Friday, July 25, 2008

How will you respond when they ask?

Recently, someone asked me why Jesus, if He was God, did not just spiritually transport Himself through the sepulcher, instead of removing the stone. I simply explained to him that human beings cannot do that, and since Jesus was a human being when He died, he would have to be resurrected as a human being. His facial appearance indicated an understanding of and an appreciation for the response. The brief encounter made me wonder, however, if I am prepared to answer the harder questions. Why does God allow suffering? Doesn’t God want me to be happy? Why didn’t God answer my prayer? Even more compelling, how do I explain my faith? How do I argue that which I have never seen? Are you prepared to answer these and other questions? Your faith is not for you alone. Freely you have received, and you are to freely give your faith to others.

3 comments:

Kevl said...

Hi Ron,

It's clear from the Lord's other resurrection appearances that He was no longer allowing Himself to be limited to the constraints of human flesh. He appeared in the midst of the Disciples behind a locked door for instance.

The way it's been described to me is that the stone was rolled back so that we could see in to the empty tomb, not so Jesus could get out. :)

Blessings,
Kev

Kevl said...

My comment above is in no way suggesting that Christ did not raise from the grave and seen in the flesh. He was flesh, as He attested to Thomas. Just no longer constrained by His flesh.

Kev

Ron said...

Kev,

I agree with you about the reason the stone was rolled away. The gentleman's question was why didn't Jesus transpose Himself through the sepulchre instead of walking out. The point that I was making was that He died in human form, and therefore for the promise to be fulfilled, He was to be resurrected in the same form.

Anyway, thank you so much for your comment. I was greatly encouraged!

Ron