To live to be old was an achievement — a
modest victory over death, and one often thought of in religious terms as a blessing.
The transfiguration narrative, balanced between heaven and earth, incarnation and resurrection, unites the two approaches by showing the glory of Christ's obedient
victory over death in the form of his incarnate humanity.
But in God's self - emptying identification with a dead man, there is also the unassailable reality of an eternal love that
promises victory over death.
Christ's
resurrection victory over death can enable Christians to employ the media to get people out of their comfortable armchairs and into the human realities of life.
And this doesn't mean we don't believe in Christ's resurrection and
victory over death so why does it still hurt?
Just as the Hebrews in their consciousness of historical destiny felt themselves laid hold on by the great principles of the Torah, the Christians were overwhelmed and captured by the consciousness
of victory over death and the promise of inexhaustible fountains of life to which they had secured access through identification with Jesus in the resurrection community.
As Christ claimed
the victory over death by death, so a Christian defeats death and the fear of death with all of its tragic consequences through a mindfulness of death during his life.
I think we must admit that his disciples truly believed Jesus to have been raised from the dead, and were willing to die for Him, sure of their salvation through
His victory over death.
Victory over death has been won for us by Christ on the cross: «In the context of Christian faith, the drama of evolution merges inseparably with the (abysmal) death and (grounding) resurrection of Jesus and, in him, with the eternal drama that is the Trinitarian life of God.»
While none of Jesus» twelve apostles were women, Mary Magdalene was considered an important figure in his life, and it was the ladies who first found out about Jesus»
victory over death.
In the New Testament death is sometimes represented as the penalty for sin, or it becomes the symbol for separation from God, and thus Christ's victory over sin is also
the victory over death.
Maybe the news of the empty tomb, the news of the resurrection, the news of Jesus»
victory over death is just too good to believe, too good to assimilate all at once.
Armed with this faith and the certainty of Christ's
victory over death, they established the church and became flaming witnesses to the love and the power of God in Christ.
In his sinless life; in his perfect obedience to the Father's will; in his willingness to die that men might live in the love of God; in
his victory over death through the glory of the first Easter morning — in all these we see that which prompts us to say with the apostle Thomas, «My Lord and my God!»
When we answer for ourselves, «You are the Christ,» we claim
both victory over death and the promise of the resurrection.
When Jesus spent three days in hades, He didn't go down there and bring them out of it, He went down and preached to them the Good News of
His victory over death.
One has to be up and doing something worthwhile, something that draws strength from the resurrection, something related to
the victory over death.
The victory over death granted to Jesus by God constituted the earnest of the resurrection to come.
It was now employed to describe the exaltation to heaven of a particular person, because his exaltation included
the victory over his death.
There is no way to prove, historically, that where the church has been equally vigorous in preaching the word and celebrating the sacraments, there Christ has been powerfully present, demonstrating
his victory over death, disease, and evil.
The essence of the Christian message is that Jesus is the Christ, demonstrated as such by
his victory over death in his resurrection.
in anticipation of
the victory over death which He obtains in His own death.
They're half in love with defeat, the better to identify with the poor and the downtrodden, with Christ on the cross, as if self - abnegation were an end in itself rather than the means to
victory over death and the prince of this world.
If God can not redeem the body that is so central to personal integrity, then God's
victory over death is partial and relatively feeble.
Resurrection's
victory over death had to be a triumph over putrefaction, the scattering of the martyred body, consumption of the dead body by other animals, and even the dread of cannibalism.
But Jesus» Second Advent is God's
victory over the death of the universe, just as the resurrection of Jesus is God's victory over our personal death.
Patriarchy is the ancient framework for procreation, through which the promise of life's
victory over death is eventually fulfilled, as we follow the story of patriarchs through the story of Israel to the birth of Christ.
One of the latter is «Holy Sonnet 10» which he wrote about
our victory over death.
But Jesus didn't just endure suffering and come out of it OK — He was victorious and
His victory over death and suffering ensures our victory too.
Christianity is built upon Jesus (God in flesh), His death for our sins, and most importantly His resurrection and
victory over that death.
No other New Testament passage conveys the sense of power and
victory over death, sin and evil — everything demonic — as does Paul's appropriation and expansion of a passage from Isaiah:» «Death is swallowed up in victory.»
In these passages the primary note is God's
victory over death and the presence of God both in time and eternity.