Friday 10th March - Acts 26

Today’s chapter is Acts 26

Tom writes:

It’s the word “first” (v23) that tantalises me. That one simple word places us in a story between resurrections. Jesus was first to be resurrected. We (by implication) will be later. I’ve been fuzzy on these resurrections most of my Christian life. I could sing until the cows came home that Jesus died to forgive sins. I knew the language about heaven. But the resurrections confused me. I thought it was one of those mysteries reserved for the super-prophets. But it isn’t. For Paul put it in his basic summaries of the gospel. The Old Testament drama of creation was a script of hope for this earth - of confidence that God would one day fix this earth; he would heal and restore the valleys of Succoth and the hills of Bashan and make everything, everywhere glisteningly new. It spoke in riddles of all the righteous from all of history rising from their graves to enjoy forever the ravishing goodness of this restored earth. This hope was hyperbolically presented, with mystical language about a restored Eden. It was all a bit fuzzy. The Pharisees and Sudducees sharply disagreed over it.

And then Jesus rose. In Jesus’ defeat of death, breakfast on a beach, warming of hearts, appearing suddenly in rooms, he showed the resurrection was real and would come to all “in Him”. In Jesus’ unrecognised and yet also recognisable body “the other side of death”, we see something of what our future will look like. When the second resurrection takes place; on the day when Eden will be totally restored and extended across every acre of this earth we will all become like Jesus was. On that day all believers - both currently dead and currently alive - will be resurrected together to live forever in the garden city of joy and beauty and light. Paul spoke about that hope as one of the most basic principles of what it was to be a Christian. He joyfully mentioned it to Agrippa while he stood in a Roman court. It was more obviously true to him than pretty much anything else. And that tantalises me. I so much want to be as clear on that hope as Paul was. And I’d love you to be clear on it too.

Question for reflection

What will you look like after the resurrection?