Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“After these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!” He said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed. He cried to Yahweh and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” He stretched himself on the child three times, and cried to Yahweh and said, “Yahweh my God, please let this child’s soul come into him again.” Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the room into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, “Behold, your son lives.””
(1 Kings 117:17-23)

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.”
(1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

No one had ever been raised from the dead. There was no evidence that this was possible. Based on the promise of God (Genesis 17:5) Abraham believed it was possible and was eagerly looking forward to seeing it – although that didn’t happen. But it hadn’t ever happened. Ever. Other than knowing about Abraham’s trust in God about raising the dead, there was nothing in Elijah’s life or in the lives of anyone in the nation of Israel – EVER – to make this an expected result. I don’t think Elijah was even thinking about that. There had been a tragedy, he was being blamed, and he KNEW that it was not his fault. He was not there to prove to her she was a sinner. Elijah took the child and brought the problem before God. Only God could do anything. Only God knew Elijah had not sought this result. Only God knew it wasn’t a judgment. Elijah took it to the ONLY One who had the power to affect the situation. He didn’t let go of his trust that God could resolve it.

There were those in the church of Corinth who were letting go of their trust that God could resurrect. Resurrection, restoration to life from death, whether physically or spiritually, is a foundational concept of our relationship with God. But it is a hard part to hold onto. After all, we don’t see people being raised from the dead every day. And even when we do, we as humans tend to find other reasons for it to have occurred. We reject what we see as impossible more than we make room for it. But Paul is pointing out that the impossible happened. Jesus rose from the dead. Not only that, but He was seen by witnesses – witnesses who were still alive and could be questioned. Our hope is based on God being able to do the impossible and Jesus being the evidence of it and the door through which we achieve our hope. If the Father didn’t have the power to raise Jesus from the dead, then we have nothing. But we have the evidence that the Father has raising from the dead power AND evidence that Jesus was raised from the dead. We have an active and living hope!

Summary

God can do what we think is impossible. God is not bound by our understanding. God is not limited by our small thinking. He can do MORE than enough. He can perform miracles. He can transform nations. He can make things happen that we can’t even conceive of. Even when we think we’ve got it, we’re usually far short of the glory He is capable of. Jesus rising from the dead or anyone else rising seems impossible. But Jesus did it. Jesus was resurrected into new life – not just raised to continue the old. Jesus was reborn into an existence where death doesn’t have power. Where death doesn’t even exist. Not only that, but He is bringing us there with Him. He has made the way for the impossible to be our reality. In Him, we overcome all things – even death!