And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain-.-.-.-But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. —1 Corinthians 15:14, 20
All of Christianity rests on the fact that Christ is risen from the dead. Romans 1:4 says “He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”
Our hope lies in an empty tomb. What made Jesus God was not only His ability to lay down His Life (for many can lay down their lives), but only Jesus could pick it up again.
If Christ has not arisen, then there will be no sounding of the trumpet, and neither will we arise. But because we have been made one with Christ, one day we too will experience the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit—that “great getting up morning.”
He is risen. And they which are asleep in Christ along with those that remain will most surely arise to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). This is our blessed hope.
Jesus, I remain ready and prepared for Your return.
I live in the hope of Your resurrection power each day.
Fill me this day with resurrection hope and
the courage to witness to that hope. Amen.
