A thousand years are like a day that has just gone by

“A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:4)

 

Resurrection is, to come back to life after death, that is, once dead and then being alive again. The meaning of resurrection is applied respectively to the body and soul. The resurrection of the body is a matter to be realized in the future, and the resurrection of the soul has already begun in the spiritual inner of the faithful. The resurrection of the body is the promised according to spiritual resurrection of present. Spiritual resurrection means being reborn in the Holy Spirit. And resurrection means the state of eternity being within God. ‘Being alive again’, which is said in the resurrection of the body, and it is an expression premised on time constraints. On the other hand, spiritual resurrection is to belonging in God who transcends the time world, so it can be free from bodily limitation.

 

We don’t know the exact time when humans were created in the beginning, but we know sure only it’s been a long time from then. There has been lived countless people from the past on the earth, and most of them have left from the world already. There is no choice but to think man is a being of nihil, when we think on the inevitable death. Oneself at present will be disappeared some day from this land, too. Therefore, many people lament lives of nihil. However, it looks no way to change fate, no matter how much they lament. And yet, there is one definite way to solve the problem. Knowing the eternal God in faith and attributing oneself to God, anybody can enjoy eternal life.

The Lord God who is in eternity had come down into the world of finite. He is Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was born as the son of man in the world. John the apostle wrote in the Gospel of John that there was the Word (Logos) in the beginning. It is written in John 1:1 this, the Word(Logos λόγοϛ) existed with God in the beginning and that he participated in the work of creation. Here is the greatest secret of the Gospel, and the key. The Creator was born in the world as a man in order to save the created man. By being suffered by the created and eventually by being dead from them, He settled the price of sin in behalf of man. And by being alive again He has given a new life to those who believe in Oneself, the Lord of Redemption. The Being who had come from the eternity, is doing the work making return men to eternity.

To believe in Jesus Christ, the Lord of salvation, is the way to live together with God forever. The text of Psalms the chapter 90 is the contents Moses prayed, the man of God. Moses described man’s life as like a grass that grows in the morning. He said, the grass blooms in the morning and withers and dries in the evening. If it is so, because it could reach a conclusion the life is meaningless thing, the pessimistic thoughts and such the life perhaps might be rather acknowledged to be a wise attitude of living. But Moses revealed that men have hope, and he clearly presented the ways to fulfill the hope. He prayed that he might gain a wise heart reversely by seeing the vain life. If the Lord regards compassionate your prayer of faith, the Lord will be with you in your life eternally.

When the event of Jesus’ resurrection occurred, people’s thoughts were divided into several branches. There were those who did not believe the resurrection, those who believed but turned a blind eye to it and tried to avoid it, those who tried to block rumors of the resurrection, those who were surprised and delighted, and those who tried to convey the news of the resurrection. Alike in these days or in the past, people have each different thinking about the resurrection of Jesus is various. However, whether they admit resurrection or not, what they have in common is the fact that everyone, thinks it amazing. Because as a human being, it must seem strange or miraculous to be alive again after death. Historically or as a physical phenomenon of the body, there can be no resurrection. For it cannot be possible for a limited and finite man to accept a matter beyond the limit of oneself. Nevertheless, now once change your viewpoint to the position God views. By the way, will it be actually possible thing for person to change the viewpoint into the position of God?

 

If we look both at people and at God in spiritual eye, we will be able to realize what the resurrection and the life are. A man’s life goes by in a flash to be nihil. Moreover, the life is filled with hard work and sorrow. Contrary to that, God exists from eternity to eternity. Jesus the Lord, who is forever, had come down to the world of man for a while. God’s wisdom that believes in Him Jesus makes us awaken what the meaning of a vain life, that is, hopeful value. As the result, a life of eternal joy can be fulfilled for us.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on Apr 17th 2022)