I sense that the global society is tired of receiving flashy statements, descriptions, and/or phrases that lack a very key component: the unveiled, simple truth. Therefore, I will make an effort to tell the true story.
As I turn on the television, log on to the internet, attend my classes, or even walk down the street, I can see an overwhelming reoccurring theme. This theme does not simply emerge here in the United States of America, but it also appears evident across the entire globe. It is the theme of brokenness, pain, suffering, loneliness, and a desire for something more. I continue to hear of another family becoming broken by a divorce, another corrupt government leading its people to the doorstep of death, another fatal natural disaster, another clergy man disappointing his supporters by giving in to the illusion of his sexual desires, another drug addict taken into custody, another sexual/physical act of abuse played out by a parent towards a child, another controversial debate/court hearing over abortion or homosexuality, another set of data revealing how pornographic this world has become, and another story that discloses just how money driven mankind has become; the list is never-ending.
While I involve myself in communication with strangers, folks at church, friends, and family, I begin to see the effect these issues have on every individual who walks the face of the Earth. The obvious truth is that problems consume our societies, and the great majority is hurting deeply in some form or fashion. Not only does this appear evident with others, but so does pain devour my life. I am a man who has been broken more times than I feel I could possibly handle. Loneliness has consumed me, regrets have overwhelmed me, and the longing for a sense of purpose has found a way into my mind on far too many occasions.
Thus, I am inclined to believe that this world is simply mad. Because of this, it appears that darkness has consumed the air, and we have found ourselves in the gloomy months of winter for far too long. The sun’s warmth has been lost, the memory of spring’s new life has left our minds, and our hope has been forgotten.
Time and time again do we fail to remember the event in which Christianity is founded upon: the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! Moment after moment we fail to remember the pain, suffering, humiliation, and darkness the cross stood for. Not only do we fall short of remembering the cross, but we fail to keep in mind the sense of emptiness, desertion, and shattered hope that Christ’s followers must have been feeling during the wretched happening. He had left them with only their questions to feed upon. They had lost everything, and the hours that followed the death of our Lord can only be described as dark. In other words, what they thought to be the beginning of something spectacular and new turned out to be an unexpected, depleted promise. However, just when the darkness of night seems never ending, the sun appears; just when the gloominess of winter appears eternal, the breath of spring arrives; just when the storm reaches its’ climax, the rainbow soon follows; and just when the followers of Christ felt their lives crumbling with no hope, the God of the universe displayed His power in the resurrection of our Lord and King!
Our hope lies in the resurrection of Christ Jesus! The death and resurrection symbolizes what is to take place on a greater scale within mankind AND all the cosmos. I fear far too many pastors stand behind the pulpit on Sundays forgetting the power and hope we have in the resurrection. Not only do I sense pastors doing this, but I also believe that far too many lay Christians (including myself) leave the brilliant phenomenon as a simple after thought, i.e., we take a moment to remember the happening on Easter, but fail to order our lives accordingly. Have we forgotten that “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” 1 Corinthians 15:14? Not only would our faith and preaching be useless, but we would also be found in sin (1 Corinthians 15:17). We must remember that our faith is not based on a man dying, but on a man conquering the grave through the glory and power of our Father in Heaven!
He is our King and Lord, the One in whom we owe our allegiance and everything to! Those who are found in Christ will also share in His resurrection in due time. “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” Romans 8:23. Paul states earlier that “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” Romans 8:10-11. C.S. Lewis provides us with this brilliant image: “And that is just precisely what Christianity is about. This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life” (C.S. Lewis, Beyond Personality). No matter how painful things might become here in the current state, we now have full confidence that we will share in the power of the resurrection, and the glory that will be displayed in us will be unimaginable, but inevitable to those who belong to Christ. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” Romans 8:18. Praise be to our Father in Heaven!
The entire cosmos are not to be forgotten in this equation. “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” Romans 8:19-21. We await Christ Jesus our Lord to come again, but not to destroy this earth or our earthly bodies; instead, we wait patiently for Him to redeem all creation and all those in Him just as He displayed in Christ! It’ll be in that day that we will see Revelation 21 and 22 unveiled. Not only that, but the unimaginable new world will finally take on the forms in which the Bible gives pictures/metaphors/representations to describe; I assume that the present state of the world will come as a distant memory, if remembered at all. Is this not what the early apostles put their hope in? Did they not believe in the vision given in Daniel 12, Isaiah 26, and Ezekiel 37? Did they not base their entire ministry and life on the mere fact that Christ had been raised, and that He would come again, redeeming all creation? Surely they did! For that is why most of them went to the grave! Or did they die in vein?!
It is time that we begin taking this hope to the entire race of mankind. Let us advance the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ through the church, politics, education, teaching, business, philosophy, sociology, theology, medicine, science, e.g., physics, chemistry, astrology, biology, etc., music, art, sports, and everything in-between. Let us imitate the early apostles and our Christ. Humanity needs a solid foundation accompanied by a source of light; the body of Christ is the simple answer this world desires and longs for. Can we rise to the challenge? Remember that pain and suffering will continue in our lives and throughout this world while we occupy the current state of things, but thanks be to our Father in Heaven, for we now have a new hope and promise of things to come represented in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Paul states that, “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” 1 Corinthians 15:32. However, I say that because of the resurrection of our King, “Let us fight and die, for tomorrow we live!”
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’” 1 Corinthians 15:51-55.
This is a hope worth living for. This is a hope worth dying for.
JDG
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