Hope or fantasy?

Home

Hope or fantasy?

8 April 2007 Easter

“You did not leave his soul in hell, nor did you suffer your holy one to see corruption.” This is a famous aria from Handel’s Messiah, but the lyrics have been adapted from King David. In fact David wrote, “…you will not leave my soul in hell, neither will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.”

Was David talking about two different people? Or did he think he was the holy one? And in any case was he left in the grave or not? A thousand years later, the apostle Peter thought that David was certainly dead and buried – they even had his tomb to look at if they were in any doubt. So was David talking nonsense? Or was it the kind of sentimental wishful thinking that is common when people face death?

Peter thought David was a prophet and was really referring to one of his descendants. Actually that he saw ahead to the resurrection of his famous son. But was Peter right? His argument was that for the first time ever, what David had spoken about had happened. That one person had not been abandoned to the grave (see Acts 2).

God had raised Jesus to life, and Peter and lots of others were witnesses to the fact.

There is a fine line between sentimental wishful thinking and genuine hope in an afterlife. The modern western world unfortunately has made the line much thicker because it rejects the truth of the resurrection of Jesus and is left only with sentiment and fantasies without hope.

But the real longings that most of us have, that we and our friends will not be abandoned to the grave, do have a counterpart in reality. God himself has gone to great lengths to deal with the problem of death. He sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He shared our flesh and blood so as to free us from our lifelong slavery to the fear of death (Heb 2).

In Christ’s resurrection, God has overcome the power of death and opened a way to eternal life with him. The way through death to the Father is through Jesus.

For us who have not yet passed through death there is a double promise here. The one who has been raised from death is the one who has made atonement for our sins. It is because we can be sure of forgiveness through his death that we can be confident of sharing his resurrection life. How to be sure?

Peter’s advice was, “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”

Dale

Comments

There's a true hope in Jesus Christ, not just in our temporal life, but also in the death. We have died with Jesus, therefore we will live forever with Him. There's no fear about the death for us (who are in Jesus), since we know that the death is like a bridge from mortal to the new life, the Kingdom of God, the most beautiful place, where we can rest and enjoy the great peace forever with our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Posted by Lidia on Monday, April 9, 2007 at 07:13:21