World Death Rate Holding Steady At 100%

1 Corinthians 15:1-11, 20-22

¹Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. ³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. ²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

“World Death Rate Holding Steady At 100%”

A ridiculous headline, to say the least. But there is one exception and that is Jesus Christ. He was resurrected from death, in His human body. Yes, there were other people who were brought back from death in the Bible. But where are they today? They are in the grave – so 100% still holds. Last week there was a story in the news about an Italian doctor who plans to perform a “head transplant” at the end of 2017. A head transplant! It’s probably not true, as the story seems to indicate this is more about video game design than actual science. But – it does point to how tenaciously we hold onto this life and that is because large portions of the population don’t believe that there is a God with a plan for what happens when we die. But Scriptures tell a different story.

There is only one world religion that teaches about resurrection and that is Christianity. There are a few that hold onto reincarnation but that most certainly is not resurrection. We stand unique on the world stage with an understanding of what comes next that cannot be compared to that of any other belief system. The Fall of Adam and Eve introduced sin and subsequently death into God’s perfect creation. Because of His overwhelming love, grace, and mercy, God launched His already devised plan to save mankind from the wages of sin. Already in Genesis 3:15 God hints at the outworking of His plan. He would send a Savior. Not even Adam and Eve, who heard the prophecy from the Father’s lips themselves understood what sending a Savior would cost the Father. But they believed what He told them and began to look for that promise to be fulfilled. The Hebrew text indicates that Eve even believed her firstborn son, Cain, was “the man” that God was sending. As it turned out, that was not the case. But she believed in the promise nonetheless.

We need to hold onto Jesus’ resurrection with all that we are because, according to the Apostle Paul, Jesus’ resurrection means that we too will be resurrected when He returns. He was “the firstborn from the dead.” Paul even points out all of the witnesses who saw the resurrected Christ. This marks His return from death as an historical event. There were just too many people who saw Him with their own eyes to deny that He did indeed come back from the dead. In God’s economy, Adam brings sin, and subsequently death, into the world; Jesus bring life. While we may struggle with the sin that Adam brought, we also rejoice in the life that Jesus returned.