“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:27-28).

We are so very blessed to live on this side of the cross. They had the promise of a Savior. We have the Savior! Those Old Testament heroes of the faith we see listed in Hebrews 11 “… were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect” (v39).

What was that something better that God had planned for us? We have Jesus! Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift!! We have God Himself coming to earth in the person of His Son, as a human, living a perfect life; the gift of His sacrificial atoning death, His miraculous resurrection, and His ascension to Heaven to resume his place sitting at the right hand of His Father. And because of this, we know that we too, we who believe, will also experience resurrection to live in eternity in unity with God. Praise God. This is our hope, and there is no other.

How should we then live? We should live in the truth of the resurrection: that this world is not our ultimate destination. Whatever we experience in each moment of our life on earth is preparation for our eternal life in Heaven. We can persevere because we already know our future. We have these words to live by from the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 15:54-58):

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality,

then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

How should we then live? “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Jesus himself gave us these commandments, which Matthew recorded:

• “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, ’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment (Matthew 22:37-38).
• “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:39-40).
• “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Note: “How Should We Then Live” as a title and question in this devotional is borrowed from the title of a book by Francis Shaeffer.

In Christ,

Judy