Deep Creek Anglican Church Blog

We have arrived at the final two chapters of Adrian Warnock’s Raised with Christ:

Chapter Eighteen: Our Resurrection Bodies

Chapter Nineteen: The Resurrection of all Things

The certain hope of the resurrection has been much on my mind in the last two days as I prayed with a dying Christian brother.  What an incredible testimony.  His body racked with pain, but a calm and certain confidence of the Lord’s love and the realisation of soon being in His very presence.  That is now the reality for my dear friend.  I have been reminded of the words of the great evangelist of the 19th century, D L Moody.  At his funeral, the words he had spoken a year earlier were remembered. He had said:

“Some day you will read in the papers that D.L Moody is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now.”

And that wonderful biblical truth is explored by our author.  Adrian reminds us of Jesus’ words, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33).  But that is far from the end of the story.  For the person trusting in the Lord Jesus, there is hope (certain confidence) beyond the grave.  It is a “hope that we will be physically raised, not merely somehow survive as spirits.”

The so-called intermediate state (between physical death of a believer and the resurrection) is helpfully described by Adrian.  At death we experience a kind of spiritual renewal  - we become fully aware of what is already true of us.  Our spirits are already with Christ (Eph 2:6).  And we will await (absolutely alive) in heaven our eternal destiny of a physical resurrection – the direct consequence of being connected to the One who is the firstfruits (1 Cor 15:20).

We are reminded by our author that at the return of Jesus, the whole world will be judged by Him.  Everyone will appear before Him, in bodies (John 5:28f; Acts 24:15).  ”Every wrong that has been committed that has not been placed on God’s Son will be put right.  No evil will go unpunished.”  Should that fill the heart of a Christian with dread?  No, in Adrian’s words, “if we are sure of our salvation, far from inducing fear and dread, judgment day should produce a joyful expectation.”

The return of the Lord Jesus will lead to the renewal of all things – all of God’s people will be with Him in an absolutely physical new heaven and new earth (2 Peter 3:10-13, Revelation 21:1-5).

Adrian Warnock has taken us on a journey that has wonderfully demonstrated the truth of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and the cosmic consequences of His death and resurrection.  The certain hope of the resurrection and the unveiling of the age to come is to impact every follower of Jesus NOW:

“Christians have the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead living inside them.  One day that power will complete the work of saving us, but in the meantime the normal Christian life can be one in which we are aware of the change that the resurrection brings.  We are citizens of the age to come, living in a world that is dead to God.  But we are not dead to Him.  We live to Him.  May God help us live in the light of that fact each day.  One day we will all see that, thanks to the death and resurrection of Jesus, everything has been changed.  The whole creation will have been renewed, and we will be like Him.”

Here are the links to the earlier posts for Raised with Christ:

Chapter One: Christ Has Died! Christ Is Risen! Christ Will Come Again!

Chapter Two: The Empty Cross, the Empty Tomb

Chapter Three: Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?

Chapter Four: Resurrection Neglected?

Chapter Five: The Importance of Resurrection in the Bible

Chapter Six: Glimpses of Resurrection?

Chapter Seven: Resurrection before the Cross

Chapter Eight: What did the resurrection ever do for us?

Chapter Nine: Raised for our Justification

Chapter Ten: Resurrected with Jesus

Chapter Eleven: Transformed by the Resurrection

Chapter Twelve: Send a Resurrection, O Lord!

Chapter Thirteen: Reviving Prayer

Chapter Fourteen: God’s Reviving Word

Chapter Fifteen: A relationship with the Risen Jesus?

Chapter Sixteen: Assured by the Resurrected Christ

Chapter Seventeen: Our Mission from the Risen Jesus

Happy Face photobucket

Happiness. We all want it. But for many it is elusive. What is the key to happiness; life fulfilment?

Back in 2001, a psychologist from the Ohio State University, published a journal article Secrets of happiness.  He identified two kinds of happiness: feel-good and value-based.

Feel-good happiness is sensation-based pleasure.

Value-based happiness is a sense that our lives have meaning and fulfill some larger purpose. It represents a spiritual source of satisfaction, stemming from our deeper purpose and values.  The author comments:

“We experience value-based happiness when we satisfy any of the 16 basic desires–the more desires we satisfy, the more value-based happiness we experience.  Since this form of happiness is not ruled by the law of diminishing returns, there is no limit to how meaningful our lives can be.”

One of the 16 basic desires relates to eating.  Imagine how ‘happy’ you would be if your Coca-Cola vending machine delivered you not only Coke but also pizza!  And for free!

In the Sunday Herald Sun, Bryan Patterson writes that Possessions don’t add up to happiness.  That’s not really a surprise.

The Book of Psalms has much to say about true happiness.  The Psalter begins, with ‘happy’, or ‘blessed’.  In fact, Psalms 1 & 2 act as one ‘happy bookend’ of the Psalter:

Ps 1:1  Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. ? Whatever he does prospers.

Ps 2: 12b  …blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

And towards the end of the Psalter, the psalmist declares:

Ps 146:5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, 6 the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them – the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

The theme of happiness or blessedness is right through the Psalter.  We read that the individual, or the nation, is truly happy:

• whose God is Yahweh;
• who trusts and hopes in Him;
• who knows Him and worships Him;
• who fears and obeys Him;
• who maintains justice and does what is right;
• whose sins are forgiven;
• who is merciful to the weak.

Value based happiness is the key.  But we don’t satisfy our meaning and purpose in life by simply satisfying any of the ’16 basic desires.’  True, lasting (indeed eternal) happiness is only found in the One who is the Maker of heaven and earth, who died in our place, rose again for our justification – the One for whom we wait His glorious appearing, our Great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.  This is the blessed hope (Tit 2:11-14).