Monday, April 10, 2006
A Foundational Truth
If mortals die, can they live again? This thought would give me hope, and through my struggle I would eagerly wait for release.
—Job 14:14
In one of the oldest books of the Bible, the Book of Job, the question is asked, “If mortals die, can they live again?” That is something everyone should ask in life: “What’s going to happen to me when I die? What is there beyond this place called Earth?”
Before I became a Christian, I thought about this quite often. I was only a teenager, and it was sort of a heavy subject to be contemplating. But I did find myself thinking about death on semi-regular basis. It isn’t that I was obsessed with death or that I wanted to die. My belief at the time was that once people stopped living, they simply ceased to exist. I was not certain there was a place called heaven. I was definitely hoping there wasn’t a place called hell. My conclusion was that when you’re gone, you’re gone. It’s all over with.
We all know that death is coming, but what happens beyond the grave? According to the Bible, there is life beyond the grave. And because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, and because He rose from the dead three days later, we as Christians have the hope that when we die, we will immediately go into the presence of God into a wonderful place called heaven.
That is why the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is one of the most important biblical truths there is. The resurrection of Christ from the dead, next to the crucifixion itself, is the most significant event in church history. It is not a peripheral issue. It is foundational. It is bedrock. It is the bottom line.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org.
Copyright © 2006 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,
