WESTSIDE — “I have set the LORD always before me because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 16:8-11

After Jesus Christ suffered and died for the sins of the world, His body was laid in the tomb. But, as the psalm states and Peter and Paul testified, Jesus’ body was not left in the grave and did not see corruption and decay. Rather, His body was raised up on the third day, a glorious and heavenly body, and was received up to the right hand of God the Father in heaven, where there are “pleasures for evermore” (cf. Psalm 16, Acts 2:22ff.; 13:34ff.).

So also, because Christ has died for us and is risen again, we have been raised up to spiritual life in Christ and have the LORD God at our right hand (cf. Eph. 2:4-7) to preserve and keep us - we shall not be moved. We have aglorious inheritance awaiting us in the promised land of heaven. Because Christ has paid in full for all our sins and is risen again, our hearts, too, are glad; we rejoice in His mercy and forgiveness toward us.

And when we die, our bodies rest in hope - looking forward to that day when the dead in Christ are raised up with glorified bodies and will be forever with the Lord (cf. 1 Cor. 15:35ff.; 1 Thess. 4:13ff.). Because Christ’s body saw no corruption but was raised up again on the third day, we can be certain that we too will be raised up, and we shall see, in our resurrected and glorified bodies, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ (cf. Job 19:25ff.; 1 Cor. 15:20ff.). We have the confidence that we will be raised up in Christ’s likeness and that we will enjoy the pleasures which are at God’s right hand forevermore! (cf. Psalm 17:15).

Jesus lives! And now is death but the gate of life immortal; This shall calm my trembling breath when I pass its gloomy portal. Faith shall cry as fails each sense: Jesus is my confidence! (Lutheran Service Book, 490, v. 5).

[Devotion by Randy Moll. Scripture from the King James Version of the Bible]

News, Pages 7 on 04/27/2011