Graduation Day

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. – 1 Corinthians 15:35-38

Whether your last graduation was from college, high school, or pre-school, there is another graduation day that awaits all of us and for some of us, it will be the greatest graduation day of all.

It will mean no more death, no more disease, no more sin, no more sorrow, and no more suffering. For others, it will be a day of dread and disappointment, discouragement and defeat that no mind can even conceive.

I am talking about that time when we are all physically raised from the dead. In 1 Corinthians 15, you read what you could call Paul’s doctoral thesis on the subject of the resurrection. Specifically, he talks about the resurrection of the Christians. So over the next couple of days, we’re going to dive deeper into what the resurrection is and why it is so important.

The first thing we need to consider is the possible manifestation of the resurrection. As we read today’s key passage of Scripture, we think about the resurrection of the body, not the soul. Remember it is the body that dies, not the soul. Our bodies are going to die, but we are not. If you are a believer when you die, you go to be in the presence of the Lord, but if you are an unbeliever and you die, you will go to live in the absence of the Lord. Either way, you will still be around.

Thinking about this, however, does raise an honest question about how this can happen. How is it possible that a body that is turned to dust be raised from the dead? The simple answer to why resurrection is possible is God. With God, all things are possible. The truth is if you have a problem with a resurrection, you really have a problem with God.

There are some people who reject the Bible because of the miracles in the Bible and they just can’t believe that the Red Sea parted, or five thousand people were fed with a few loaves and a few fish, or that a man walked on water. But in these instances, the real problem is not with the Bible, and it is not with miracles. The real problem is with God because if you don’t have a problem with God, you shouldn’t have a problem with any miracle, much less a resurrection.

I hope you’ll come back tomorrow as we continue this conversation and discuss three more things we need to consider regarding the resurrection.

Dear Lord, thank you for resurrecting from the dead so that I have the hope of resurrecting to spend eternity with you one day. Help me to look forward to that day with hopeful anticipation of what is to come, rather than be fearful of all that is unknown. In Jesus’ name, amen.