Because He Lives We Have Eternal Life

Because He Lives We Have Eternal Life

He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 25:8

Devotion for Today

Way back when time began, God created humans in His image. Male and female, He created them. He created a breathtakingly beautiful home for them where they could spend time with each other, and with Him.

The only rule He gave them was not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That sounds simple enough, right?

Well that one rule was foothold Satan needed to take their focus off God and put it on themselves.

He’s sneaky that way, isn’t he?

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)

His first words to Eve were already distorting what God had told her. She corrected him, but the seed was already planted. She didn’t disengage from the conversation, she continued it. How often do we find ourselves there? We know something is wrong, but instead of exiting the conversation, we lean in?

We all know that eventually Eve gave into the serpent. She let him distract her from God’s best plan for her life. And she invited Adam to share in her sin. That’s when mankind’s war between good and evil began—it’s a war that we’ve been fighting ever since.

Through that one interaction, sin entered the world and has been a poison that has held us all hostage. But that’s the reason Jesus came. Right there in the garden, God told Satan that his time was limited. That God’s own Son would come to rescue and redeem His people.

That promise echoed throughout the Old Testament. The punishment for our sin was eternal death (Romans 6:23).

But Jesus.

God Himself, born in human flesh came to bear all our sinfulness on Himself. He never sinned, but He died a sinner’s death. But the grave couldn’t hold Him. On the third day, He rose from the grave proclaiming victory for all mankind.

He paid the price for our sinfulness and overcame death. When we put our faith in Jesus, we don’t just get forgiven from our sins (past, present, and future) we gain eternal life (John 6:47).

We get to live forever with Jesus because Jesus conquered the grave. Our redeemer lives.

---