by Jerry Senn
“Congress once issued a special edition of Thomas Jefferson’s Bible. It was simply a copy of our Bible with all references to the supernatural eliminated. Jefferson, in making his selections from the Bible, confined himself solely to the moral teachings of Jesus. The closing words of Jefferson’s Bible are: “There laid they Jesus, and rolled a great stone to the mount of the sepulcher and departed.”
“If our Bible ended like that, it would mean the impossibility of other resurrections. But thank God our Bible does not end like that. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is our ‘living hope.’” (Walter B Knight)
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus and for sprinkling with his blood … Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:3, 21).
Jesus said this to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
“One who clings to Him, is united with Him in faith, is living eternally now, as well as at the end. He will pass through an incident called physical death, but he cannot die eternally because he has put His trust in the One who is Life. So Godet says, ‘Jesus means, therefore: In me the dead lives, and the living does not die.’” (Rober L Fredrikson, “The Communicator’s Commentary, John”)