This post is an excerpt from Getting Through Grief: Eight Biblical Gifts for Living with Loss.
How can you be absolutely certain that, even in your grief and loss, you can live with hope? How can you know for sure that you won’t be disappointed? The answer is found in Jesus’ resurrection from the once-thought-permanent condition of death.
It’s Possible through Him
Think about it: if Jesus endured rejection, suffering, torment of body and soul, and cruel death on a cross, but arose triumphantly and authoritatively from the dead, what isn’t possible through Him? Paul declared, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:31–34, emphasis added).
Our Hope Is Certain
Jesus is alive and advocating for you. God loves to give you His best. Jesus said, “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:39–40). God’s passionate desire is that you live in rich and dependable hope.
Paul was so certain about hope in the risen Savior that he said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). With Jesus risen and alive, suffering is simply not the end of the story.
Quick Proof for the Resurrection
But did Jesus really rise from the dead? Ask the angel who shared the news, or Mary, Peter, and John, who witnessed the empty tomb (John 20:1–18). Ask the disciples who saw and touched the risen Savior as He stood with them behind locked doors (John 20:19–29). Ask the five hundred who together witnessed the risen Savior. Ask Jesus’ brother James who became a leader in faith because he saw the risen Christ. Ask Paul, who didn’t even want to meet Jesus or believe His resurrection was true, but who was transformed into a herald of hope after he met the living Savior on the road to Damascus (1 Corinthians 15:3–8). The historically attested, eyewitness facts in God’s inspired Word tell the story of hope: Jesus really rose from the dead.
Rest Your Heart
And that incontrovertible truth reaches into your pit of heartbreak and loss. You place your hope in the One who faced the worst and won. That gift opens the door to a life of confidence and expectation—hope that will not disappoint. God’s Word says, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Jesus was the beginning of the hope that comes to you even today. Peter said it well: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). Today, your heart can rest in the unshakable hope of Jesus, who defeated death.
In Getting Through Grief: Eight Biblical Gifts for Living with Loss, discover how our hope during grief lies in Christ.
