Peace in Troubling Times
Meditation for the week of April 24, 2011
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1-3)
If it were not so I would have told you! Would the Lord lie to his disciples? No! They were his friends. They had followed Him and had been faithful to Him (with the exception of Judas). Not only would the Lord not lie to his friends, we are told that He is THE TRUTH (John 14:6). We are told that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2) and that it is impossible for Him to lie (Hebrews 6:18). As God, the Lord could not lie; and as a friend of the disciples, He would not lie.
The cornerstone truth of the Gospel is that Christ rose from the dead. That was the great miracle that vindicated the Lord’s claim to be the Messiah. Because He was raised from the dead, we know that He died for our sins. The burial proves that He died and did not just go into a coma. The Lord died, was buried and was raised again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). This is bedrock truth. Now the question is, do we really believe this?
Salvation is assured to BELIEVERS in Christ! Damnation is assured to UNBELIEVERS! To trust in Christ, that is, to be a believer in Christ, one must believe in the resurrection. It is the resurrection that sets the Lord apart from every other religious leader and Christianity apart from every other religious system.
If you have trouble believing in the resurrection, you are not alone. The disciples had been told over and over again that the Lord would die and that he would rise again. But they had trouble believing it. In John 21:13, Mary Magdalene persisted in believing that His body had been taken away even after the other disciples had left the empty tomb. After seeing the Lord, she went to tell the eleven that she had seen the Lord and that He was alive, however, they didn’t believe her. Mark 16:9-11 says, “Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.”
Resurrections from the dead are few and far between. We don’t experience them, therefore, it is difficult to believe in them. The Lord was the first one (and to this day is the only one) raised from the dead that did not die again. While we may have trouble believing this truth, believe it we must! Our believing it doesn’t make it true. It is true whether we believe it or not. But our believing the truth, makes it effectual in our lives. We can be sure we are saved because God does not lie.
For the scientists who must have EVIDENCE, 1 Corinthians 15:6 says over 500 witnesses had seen the living Lord after his resurrection. Most of them were still alive when Paul wrote this chapter. I think 500 witnesses that agree could probably convince a jury in a court of law as to the truth of the resurrection.
Sunday of that Passover week, was a day of great victory and joy. Satan had been defeated even though he still has been allowed to have power in this present unsaved society. He wants to convince people that the resurrection is just another of the pagan myths. The Holy Spirit wants to convince people that Christ has been raised from the dead. Which is it? Believing in the resurrected Lord gives peace, puts our sins away, and gives us a home in heaven. Rejecting the Lord and His resurrection will leave a person “condemned already” (John 3:18).
I hope we can all thank the Lord from a believing heart that Christ died according to the scriptures, was buried and was raised again the third day according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The truth of the resurrection of Christ is what gives peace in troubling times.
Bruce Collins