Pastor Tom Grieb concludes our series "Faith and..."

The hope of eternal life is the very bedrock of the Christian faith.  God sent his Son so that we might have abundant life now and eternal life later on.  That great passage from John 3:16 puts it well when it says, “For God so loved the world that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” 

If it were not for Jesus blazing the trail to eternal life through his resurrection from the dead, the Christian movement would have crumbled, and the church never formed.  The Apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:14, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”  The Christian faith is built upon the hope and promise of Christ’s resurrection.  Without it, what we believe is simply a house of cards.

Jesus himself said, “I am the resurrection and the life.  The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”  (John 11:25-26)   In speaking this to Martha right before the raising of her brother Lazarus, Jesus challenged her by asking, “Do you believe?”  That same question comes to you and me.  Do you believe the promise of God that for those who so believe there is eternal life?