In Our Place: Lenten DevotionsSample

You are immortal

It’s human nature to take important things for granted, is it not? When you’re sailing along in your car and suddenly see bright red taillights just ahead, you don’t even think, “I wonder if the laws of friction will apply today?” You just slam on the brakes. Or when you get up in the morning, you don’t wonder, “Might this be the day that the gravitational pull of the earth lets go and I just slowly drift off into space?” You just step out on the sidewalk and assume that your feet will stick to the ground. We tend not to pay much attention to the universal principles that hold our lives together. But what if Easter hadn’t happened?

If Christ has not been raised, everything you think you know about Christianity begins to crack and crumble, like a building with no foundation in a windstorm. If Christ has not been raised, here’s the scariest part of all: Your sins remain unforgiven and you will be judged for them. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men, Paul said.

But get this: The Bible says, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Christ Jesus is the first installment of the resurrection. Because he burst out of his grave in soul and body, you and I are immortal. His resurrection guarantees your forgiveness. His resurrection guarantees yours.