As Kay stands in a beautiful cemetery in Fort Ogelthorpe ...



As Kay stands in a beautiful cemetery in Fort Ogelthorpe, Georgia, she’s reminded of all the students in Georgia and other places around the country who have studied the sermon of Jonathan Edwards. That sermon is called, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Many times it has been used mightily to bring revival in the United States of America. [Nowadays] as they look at it, they scoff, laugh at it and tear it apart. If only they knew and understood Jonathan Edwards. When he was on a trip, and separated from his wife, a smallpox epidemic broke out. It was in the early days and they inoculated him and his daughter. His daughter died; they both contracted the illness and Jonathan Edwards knew that he too would die, separated from his wife and in a strange city. They said that when people gathered around this great man of God they talked to him and listened to him. They were discussing his death and thought that he would breathe his last within a few minutes. As a great frown and murmur came upon the faces and lips of those people, to their great surprise, thinking that he was so unconscious that he couldn’t respond, he spoke. He said, “Trust in God and you need not fear.” This man who had brought that powerful message “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” knew that he need not fear death because he had put his trust in God through the Lord Jesus Christ. These were his last words. When he died the doctor sat down to pen a letter to his wife and wrote,

And never did any mortal man more fully and clearly evidence the sincerity of all his professions by one continued, universal, calm, cheerful resignation and patient submission to the divine will through every stage of his death. No man did it more graciously than he. Not so much as one discontented expression, nor the least appearance of murmuring through the whole. And never did any person expire (die) with more perfect freedom from pain. Not so much as one distorted hair but in the most proper sense of the words “He fell asleep”.

Then the doctor wrote this: “Death had most certainly lost his sting as to him.”

As Kay stands in the cemetery, does it evoke emotions? Does it make you wonder: “What’s going to happen to me when I die? What about all the people in this cemetery? What about all these tombstones? What about all the people buried in these caskets beneath the earth? Are they dead forever? Or is there a resurrection?” There is a resurrection. We studied it last week. Paul proved that, stated it, gave us the facts. There is a resurrection. He took both sides of the story: What if there is no resurrection? But now Christ has been raised from the dead; these are the facts—there is a resurrection.

Their next question would be: If there is a resurrection, what is it like? Kay stands in the cemetery and it evokes memories and emotions. Maybe you have a tombstone already with the date of your birth but not the date of your death because you’re still living—but you know you’re going to die. “It’s appointed unto man once to die.” We all are going to die unless we’re here when Jesus Christ comes back. What was Paul’s answer when they asked the question, “What is the resurrection going to be like? What is our body going to be like?” That’s the hope.

This is what Mrs. Edwards wrote to her daughter as she spoke of her husband’s death. Remember, he went on a trip to minister. He never came home. She got the word that she had died and this is what she wrote to her child:

My very dear child, what shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud.

Death is not easy. Even when you know Jesus Christ. Even when you know what’s going to happen and that there’s a resurrection. Death is not easy. Death is like a dark cloud that comes in the sky and blots out the sun, with its warmth and the beauty of that day. Kay remembers when her father died and she thought, “How can the sun shine? My daddy’s dead. How can people laugh? How can people talk and go about their lives, my daddy’s dead.” It’s a dark cloud. But we sorrow as those who have hope not with the sorrow of those who have no hope.

A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths.

The rod is part of God’s discipline. May we lay our hands on our mouths and may we not say anything.

The Lord has done it. He has made me adore His goodness that we had him so long. But my God lives and He has my heart. Oh what a legacy my husband and your father has left us. We are all given to God and there I am and love to be. Your ever affectionate mother, Sarah Edwards.

She knew there was a hope and a resurrection. She knew the Scriptures so knew what that resurrection would be like. Oh, not in all the fullness of it—we won’t know that until it really happens. But she knew what the Scriptures said. What a way to bring this book to a close with a hope of the glorious resurrection.

Remember, there were some in the church at Corinth who were saying, “There is no resurrection from the dead.” Paul referred to them as “bad company”, “evil companions”. He said, “Those evil companions are going to corrupt your good morals because if there is no resurrection from the dead, we might as well do as the playwright has said.” There was a playwright who wrote, “Evil companions corrupt good morals” because what our philosophy then becomes is: Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.

