Because He Lives!
Facing coming betrayal, judgment, and death, in just a matter of hours, Jesus of Nazareth, meeting with His apostles, in a large furnished upper room (cf. Luke 22:12) said, “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19, NKJV, emp. added).
One of those who saw and heard Jesus in that upper room was the apostle John. Sixty-five years later, while banished to the island of Patmos off the southwest coast of Asia Minor, John saw and heard Jesus again. John describes a part of what he saw and heard in the following: “. . . [W]hen I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Revelation 1:17-18).
Twice in the preceding statements from the New Testament it is reported that Jesus affirmed that He lives. Christianity confronts the basic issues of life and death with the historical fact of the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Dr. Luke (cf. Colossians 4:14), in the preface to His account of the Gospel (cf. Luke 1:1-4), states that he wrote so that Theophilus might “know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed” (Luke 1:4). One of “those things” is the proposition: “He is . . . risen!” (Luke 24:6, emp, added).
What are the implications of the affirmation “He Lives!”?
Because He Lives—God is Provable. Peter wrote, “. . .[T]hrough Him [you] believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:21). A late classical scholar at the University of Auckland, Professor E. M. Blaiklock and his son, who is a medical doctor, wrote: “That the tomb must have been found empty is a core fact which can hardly be disputed . . . . The resurrection of Christ, perhaps the best authenticated fact in ancient history, clinches the Christological argument for the existence of God” (70).
Because He Lives—Salvation is Actual. Paul wrote, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10). Christianity is the only religion that provides the ultimate salvation (from sin), because it is the one religion that has the only living Savior (Acts 4:12)!
Because He Lives—Strength is Available. Paul, the apostle of Christ, described his “first defense” and how “no one stood with me, but all forsook me. . . . But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. . . . I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion” (2 Timothy 4:16-17). Though we know not the details concerning how He does this, we know He is able to provide the strength to meet life’s challenges, because He lives!
Because He Lives—Immortality is Attainable. Paul also wrote of how, through His appearing, “our Savior Jesus Christ . . . abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10). As Dr. Warren described it, the “basic—‘the bedrock,’ fundamental—concern . . . is to deal with this question: ‘Will every human being who has ever lived on the [E]arth live on—after physical death—as a unique center of conscious (human) personality?’ (It would be difficult to imagine a more important problem for any human being.)” (vii).
Christianity provides the solution to the problem! Jesus “plucked the rose of immortality from the realm of the dead and planted it to blossom and bloom on the bosom of His own grave, thus giving hope and joy to mankind” (Hardeman 40).
Because He Lives—Judgment is Knowable. The dynamic climax of one of the most powerful speeches in the history of world literature declares, “He [God] has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man who He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31, NASV). There is coming the Day for which all other days have been made—the Day of Judgment (cf. 2 Timothy 4:1, 8; 2 Peter 3:10-13, et al.). Because He lives, we are assured of the reality of this Day.
Because He Lives—Reunion is Foreseeable. Queen Elizabeth delivered a Sunday night address to the United Kingdom. In 523 words she sought to give comfort, hope, and a united resolve as Britain struggled with the hardship of COVID-19. Her closing words included the following: “We should take comfort that while we may have more [challenges] still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”
Whether intentional or not, the Queen’s last sentence—“we will meet again”—was a powerful reminder of a song that became the symbol for many in Britain during the Second World War. The lyrics of the song, “We’ll Meet Again,” aimed to comfort those who feared they may never see their loved ones again. As the bombs fell, houses crumbled, and lives were being lost, the song became extremely popular, especially as sung by Vera Lynn, who gained worldwide fame as she sang, especially to entertain the British troops. Her Sunday night radio show, “Sincerely Yours,” was popular among many. She sang and read letters from people separated by the war. “We’ll Meet Again” closed every broadcast.
Vera Lynn, now 103 years, watched the Queen’s speech from her home in Sussex. Following the message of the Queen, she said, “I didn’t know Her Majesty was going to finish up with the words “We will meet again,” but I think those words speak to the hope we should all have during these troubling times. In these uncertain times, I am taken back to my time during World War II, when we all pulled together and looked after each other. It is the spirit that we all need to find again to weather the storm of this coronavirus (COVID-19)” (shieldgazette.com).
The Christian faith is grounded not only in ideas, but in historical facts. It sets forth a hope anchored in the historical fact of the resurrection of Christ. The application of this fact (i.e. Because He lives) is the basis for an anticipated wonderful reunion concerning which Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 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. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, ESV)
Because He Lives—Life is Hopeful. The tomb of Jesus Christ is empty! Because of this, life does not have to be empty! God “has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).
A little girl died at a hotel where she and her father had stopped on a journey. Her mother had preceded her in death. Just two, the father and the minister, followed the casket that contained the body of the little girl. At the cemetery the father took a key from his pocket, unlocked the casket, and gazed on his lovely daughter’s face one last time. He then handed the key to the keeper of the cemetery. As the minister and the heartbroken father traveled back to town from the cemetery, the minister quoted the words of Jesus from Revelation 1:18. He explained to the grieving father how Jesus, though once dead, is now alive and has the keys of Hades and death. The father asked, “What’s that about ‘the keys’?” The minister replied, “You think the key to your little girl’s casket is in the hand of the keeper of the cemetery. Let me tell you, the key to your little girl’s grave hangs at the girdle of the Son of God! And, on resurrection day, He will use it!”
God sent His son, They called Him Jesus,
He came to live, heal, and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.
Because He lives I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living, just because He lives. (Gaither)
Charles C. Pugh III
Executive Director
WORKS CITED:
Blaiklock, E. M. and D. A. Blaiklock. Is it – Or Isn’t it?: Why We Believe in the Existence of God. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968.
Hardeman, N. B. One Dozen Sermons. N.p.: Hardeman, 1956.
Warren, Thomas B. Immortality: All of Us Will be Somewhere Forever. Jonesboro: National Christian, 1992.