God has broken human death’s hopeless grip!
No longer is the grave man’s final need!
Earth is but prelude to heav’n’s endless trip!
New hope has come to the children of men,
For Jesus of Nazareth’s just the first!
Since He arose, death for all’s not the end—
Thus will we come forth, for better or worse!
He dispelled our darkness with gospel’s light,
Abolished the grave’s eternal embrace,
Redeemed us from torment in hell’s long night,
Sanctified believers with gifts of grace!
What more can He do than He’s freely done,
For creatures who’re worse than when we begun?
Scripture Quoted: John 20:1-9 (NIV)
“Early on the first day of the week [Sunday], while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved [John], and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!’ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still had not understood from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)” [Brackets added)
Special Notice: I will complete my series on the gospel of John November 15th. I start a new series of poems and commetaries on November 17th; it is God's Master Plan For The World. You will see everything from God's perspective, beginning with Him before Time, when there was nothing but God---no angels, no other life, no universe, no matter, no energy; all was void. You won't want to miss one! Everything is new!
Commentary
The parentheses in the Scripture quoted above means that the enclosed sentence was not in the earliest manuscript; the brackets mean that the items enclosed were added by this commentator. It is certainly true that the disciples had not really understood Old Testament prophecies predicting that the Messiah would arise from the dead, as well as the words of Jesus to them. His resurrection came as a joyful surprise to them; furthermore, it proved His words to them were true. The “good news” of the gospel is that salvation from the condemnation resulting from sin is freely given to all who believe that Jesus was God’s Messiah; it means that the believer will live again after physical death, and live forever with God. Salvation is offered to everybody, but it is given only to believers in Jesus. What good would be our belief in Jesus Christ if He had remained in the grave? If He could not overcome physical death, how can we expect to overcome it? Not only believers will be resurrected; ALL people will be raised at the end of time, some for heaven, but most for hell (1 Corinthians 15:22).
Your eyes do not deceive you—you will live again after you die physically in this present life. Death on earth is not the end of life for anyone. The fact that Jesus lived again and continues to live today, 2000 years later, proves it. You may have doubts about it, not having seen it with your own eyes, but there is too much credible evidence that it really happened for it to be false. There were hundreds of eyewitnesses; if their testimony is false, then the whole Bible is untrue. Yes, it does require a measure of faith. Personally, the strongest prop to my faith is reading in the Old Testament 340 prophecies giving specific details about the actual life of Jesus of Nazareth, every one of which has proven true, despite determined efforts by skeptics to find an untruth. Every word of the Old Testament was written at least 400 years before the birth of Jesus. The odds that Jesus was not the Son of God are so slight as to be slim or zero, to borrow a common expression for non-existent.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
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