“O death, where is your victory?”
By Paul Bawden
What’s the greatest enemy we face in life?
Only one I know of – death. No matter what is invented to prolong life, we know that death is our destination at one time or another. So, that means that death has the victory over life, death has the last word.
Unless, death has been conquered. Unless, it can be demonstrated that our greatest enemy has been defeated.
Of course, this is what Easter Sunday is all about. According to the eyewitnesses, Jesus Christ, who was falsely accused, flogged, crucified on a cruel cross, and buried in a cold tomb – He conquered the grave bodily on Easter Sunday or resurrection day.
The deniers and the doubters say Christ’s bodily resurrection didn’t happen. Others say this was a spiritual event – not a historical reality.
Regardless of the negative responses and spiritualizing the event, the truth of the matter is that the Jesus who died, and was buried, conquered death bodily. What caused the message of Christ’s bodily resurrection to spread from Jerusalem and beyond? The lives of the followers of Christ had been miraculously changed by the risen Christ, and they couldn’t stop telling others that there was now hope beyond the grave – death didn’t have the last word – death had been defeated by the risen Christ. That message still reverberates around the world!
If Jesus Christ hadn’t conquered the grave bodily, we are people to be most pitied as Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, which meant there was no eternal life with life beyond the grave – death still reigns.
That means this life is it. We are born, live out our lives on planet earth, and that is it. Add to that, anything in the Bible is not true, yet the Bible foretold Christ’s coming death and bodily resurrection (Isaiah 53; Psalm 16:10; 22).
The reality is, there is only one open tomb in the world – the tomb of the bodily risen Christ. That’s why Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world – God so loved that world that He gave His only Son to provide eternal life for all who believe in Him.
I know there are many religions, philosophies, and ideas of men in our world today. But there is only the One within the many who has conquered death bodily. All of us have a choice regarding Him.
We can go on our way living life and doing our thing, perhaps not thinking about death, or putting off thinking about it. Yet, we know death will come some day.
Or we can consider Jesus Christ, who conquered the grave bodily to demonstrate that death doesn’t have the victory and the last word, and in so doing won for us His kind of life, eternal life – life with eternal purpose here, and the promise of life beyond the grave with Him forever.
What’s your choice? To not decide is to decide. Make your choice for Christ today, to live for Him, and enjoy the daily reality, that when you die, you will be in His presence, with the guarantee of a new body and heavenly home. If you have made your choice for Christ, thank Him that you have victory over death for time and eternity!! Celebrate Easter with great jubilation!
Paul Bawden is married and served in the pastoral ministry for 45 years, retiring in 2011. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Speech and attended Dallas Theological Seminary, receiving a Master of Theology. He has taken counseling courses at Trinity Evangelical Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois. Paul is a lifetime member of the Evangelical Free Church of America, as well as being a member of Interim Pastor Ministries (IPM), which serves churches during their time of transition in searching for a new pastor. He writes for Union Gospel Press, as well as being a volunteer writer for GotQuestions.org. Paul likes to write, read, bike, and work in the yard. The Bawdens have had the privilege to travel to Mexico and Romania on mission trips and visited various countries in Europe.