Death and Resurrection
“Death” is a word that terrifies and plagues us. Christianity answers the fundamental fear that plagues humanity. Without the death and resurrection of Christ, we would have no hope for the future. As St. Paul said, “If Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain”and “we are most to be pitied among all men.” (I Corinthians 15:13&19) However, Christ has indeed been raised (over 500 people saw the resurrected Christ and many died defending that fact)! In His resurrection, Christ conquered death, hell and the grave. He ascended to heaven “to prepare a place” for us. He promised to return and raise those who bore His name to new and everlasting life.
All humans die. However, there is hope for those who rest in Christ. Just as Christ was raised from death to life, we too shall be raised!
We hear from God's word:
"For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God." (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16)
"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." (Job 19:25-27)
"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 imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' 'O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:51-57)