I…Was Dead

I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. 

Revelation 1:18 

God gave John exceptional revelations of Christ. His gospel is unique from the first three. His final work, from which our text derives, stands alone in Scripture for what it reveals to us about Christ. It is, as John puts it, ‘the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ Thus when we come to this work, rather than attempt to divine what it tells us about future world events, we perhaps should occupy ourselves with what it reveals to us about Christ Himself. Our text lies in His third statement. He has already described Himself as, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. In our text He says, ‘I am He Who lives and was dead.’ Because we are near the time of the year we have set aside to dwell upon His resurrection, we will take a few moments to consider His death. There is no real argument against the fact that Christ really died. In spite of the theories that propose He was merely in a swoon, or somehow not quite dead, every salient fact points to His death. Therefore, because He was truly dead, the fact that He is alive is genuinely miraculous. It is the foundation, that underlies the truth of the gospel.  

Our Glorious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You are alive from the dead. 
We praise You that because You live, 
we also shall live.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning