The older I grow the greater I sense my own mortality. I am conscious as never before that the journey of life on earth ahead of me is much, much shorter than the journey behind me. This would have been a very depressing reality were it not for the fact that there is life beyond the grave and that it has been made even more certain and glorious by our Forerunner, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I lost my mother to the cold hands of death when I was only nine years old. She was barely thirty-six years old when she died. Eight years after her demise, I remember finding a Bible in which she had written down the fact that she had committed her life to Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade. I came across this as I was wrestling with conviction of sin that led to my conversion to Christ. Since then, I have been looking forward to meeting my mother in heaven after the glorious resurrection.

Fast forward twenty-nine years later and this time I was at the bedside of a dying father. I saw him breathe his last and covered his face with a sheet. Part of the challenge in that moment was simply that there was nothing I could do to prevent that moment. I was helpless. Death had knocked on the door and taken its victim. The other challenge was the realisation that I would live the rest of my life on earth without a mother and a father.

I am almost certain that the subject of death and life after death also touches you at a very sensitive level either because of your own sense of mortality or because you have lost loved ones and have had to wrestle with the kind of emotions that I have talked about. So, it must come as a token of love from heaven that God has not been quiet about the fact that those who die in the Lord merely go to sleep for the night. We shall meet them in the morning!

In this issue of Reformation Zambia we tackle this all-important topic. Pastor Chipita Sibale deals with the resurrection of Christ as the final defeat of death, that awful reaper that has deprived us of many loved ones and that hangs over our heads as the last enemy. He shows that death is a result of the sin of the first Adam who was our federal head and that eternal life is a result of the obedience of the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. He argues that the resurrection of Jesus cannot be explained away. As the early Christians used to say in greeting one another: “Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed!” Hallelujah!

Pastor Binwell Chibesa draws our attention to how the resurrection of Jesus Christ was in fact proof and declaration that he was the Son of God. Jesus did not become the Son of God at his resurrection. He has always been the Son of God. Pastor Chibesa goes on to explain why this declaration was necessary in the days when Jesus was on earth. Those same reasons are still valid today. Jesus must be known to be God’s Son in order for us to be saved from sin and hell. Thankfully, God ensured that he did so in the resurrection.

Finally, Pastor Ndonji Kayombo brings us great comfort by showing us from the Bible over and over again that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the most eloquent proof that God was totally satisfied with the price he paid for the debt that we owed God. In other words, we can go into the future knowing for certain that once we trust in Jesus we will never had to answer for our sins before God on the judgment day because all of them have been fully paid for in Christ. Since death is the wages of sin, and since Jesus fully paid this debt and there was no more payment to be made, God raised him from the dead. If this does not bring great comfort to your soul, I do not know what will. Pastor Kayombo leaves us singing,

“Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Saviour,

He bore the bars away, Jesus my Lord.

Up from the grave he arose,

With a mighty triumph over his foes;

He arose a victor from the dark domain,

And he lives forever with his saints to reign.

He arose! He arose!

Hallelujah, Christ arose!”