#DailyDevotion He Will Raise Us Up With Jesus From The Dead

2 Corinthians 4:13—15 ¹³It is written: “I believed and so I spoke.” Having the same spirit of faith, we also believe and so we speak, ¹⁴because we know that He Who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and bring us with you before Him. ¹⁵All this is to help you so that God’s grace, as it spreads, will move more and more people to overflow with thanks to God’s glory.

It is an interesting passage to quote here by St. Paul in verse thirteen. It is from Psalm 116. Paul is talking about being raised from the dead. What does Psalm 116 have to say about that? It starts off here, ³“The snares of death came around me; the distress of the grave took hold of me; I experienced anguish and grief.” So we feel the snares around us some days more than others and when we do, distress, anguish and grief we experience also. It also says, ¹⁰“I believed even when I had to speak of my suffering so much.” This recognizes that just because we speak about our suffering doesn’t mean we have lost faith. It just means we are suffering and we are expressing how we feel at the moment. This is the text Paul is quoting here. Finally there is this verse, ⁸“You saved my life from death, my eyes from tears and my feet from stumbling, so I might walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” Here then we see the Psalmist is speaking of Jesus and his resurrection. The Father has raised Jesus from the dead and now he walks before the LORD in the land of the living.

So we also believe and we speak with Jesus these words of Psalm 116 for we also believe He who raised the LORD Jesus from the dead will also raise us up with Jesus and bring us all together before the LORD in the land of the living. You see this is our ultimate Christian hope. Our hope is not being in the clouds with God as some bodiless angels. It is isn’t be spirits in some heavenly realm. Our Christian hope is to be raised bodily, just as our LORD Jesus Christ has been raised bodily from the grave. Indeed the resurrection of Jesus is so powerful that it raises both the living and the dead from their graves to stand before him. The living are to be raised to eternal life and the dead are to be raise to eternal perdition as Daniel writes in chapter seven of his book.

We are to be raised to walk before the LORD in the land of the living. This means we are not raised to live in some ethereal space with God. Rather, in the new heavens and new earth God comes down to live with us. With God here on earth we will live with him, which makes it a heaven on earth. All who live and walk before God at that time will only be the living, that is, those who have the life of Jesus in them. As you believe in Jesus you have his life in you right now. Then, at that time that life in you will overcome your mortality and you will be like Jesus as he is now, immortal, imperishable and powerful. We’ll be walking on the ground and living life here in the kingdom of God on earth. In that existence there will be no more sin, sorrow, grief, pain or death. This is our Christian hope.

So we share this, what we believe with others, so his grace may abound to others and more and more people will give praise to God’s glory as the Psalm says, ¹⁷“With a sacrifice I will thank You and pray in Your name, O LORD.”

Heavenly, grant that we may believe and then speak of the greatness of your mercy to us in Christ Jesus so others may join us in our hymn of praise. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.