Luke 24:21 (NIV): “…we had hoped that he was the one…”
That partial quote is from a couple people Jesus bumped into on a walk one day after He had risen from the dead. They didn’t recognize Him. He struck up a conversation with them and asked what they were discussing. They were surprised that Jesus seemed to know nothing about the events that had just taken place in Jerusalem.
Jesus, the One they had placed their hopes in, had been crucified and laid in a tomb — dead. The hope they had had in a Saviour who would redeem them had been dashed, or, so they thought.
Today (Easter Sunday), in churches all over the world, we will celebrate the fact that Jesus did not stay in the tomb. He defeated sin and death by rising from the dead.
This truth is what gives us hope.
In the last column I wrote I said that if there is a God, we cannot make Him up. He is what He is. If we want to know Him we need to seek Him out.
The same is true about whether or not there is life after death, or if we all just cease to exist, or whatever else might happen after we die.
We can’t just make this stuff up. It is what it is. It’s way above our “pay grade” to determine the nature of eternity. The Bible says that there is a good eternity waiting for those who place their trust in Jesus.
John 11:25–26 (NIV): “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