Isaiah 22:13 Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”

What’s the context? God is going to judge Israel because it has sinned. The context is:

Isaiah 22:11b-13a But you did not depend on Him who made it, nor did you take into consideration Him (God) who considered it (planned it) long ago. Therefore in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, to shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. Instead there is gaiety and gladness…” They’re supposed to weeping, mourning because of the sin, the state of the people, but instead there is gaiety and gladness. … killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, And you’re saying, “Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” It’s not that way because when we die there is a resurrection. So Paul writes to the church at Corinth to tell them:

1 Corinthians 15:34 Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. “You are so wrapped up and have so believed this lie. You think all we have is this life. There are people around here with no knowledge of God so I’m saying this to your shame.” Do your friends know that death is certain and resurrection is true and it will be either, as Jesus says in John 5, “unto judgment” or “unto eternal life”? Do your friends know that the only way to enter into eternal life is through the One who said:

John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Acts 4:12 (KJV) Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. There’s salvation in only One.

Jonathan Edwards could die quietly. His wife could put her hand over her mouth and bow the knee because they knew this was not the end. He had shared the gospel and he had shared the alternative. He had told them about sinners in the hand of an angry God. There was no blood upon his hands because he was not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He knew:

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (the Gentile).

Do the people that you associate with—the people that fix your hair, your car, the people you work with, the people in the PTA, the people in the neighborhood—know who you belong to? Not just because of your words but because of your lifestyle? You have deeds that go along with your doctrine. Do they know that? Have they experienced that?

1 Corinthians 15:35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” When Jesus Christ comes from heaven, how are the dead who are in the cemetery underground going to be raised? We know what their bodies looked like. We saw them lying in the coffin. Sometimes we say, “Oh, he looks so natural.” Or sometimes they say, “Oh, they did the hair wrong. They did the face wrong; they did the makeup wrong. It doesn’t look like him.” We touch him and he’s cold. We look at our baby in a casket. We weep, we’re broken. Sometimes the casket is closed and we never see them again. What kind of a body will they have when they come out of the grave? What will it be?

1 Corinthians 15:36 You fool? That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; There’s a kernel—a piece of corn, a piece of wheat, a grain, a poppy seed—that’s not going to come to life unless it dies; unless its outer shell opens up and life comes out of it.

1 Corinthians 15:37 and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, When you sow a kernel of corn, it’s just a round little yellow kernel. It’s not a whole stalk of corn with all of its grain on it. …but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

1 Corinthians 15:38 But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. Wheat brings forth wheat, corn brings forth corn, poppies bring forth poppies. Dogwoods bring forth dogwoods.

1 Corinthians 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. We all have our DNA, our genetic code. Animals are animals, fish are fish, and flesh is flesh. Man is man. You see this in Genesis 1:21-25 about how God made the animals and the living creatures in the sea, and how God made man.

1 Corinthians 15:40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another.

Kay, her husband, and their son walked a circle on the grounds of Precept Ministries since they live on the gorgeous 32 acres of property. As they walked the property holding hands Kay thinks they saw Mars. The stars were glorious. There’s a glory of the heavenly and there’s a glory of the earthly.

1 Corinthians 15:41-42 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body. Remember Paul’s question: What kind of a body is raised? There’s going to be a resurrection here; how is it sown?

How are the Dead Raised?

1. The bodies are sown perishable and raised imperishable. (1 Corinthians 15:42) That means that these in the ground will corrupt. They will rot away. But when they’re raised, that body that they get will never perish. It will be an eternal body. It will last forever and ever.

1 Corinthians 15:43 It is sown in dishonor. You see this as you look at people in the coffin. Many times the body is wasted away or distorted by an accident. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It will be a glorious body. No spot, no blemish. When Kay sees herself in the television screen she sees the dishonor and the corruption, the signs of time and the evidence of age. But someday she will have a brand new body. So think of her as a resurrected one in much better shape than she is now. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

2. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:44-45a It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body—and this is what you have right now—there is also a spiritual body. That’s what he wants us to understand. We are not just flesh; there is a spiritual body coming. So also it is written, the first man, Adam, Remember, he compared Adam:

Romans 5:12a By one man sin entered into the world. And death came by sin.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.

So now Paul is going back, reminding us again of Adam and Eve. He’s giving us the first man.

