March 7, 2015 at 3:38pm
Tomorrow marks the 1st anniversary of the MH370 disappearance, apart from the usual International Women's Day and some Malaysian political event that happened 7 years ago.
But for me, tomorrow is a personal day, because it marks the 9th death anniversary of my late paternal grandfather.
On my grandfather's gravestone, it is written, "Jesus said: I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live - John 11:25". I don't know whether my fellow family members would understand this cliche verse commonly seen on Christian gravestones. But I pray they eventually would.
"Though he were dead, yet shall he live". Faith and belief could not spare a believer from the physical death (as clearly shown in the verse above), "yet shall he live" - the believer shall live thereafter, where the believer would not experience spiritual death (eternal separation from God), but eternal life spiritually (eternal union with God). All of this is akin to a resurrection, and this can only be made possible by the author of the resurrection - "I am the resurrection, and the life": Jesus.
When Jesus spoke the verse above, I suppose that there is difficulty upon the listeners to comprehend or believe His claims of being "the resurrection" even though He had raised two persons prior to Lazarus (Jairus' daughter in Mark 5 and a young man in Nain in Luke 7). But now we have this blessed assurance and confidence on this truth for the fact that He was raised to life after the death on the cross 3 days prior.
While the fact that He is the author of resurrection is important, we cannot ignore the other half of his claim: "and the life". In fact, there are multiple times in the Bible that the claim was reiterated. John 14:6 says "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me."; in John 6 two times a few times Jesus has said that He is the "bread of life" (v. 35, 48); John wrote in 1:4 "In him was life". He is the source of life, be it natural (in the case of birth and a physical resurrection like Lazarus and the other two persons) or spiritual (as mentioned earlier).
Jesus, the Author of Resurrection, the Source of Life, the Creator Almighty, fully man and fully God, was sent by the Father to redeem us from our sins by His death on the cross of Calvary, and through the Spirit He was raised to life; and now He is in heaven, which in due time will come to earth again to take us back to our home in Heaven; and whosoever believes in Him will receive eternal life - the eternal union with God. Would you acknowledge this author of resurrection, the source of life?
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