday as the Resurrection Sunday or Easter Sunday. This was written more than four hundred years to the event, and it happened as predicted.

The event was, Jesus Christ was going to be crucified and he will die, but on the third day, he will resurrect. Peter, one of the founding fathers of the Christian church, who was also a disciple of Jesus corroborated this fact more than four hundred years later.

““Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.” Acts‬ ‭2:22-24‬ ‭

Now you may ask me today, what significance does this hold today? Why should I be concerned about a man who died and rose from the dead? Personally, it means the Bible is proven to be historically true, so it gives me solace that I am not in a fraudulent faith. Secondly, as a Christian, it proves to me that death, an enemy has been defeated. Death is the greatest enemy of any living human being.

From the scriptures, you can clearly see this truth:

““Where, Death, is your victory? Where, Death, is your power to hurt?” Death gets its power to hurt from sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:55-57‬ ‭

Death has lost its power to hurt us. The sting of death has been broken that when professing Christians die today, they will just transition seamlessly into the hands of our master, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Now we do not want you to be uninformed, believers, about those who are asleep [in death], so that you will not grieve [for them] as the others do who have no hope [beyond this present life]. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again [as in fact He did], even so God [in this same way—by raising them from the dead] will bring with Him those [believers] who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”
‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭4:13-14‬ ‭

Death becomes like sleep to the believer, so we are enjoined to sorrow and mourn the absence of the person in body, but not hopelessly because of yesterday’s event. His resurrection gives us hope that death couldn’t touch the person. Since death is sleep to the believer, he will awake again in the hereafter.

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”” I Corinthians‬ ‭15:51-54‬

So the event, Resurrection Sunday is not abstract from humanity. It is rather about our destiny which is when we die in Christ- we only sleep and we will wake up again this time to God with a glorified body where we can all say of a truth, “death is swallowed up in victory”

When Jesus resurrected, he awoken us to this reality, which is called “a mystery”. If you are a Christian reading, have faith and hope that death will not harm you when it is your time. We should be afraid of premature death rather, but the certainty of death should not scare us at all, because we enter into a realm of glory.

The Christian Faith is hinged on this truth we celebrated yesterday as an event.

“Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.” I Corinthians‬ ‭15:12-14‬ ‭

Personally, I am glad for my Christian faith. That is why I have a passion to tell all and sundry through speaking on a platform, having a conversation with a friend or a total stranger, or in this regard, writing.

Your remaining years on this earth will be good to enquire if there is an existence of God?

I will leave you to think hard and meditate on this.

Peace & Love