1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. When Kay reads that she thinks of Jesus after His resurrection when He breathed on them the breath of life and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” When we get saved, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside us. Ephesians 1 says that the Holy Spirit in us is the guarantee, the ticket, of the redemption of this purchased possession. In other words, this body was purchased when it was corruptible. It’s going to be incorruptible. It’s perishable; it’s going to be imperishable. It was natural; it’s going to be spiritual. So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, (Christ) became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. So remember, there’s a physical body and there’s a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:46-47 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. So we have two men. We have Adam and Christ. We are all “in Adam” by virtue of birth. When we believe in Jesus Christ then we’re “in Christ”. That means we are going to have that life-giving Spirit in us. Jesus became flesh but was without sin because He was not born of Adam’s seed. He was born of a virgin therefore he was born without sin. Adam’s genes were not in Jesus; God’s were. He was God incarnate. “In carne” means “in the flesh.” He was God in the flesh. He was a man, flesh and blood like we are, but He was the One who was the life-giving Spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:48-49 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; Who is the earthy one? Adam. And as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. As Kay was made like Adam, flesh and blood, so she shall be made like Jesus Christ. 1 John 3 has more to tell us than what we’re going to bear but how we ought to live as a result of this:

1 John 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Understand that everybody is not a child of God, including not everyone in the cemetery. So God is not the Father of all of us so we cannot really call Him Father unless we come to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. So God is not the Father of all, but He is the Father of those who believe in Jesus Christ. Romans 8:16-17 says, “The Spirit which was given to us bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if we’re children of God, we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ” because Jesus is our elder brother. We are adopted into God’s family. So we’ve become children of God because we have the Spirit of God. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Those that say, “I don’t believe in Jesus Christ.” Or “He’s not the only way to God. I’ll get to God my way.” You can know that anyone who says this is not a child of God. The world doesn’t know God, and they don’t know Jesus.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him… We saw before that when Jesus comes the second time there will be a resurrection—a great resurrection. When we are resurrected, we will be like Him. We don’t know what we will be like but We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. Here is the word of exhortation:

1 John 3:3 Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Jonathan Edwards had his hope fixed on Jesus Christ. He trusted Him and he trusted the sovereignty of God. He lived out death through a fluke—not through God’s economy but through a fluke of a smallpox vaccination that gave him the disease and killed him instead of saving him. He lived out his death in perfect trust in God, knowing that he would be raised from the dead, that he would be like Jesus. He had that hope fixed in him and that’s why he lived a pure life. That’s why Sarah Edwards lived that pure life because she also had that hope.

1 Corinthians 15:49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

3. As we bore Adam’s image, we will bear Christ’s image (1 Corinthians 15:49)

4. WE WILL NOT ALL DIE! Some of us will never be buried in a cemetery. Some of us will never ever physically die. We will not all die but we will all be changed. You might not go into the grave to ultimately be raised and get a new body, but you will be changed because we have to be changed. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This mortal has to put on immortality. This perishable has to put on imperishability. This fleshly has to become spiritual. How is that going to happen? Paul says, “I’ll show you a mystery.”

1 Corinthians 15:50-51a Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, Paul is talking to the Christian. What does it mean “go to sleep”? It means that the minute you close your eyes, the minute your heart stops beating and is dead silent, the minute there is no corneal reflex or corneal reaction, the minute there’s no pulse or movement of the chest to inhale air, you (the real you inside that shell) will be absent from the body and immediately present with the Lord. You say, “But I thought there was a resurrection.” Yes, a resurrection of the body. When God saved you, He saved you—spirit, soul, and body. He didn’t say, “Well, the shell’s gone, just leave it there.” No. Remember “This perishable is going to put on imperishable. This mortal is going to put on immortality.”

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. If, at this very moment, (and wouldn’t that be awesome because they would find this tape on the ground and they would take it and play it and see what happened) that trumpet would sound—and it could sound at any time—while Kay was standing in the cemetery, then the person buried right beneath her, if they were a Christian, would come immediately out of that grave. How? Who knows? God can do anything. He spoke and brought the world into existence just by the power of His word. So He can do it. When He speaks the dead will be raised by the power of His word. They’re going to come forth. Those that are dead will be raised incorruptible and we will be changed like them.

