The Power of The Resurrection
For I know that my Redeemer lives. (Job. 19:25)
Job 19:25; Ps. 130:7-8; Isa. 44:22-23, Titus 2:13-14; Acts 4:33
What Is God Saying?
Job is presumed by many to be the oldest book in the Bible. And the oldest of books has to do with the oldest of problems: ‘Why do the righteous suffer?’ Up to this verse in the story of Job, he is asking tough questions. ‘Man dies, and is laid low; man breathes his last and where is he?’ (14:10). ‘If a man die, shall he live again?’ (14:14). They were unanswerable questions that rose from a perplexed and anguished heart. But with his cry of faith, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives,’ he is on solid ground. The Spirit leads him to make the statement that has assured believers through the centuries. He says, ‘I know.’
He says with certainty that the solution to all problems, the ultimate answer to all questions, whether old and persistent or new and passing, lies in knowing that the Lord, our Redeemer, lives. God in Christ is on top of it all. He lives. He conquered the last great enemy, who was death. He is ‘declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead’ (Romans 1:4).
How Does This Apply To Us?
With Job, despite every argument to the contrary (and he was deluged with them), we, too, may know that the Redeemer lives. Furthermore, we must know that. God's plan for the believer is that by the testimony of the Holy Spirit and by opening one's eyes to see the innumerable evidence of God's power and authority in the world of nature and history, we may come to a place where we can say we know. God's agenda is that we come to know. That is why the Bible was given. ‘I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life’ (I John 5:13)- know, not guess, not suppose, not wish, not wonder, but know.
Pray With Me
Lord, to meditate upon this magnificent truth brings glory to my soul and peace that remains unshaken amidst the shattered dreams of a Christ-rejecting world. I know that my Redeemer lives. The bond between us is personal and close.
• I am not a number on a long list of data fed into a celestial computer.
• I have a name, and You know it.
• I need a living Redeemer that I can call my own, and You are that Redeemer.
I know that my Redeemer lives. God be praised for the ability to know, with knowledge as clear and as sure as Your Word. There is no vagueness in Your promises, no wondering if You mean it, no wandering about in the wastelands of philosophical speculation. I know that my Redeemer lives. I am delivered from the bondage of the fear of death. I am free because I am possessed by One who has the power to lift me up and hold me above the entangling alliances of sin and the bitter harvest of eternal, spiritual death.
• He is real to me; I know Him.
• He is my great eternal Redeemer because He lives.
• His voice is rich and warm, not a dead echo of superstition or the faint whispering of wishful thinking.
• His hand is strong, and His eyes are kind.
• He lives, and to eternity, I shall praise Him that ‘because He lives, I too shall live.’
In the name of Him who ever lives to make intercession for me. Amen.
Moving On In The Life Of Prayer
"You ask me how I know he lives; He lives within my heart."
That is the grand finale to a familiar hymn. In our hearts, we know that Jesus is alive and in control and that He will come again, as He promised, to receive us unto Himself. The secret of joyous living lies in knowing that whatever happens, Jesus Christ is real—He is ours, and we are His.
