How To Deal With Grief And Loss Part 3 by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Resurrection of Jesus as Our Prototype

The resurrection of Jesus is the prototype of what awaits every believer. Jesus is the first resurrection into immortal life — never to die again. That is what is meant by protos, or prototype. Romans 6:9 — Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him.

This is distinct from the experience of someone like Lazarus, who died, was raised, and died again. That second death was final in the ordinary sense. But the resurrection being spoken of here — the one Christ pioneered — results in a glorified body that cannot die again. As the Scripture says, corruption gives way to incorruption, and mortality is swallowed up in immortality.

1 Corinthians 15:20 — Christ is raised from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. This means believers will eventually experience the same kind of resurrection Jesus experienced. That is what is called hope.

• What has happened: Christ died and rose from the dead.
• What will happen: Believers will also die and rise from the dead — because Christ did.

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Philippians 3:21 — He will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body. A glorious body awaits every believer.

Why Death Was Necessary

A necessary question arises: if Adam sinned, why did he have to die?

God is a righteous judge, and the consequence of sin is death. Romans 6:23 — the wages of sin is death. Before man appeared on the scene, Satan had already fallen. God had already judged Satan. So if the devil sinned and was judged, and man sins but faces no judgment, would God be just? There is a system in place. For justice to function, disobedience must carry consequence.

Having understood this, consider why God drove man from the Garden of Eden after sin:

• There was a tree of life in the garden. If fallen man had eaten of it, he would have lived forever — but in a state of mortality, open to sickness and affliction.
• When man fell from that glorified state and entered mortality, he became open to cancer, stroke, arthritis, kidney disease, and tumors.
• Living forever in that condition would have made man irredeemable — exactly what happened to Satan.

Death was not only a consequence — it was a mercy.

Two reasons why death was necessary:

1. Release from the pain of sin's consequence. Death was the only exit from the suffering that came with the fall.
2. God could not become man and die for man if man could not die. For God to redeem man, the penalty of sin — which is death — had to be paid. Man had to be able to die. So God became man and died for man.

Death Reversed

What God did with death is one of the most profound reversals in all of Scripture.

The death that makes us cry is now what gives us joy. The death that ends life is now what gives us life.

While death kills, God uses death to birth sons. Believers are born again by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus becomes the protos — the prototype — of the believer's journey through death into newness of life.

When thinking about death, the frame is not loss. The frame is what God accomplished in Christ.

Creation itself illustrates this:

When a fruit falls to the ground, it dies and is buried. But for that fruit to come back to life — multiplied many times over — it must die and be buried. The power of resurrection then brings forth new life.

Those who die in Christ do not simply decay. They are buried like a seed, and they will resurrect to newness of life.

This you have heard among many witnesses — commit it to faithful people, that they may teach others also.