1 Corinthians 15:53-55 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” That’s why Jonathan Edwards’s doctor wrote, “The sting of death has been removed.” There’s a resurrection. There’s a transformation. There’s a sowing of the natural and a raising of the spiritual; the bare grain going into the ground; a brand-new body; the mortal that is changed into the immortal; the corruptible that is changed into the incorruptible.

1 Corinthians 15:54b-56 …then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;

What does that mean: “The sting of death is sin”? What brought us down into this grave in the first place? What made us die? What brought death into the world?

It is the fact that we did not believe God or obey God. In Adam and Eve, we sinned. We were in Adam’s loins, so to speak, at the time. They believed a lie and as a consequence, they died. What is the sting? It is sin. “And the power of sin is the law.” What does this mean?

The law was given to show us our sin. Galatians said it was given as a tutor to shut us up to obedience until faith in Jesus Christ could come. The law was a schoolmaster that slapped your hand and said, “You shouldn’t do that. Don’t do that. Obey.”

• The law was given as a tutor (Galatians 3:24)

• The law shuts you up to obedience to Jesus Christ

What gives the law its power? The power of sin: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; You cannot keep the law no matter how hard you try. By divine appointment, you’re reading these notes of the lecture Kay videotaped in a cemetery. You’re going to die. Unless Jesus Christ comes back during your lifetime, you’re going to die and be buried or cremated. You may die at sea; you may drown and your body never found. But someday it will be found. Someday it will be raised and either go to judgment or you will live forever and ever in the presence of God the Father.

But you’re not going to get into the presence of God the Father by keeping the law. Why not? If you keep the whole law but break it in just one point, if you step over the line one single time in a lifetime, then you’re guilty of breaking all of it. And breaking one single little law or stepping over the line once, as James and Galatians 3 tell us, you get the consequences of breaking the law and that is death. You’re going to die. We’re all going to die unless Jesus Christ comes back. But we can be raised and have a brand-new body, living forever and ever. Death will not have its victory because we will be absent from the body and present with the Lord. A parallel passage is in 1 Thessalonians 4. First Corinthians tells us a mystery: We’re not all going to die. We’re all going to be changed but not everybody’s going to die. First Thessalonians gives us more details.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. Some will come to the cemetery with flowers for their loved ones. They’ll be full of grief and sorrow because, as they lay the flowers to rest before that tombstone, they have no hope. To them, the only thing living are the flowers they’ve put on that grave. They think: That’s it. It’s over. It’s done. And they weep bitterly. They grieve; they’re in torment. They have no hope.

If you’re a believer like Sarah Edwards when you hear of or experience the death of a daughter or a husband, and you know Jesus Christ, you still sorrow and weep. You’re still lonely. You still remember. There are still times when certain things will happen, a bird will sing, a dog will bark, a familiar sight or fragrance, a sound or memory will come back and you’ll sorrow. But you do not sorrow as those who have no hope because there is a resurrection. Because mortal will put on immortality.

1 Thessalonians 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Remember that some in Corinth didn’t believe that. They believed that He died, but they didn’t believe in the resurrection. But now Paul is speaking to those in Thessaloniki. …even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Did you hear the trumpet? What’s going to happen? There’s going to be a trumpet. Jesus Christ is going to leave heaven at the time of His Second Coming. This is what’s going to happen:

1 Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. In other words, if you’re standing in the cemetery when the trumpet sounds, [you will see] the person buried under your feet—if they were a Christian. The minute they died they were absent from the body and present with the Lord, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5, so their spirit went to be with Jesus Christ. Now Jesus Christ is leaving heaven and He’s bringing that [body’s] spirit back with Him. When that spirit comes down, it reunites with the body that comes out of the grave and now that spirit is back in a body but it’s an immortal, incorruptible, imperishable body. As that happens, then that person is raised first, comes out, is joined by his spirit, Jesus is in the air, and you’re standing there. You’re alive, you remain, but then you are caught up together with that person to meet the Lord in the air. So should you ever be with the Lord. This is the mystery. This is the excitement. This is what we call The Rapture. This is what a lot of Christians are waiting for.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-16 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede We won’t get a six-foot head start on those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. These are the dead in Christ.

