Resurrection Power Will Change Us Forever!

Paul makes the Truth very plain -- : “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20 NKJV). Consider how much hangs on those two little words—"But now.” The resurrection of Jesus, our coming resurrection, and the resurrection of all those who those died in faith, all of it depends on those two little words.

But now!

He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

The term “firstfruits” refers to the first part of any harvest. For the Israelites, it meant the first part of the barley harvest that was offered to the Lord. It was a happy day when you offered the firstfruits because it meant that there was a bigger harvest to come. Even so, the resurrection of Jesus over 2000 years ago is God’s way of saying, “One day all my children will rise from the dead.” Not one of them will be left in the grave. Every single one will be raised 

Immortal,Incorruptible,Perfected,Completed,Glorified,Free from sickness,Delivered from death,With sin gone forever,Human frailty disappeared,Personality retained,Eternally endowed,Supernaturally restored,Made like Jesus,All the defects finally gone, All that is under construction finally completed,With healthy bodies,With clear minds, With undivided hearts,In company with all the saints of all the ages,In a multitude that no man can number,We will gather round the throne, We will rejoice and laugh and sing,We will know each other more deeply,We will love more completely,We will think more clearly, We will still be who we are,We will be more than we have ever been,We will become what we always wanted, We will finally see our loved ones who died in the Lord,We will meet those who went before us,We will see the saints of old,We will get to know Abraham, Esther, Luther and Spurgeon,We will see our grandparents and our grandchildren, We will marvel at the grace of God forever,We will see Jesus and bow down before him.
And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

This is our hope, our faith, our confidence, this is the faith of our ancestors who believed then what we believe now. This is what the earliest Christians believed, and this is what Christians around the world believe. It is no small thing to say that a person now dead will someday rise and live again. 

But that is what the Resurrection says to us.  The Jesus Story is Our Story!  Amen!  Amen!