God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death. – Acts 2:24 (CSB)
The resurrection of Jesus is foundational to our faith as Christians. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:14, “if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith.” In fact, the resurrection is so core to what we believe that it runs the risk of becoming unmiraculous in our eyes, becoming commonplace, despite its importance.
So let’s think in Peter’s words in Acts 2: it was not possible for him to be held by death. Jesus rising from the dead was not even a contest. This enemy that lays every person low, that none of us can defeat, that sisters fear in our hearts was too weak to have a hope of holding Jesus down. Jesus didn’t simply win, Jesus couldn’t help but win. He could not have stayed dead. Such is the power and certainty of Christ’s victory and our hope in the resurrection.
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.