1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. What can you say to those that come, bring their flowers and are full of sorrow? You can give them that blessed assurance that if they know Jesus Christ they will be raised from the dead, that this mortal will put on immortality, that this corruptible will put on incorruptibility, that this perishable will become imperishable. They will live in the presence of God the Father forever and ever.

2 Corinthians 5:1-3 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house (this perishable body) is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (Remember this is a spiritual house) For indeed in this house (in this body) we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. In other words when that spirit descends and is put back in this resurrected body, it’s not found naked anymore.

2 Corinthians 5:4b-5 We do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up in life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) as a pledge. As a guarantee of the redemption of this purchased possession. (See Ephesians 1:13-14)

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be home with the Lord. Why? It’s far better. Do you realize that the ones in the cemetery who have died in Christ are far better off than we who are alive and remain? Because they’re with Him. As Christians, we need to understand this and cling to it.

Paul brings his epistle to a close by talking to them about the collection for the saints and tells them how to take up that collection because while we’re here on earth we are to take care of one another. Then he summarizes it all by saying this:

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all you do be done in love. Remember as Paul talked to this church in Corinth, many of them were not standing firm in the faith, especially those who were denying the resurrection. They were keeping people from hearing the gospel, the good news, which is not only the death of Jesus Christ but His resurrection. They were not acting like men but like babes. They had not grown up. They weren’t able to take solid meat; he had to feed them with milk. There was jealousy, strife and divisions among them. They weren’t being strong and weren’t doing everything in love.

As we bring this to a close here are a couple quotations of famous infidels when they died:

• Chardier (sp?) said, “I would gladly give $150,000 to have it proved that there is no hell.”

• Sir Walter Scott said, “Until this moment, I thought there was neither a God nor a hell, now I know and feel there are both and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.”

• Tallyrand, the French statesman, said, “I am suffering from the pangs of the damned.”

• “I’m lost! I’m lost!” cried infidel Adams when dying. “I’m damned, damned forever.” His agony was so great that he tore the hair from his head as he passed away.

• “Oh Christ!” cried Voltaire, “Oh Lord Jesus I must die abandoned by God and men.” His condition had become so frightful that his infidel associates were afraid to approach his bedside. After he passed away, his nurse said repeatedly, “For all the wealth of Europe I would never see another infidel die.”

If you don’t want to see infidels die, then you must be faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You should be preaching that gospel, proclaiming that word in season and out of season, reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time is here when men won’t listen. They keep to themselves teachers who will tickle their ears. It’s a terrible thing to see an infidel die. It’s a sad thing to go to the funeral of a person you know who did not know the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you comfort the family? What do you say? All hope is gone because they died without the Lord. He and He alone is the resurrection and the life. The Bible says that Jesus said, “He that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live because I am the resurrection and the life.” Do you believe that?

Bow the knee before God in this life. Ask God, “Do I have a religion or a relationship? God, am I really your child or am I not?” Maybe you already know that you’re not. If you are His child, His Spirit will bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. If not, He’ll whisper ‘no’ to you. He’ll leave you unsettled. But at the same time, He’ll say, “I want to give you the gift of eternal life.”

Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Jesus Christ our Savior.

It means that if you are going to be saved, you must bow the knee and confess that you are a sinner in need of a savior and that you cannot save yourself. You must acknowledge that you have walked your own way and done your own thing. That’s sin. You have not believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the only way to God. So confess your unbelief and then say to Him, “I’m going to take You at Your word: I believe that You are God. I believe that You died on the cross for me, that You paid for my sins. I believe that You were buried and raised from the dead and right now I receive You as my God, and my Lord and my Savior. Thank You for the gift of eternal life. Thank You for saving me. Thank You for promising me that when I’m absent from this body, I’ll be present with You. Now, God, I want to live as a child of God should live. I thank You for the gift of Your Holy Spirit that I just received by faith. I thank You that not only is He the guarantee of a brand-new body but that He is my power to live righteously, to live a life pleasing to You. Teach me how to live that life and, God, I’ll live it.”

If you’ve prayed that, He’s heard and He has answered. Precept would like to know because they would like to send you a gift to help you grow. God bless you. Jesus is coming. The trumpet’s going to sound. We’ll see Him and we’ll be together forever and ever because Christ was raised from the dead. Stand firm. Be strong. Act like men and let everything be done in love. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23

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