The Power of the Resurrection: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Easter is next Sunday!  I’m excited to share these thoughts with you as we prepare for our most important time of year.  The Easter story helps us live in God’s power week-in and week-out, making it more than an event on our calendar.

Several thousand years before Jesus rose from the dead Job made this declaration: “I know that my Redeemer lives,” (Job 19:25).  It’s a powerful and important statement for us today.  The question, to me, then is what is God saying here through Job?

Job is considered by many to be the oldest book in the Bible.  And the oldest of books has to do with the oldest of problems: Why do the righteous suffer?

Up to this verse in the story of Job, he is asking questions, tough questions.  In his grief and anguish, he asks: “man dies, and is laid low; man breathes his last and where is he?” (Job 14:10). This is a question many ask, especially in days like this, but his follow up is even more powerful: “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). These were unanswerable questions that rose from a perplexed and anguished heart and are still being asked today.  But with his cry of faith, “I know that my Redeemer lives,” (Job 19:25), he is on solid ground.

Job had no Bible, he had no church history or tradition, but he did have a prompting of the Holy Spirit to make the statement that has conveyed assurance to believers down through the centuries.  Job says, “I know.” He points with certainly to the fact that the solution to all problems, the ultimate answer to all questions, whether they be old and persistent or new and passing, lies in knowing that the Lord, our Redeemer, lives.

God in Christ is on top of it all.

He lives.

He has conquered the last great enemy which is death. This allowed Paul to make this statement to the church in Rome about Jesus:  He is “declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.” (Romans 1:4). We can make that same declaration today, hold onto that same assurance and experience not just the promise of the resurrection but the power it gives for today.

Okay, so now how does this apply to us?

As with Job, in spite of every argument to the contrary from his friends, we too may know that the Redeemer lives. Furthermore, to live successful Christian lives we must know that not just in our heads but in our hearts as well.  God’s plan for the believer is that by the testimony of the Holy Spirit and by opening one’s eyes to see the many evidences of God’s power and authority in the world of nature and history, we may come to a place where we can say we know.

God’s plan is also that we come to know him.  That’s why the Bible was given to us.  John wrote: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). What does this mean for us today?  We don’t guess, we don’t suppose, we don’t wish, we don’t wonder, we know. Our Redeemer lives, tap into that power today!  I hope to see you out on Good Friday and at our Easter celebration service!

In His grip,

Pastor Chris