“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac … concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead …” (Hebrews 11:17, 19)

It may be that many of us have more in common with Thomas, who would not believe without seeing, than with Abraham who believed without seeing – and without precedent. We speak and think of resurrection from the vantage point of hindsight. Not only can we read the accounts of Jesus raising to life three people, though all three died again, but we have four accounts of His own resurrection after being crucified and appearances to quite a number of people. He did not die again and this has been attested to by many people at the time but also through the centuries since.

Without death there can be no resurrection so we should be thankful to God for His marvellous plan of salvation that includes bodily death. It is true that some have passed on without bodily death (Enoch & Elijah) and many will pass on without bodily death (the living true church prior to His second coming) but these exceptions tend to prove the point that all others will die bodily. There are also some who have gone the other way, and others who will, without bodily death.

On this day more than any other through the year we give special attention to this wonderful fact and our glorious expectancy of resurrection into the presence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Jesus Christ did not die then He did not rise. If He did not rise then our faith is futile and we are without hope. But Jesus did die for our sins and rise again and has promised to come again to receive us to Himself (John 14:3).

Abraham believed without sight or precedent. We have precedent, ample testimonies and the witness of Christ within. All that remains is to look ahead and live in the light of the fact firmly rooted in the faithful and true teaching of the Bible.