“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is void of content and your faith is empty too…If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins…If our hopes in Christ are limited to this life only, we are the most pitiable of all men.”
--1 Corinthians 15:14, 17, 19
To paraphrase Bishop Fulton Sheen ‘Christ is the only person ever born to die.’ The reason for this is the Resurrection. If Christ would not have suffered and died on Calvary, He would not have resurrected from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, thus raising us from the death of our sins, and making us, not worthy (for we can never be worthy), but made possible to reach salvation.
It can be said that the Resurrection is the cornerstone, the absolute foundation of Christianity—His Church. If we deny the Resurrection we deny our own salvation, which is what our hearts most fervently desire. We are put on this earth as preparation for the homeland—Heaven. And we can only reach the homeland if we are invited by the homeland’s resident landlord—God.
If you or I were to greatly offend and hurt another person, as far as brutally murdering the person’s only son with no remorse, would we expect that person to welcome us into their home with open arms? We wouldn’t even ask.
Yet, we feel as if we can do it to God? The Creator? He who made us with and through His LOVE, and continues to forgive us our trespasses time after time?
Sounds pretty naïve and foolish to me.
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins…”
What is the point of believing anything if we do not believe in the Resurrection? We can believe every other facet of Christ’s life, however large or minute, but what would it matter? We have to believe ALL of it! Just as a car needs an ignition (the Annunciation) to start the engine, it needs a gas pedal (the Resurrection) to allow the car to propel forward to its destination (Heaven).
Lastly, “If our hopes in Christ are limited to this life only, we are the most pitiable of all men.”
Christ came down to this earth, professed the Father’s Word, and endured His Passion, so the gates of Heaven would swing open, making it possible for us to enter our REAL lives—a life with God. If there is no Heaven, no life after this world, we are already living in hell!
Love and GOD Forever!
Anthony Paul
2 comments:
This is why so many of us struggle with the suffering we are offered by the Hands of God, b/c we have the tendency to see Him only in light of this world. If only we could believe in the eternal significance of our suffering, we could bear it so much more valiantly. Only by the grace of God can we see it that way, though.
Thanks for the reflection.
The blind leading the blind...that's how we act when we stay conformed to this world, Sarah. No wonder why it is so easy to sin and sin again, and then offer a powder puff apology to God. His son was ripped in pieces to a bloody pulp, and we won't even acknowledge it, or, more importantly, acknowledge how his subsequent resurrection saved our souls.
How sad it is that we live in a society that urges us to stay so quiet about our own salvation--better watch what we say, we wouldn't want to offend anyone...but GOD.
Thanks for the comment, Sarah.
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