A Reason to Hope

I have a crucifix on the east wall of my study. The vertical part of the cross is about 24" high, so the corpus is not "tiny" but rather large enough to show a bit of the ugliness of death. I look upon this portrayal of my Lord in His hour of "defeat" and am reminded that He faced the worst that the world could do.... and still He triumphed.

Christians believe that when Jesus died that awful death He took upon Himself the sin of the world –– my sins and yours. When Jesus died, death died with Him. When Jesus came back from the dead, He was showing that the life of God is greater than the death of sin.

The promise of God is that those who follow Jesus in His death can have the hope –– a realistic hope, given the resurrection of Jesus –– that we who follow will also be raised to eternal life, in spite of physical death.

I am not facing the worst this fallen world can throw at me (at least not right now, and I pray I'll never be tested to that extent). Yet the things I am facing now (and have already gone through) could be crushing things.... except there is a reason to hope.

Christ has died.

Christ is risen.

Christ will come again.