This evening’s Devotion service is for everyone and you are invited to come and be taught out of the Great confession of comfort, the Heidelberg Catechism.

When Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, he did not try to explain the resurrection of Christ. No, he accepted it as a God-given fact. For…: “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Heb. 11:1).

In light of this, we see that our Confession in Lord’s Day 17 also accepts the resurrection as a God-given fact. It doesn’t ask how, when and where but rather asks: “How does Christ resurrection benefit us?”

This is a fact, Christ is risen, and this truth we commemorate every Sunday because it was the day that Christ rose again after he was crucified on Friday. For us as Christians, Sunday is the memorial of our new life in Christ.

From Scripture and confession, we confess that:

 (1) In myself I am dead

 (2) In Christ, I became living again

 (3) With Christ I have a place in heaven

What literally happened with Christ is now a promise that I will rise. As Christ was dead, but risen from the dead, so God will make me alive in body and spirit, “we now have found already a place in heaven”.

What happened to Christ, will literally happen to us, our bodies will also die, but God will resurrect our dead bodies “to life” – recreated according to 1 Cor. 15:2-23, and we will reign in spirit and body, forever with Christ (Rev. 3:21). Christ has indeed prepared a place for us in the Father’s house (John 14:3).

Can we still, after all God did in His merciful love for us in Christ, stare to a dead, lifeless face in the mirror? Can we live as if the resurrection power of Christ for me has no meaning at all?

No, beloved, God calls us to a new life which began as Christ had been raised from the dead on the third day and where God resurrected us in Jesus and made us alive, by His Spirit.