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The Daily Word of Righteousness
He Will Never Die, #8
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, To the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, (Hebrews 12:22,23—NIV)
Look at the tense of the verb: "You have come."
Not you will come but you have come.
He who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do we really believe this? Do we really believe we will be a conscious person with knowledge and memory and that we will be surrounding those who are alive on the earth, waiting for that Day when we will be with them once again—not as a disembodied spirit but as a person?
"A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me have."
Jesus cooked fish and ate the honeycomb. He was alive on the earth when He did this. Yet previously He had died on the cross. Jesus had forty glorious days to spend enjoying the earth before He ascended to Heaven. Even after ascending to Heaven He declared that He is with us wherever we assemble in His name.
"Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, And he took it and ate it in their presence. (Luke 24:39-43—NIV)
Now why do you suppose the Lord went to such lengths to show that He was still a person, still "living" in the conventional sense of the word?
"Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself!" Why His hands and feet? Because of the wounds in them.
So the risen Christ was identified, not by His spiritual nature but by His physical body. To be yourself in the fullest sense you have to have regained your body.
"Touch me and see." Part of life as we know it is to be able to speak to people and have them speak to us. To touch people and have them touch us. Notice that Christ is not emphasizing that He had come back from the dead spiritually but physically.
"When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet." This action is typical of life as we are used to living it. "Whoever lives and believes in me will never die."
"Do you have anything here to eat?" Could you picture yourself asking this question after you died? If not, why not? Do we have a false idea of life after death?
"They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence."
Can you imagine a person who had been dead coming back to life and eating broiled fish? This is what the Lord meant when He said, "He who lives and believes in me will never die." He was not referring to a mystical existence in a mythological mansion in the spirit realm. He was speaking of standing on the earth on the seashore, eating broiled fish, with a huge pile of fish nearby.
To be continued.