Love Remains | A 13-Day Devotional By Hillary ScottSample

“Ain’t No Grave”

The grave seems so final, doesn’t it? The shoveling of the dirt, the closing of the casket. The end of a life. How could there be anything beyond death? How could there be hope in a loss of life? It’s one of the greatest paradoxes of the Christian faith, the fact that we do have hope in death. Remember Paul? He couldn’t even decide if he would rather live or die. “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21, 23).

Paul’s contentment in both life and death is rooted in the truth that this life is not all there is for those who are in Christ. He writes in 1 Corinthians, “But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown” (1 Cor. 15:51-52).

When I hear that trumpet sound
I'm gonna get up out of the ground
Ain’t no grave
Gonna hold my body down

The end of our story is not the end of The Story. As Paul goes on to say, quoting the prophet Isaiah, “‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:55-57).

If you’re doubting the power of God in your life today, remember, He has defeated death itself. And the same power that raised Christ from the dead, now lives in you (Eph. 1:19-20).