The Upper Room Daily Devotional Nashville, Tennessee, United States “From Death to Life" for Tuesday, 10 February 2015 - Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:35-45

The Upper Room Daily Devotional Nashville, Tennessee, United States “From Death to Life" for Tuesday, 10 February 2015 - Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?” 36 Look, fool! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t come back to life unless it dies. 37 What you put in the ground doesn’t have the shape that it will have, but it’s a bare grain of wheat or some other seed. 38 God gives it the sort of shape that he chooses, and he gives each of the seeds its own shape. 39 All flesh isn’t alike. Humans have one kind of flesh, animals have another kind of flesh, birds have another kind of flesh, and fish have another kind. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The heavenly bodies have one kind of glory, and the earthly bodies have another kind of glory. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, the moon has another kind of glory, and the stars have another kind of glory (but one star is different from another star in its glory). 42 It’s the same with the resurrection of the dead: a rotting body is put into the ground, but what is raised won’t ever decay. 43 It’s degraded when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in glory. It’s weak when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in power. 44 It’s a physical body when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised as a spiritual body.
If there’s a physical body, there’s also a spiritual body. 45 So it is also written, The first human, Adam, became a living person,[a] and the last Adam became a spirit that gives life.[Footnotes:
1 Corinthians 15:45 Gen 2:7]
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.[John 12:24 (NRSV)]
Recently, I bought seeds from a seed store and planted them in pots in my house. As I was sowing the seeds in pots, this verse from John 12 came to my mind. I pondered how planting seeds is similar to what Jesus said — that the seed must die, meaning the seed must be buried before it can bear fruit. These words were fulfilled in Jesus’ life. He died on the cross and was buried for three days. Through his death, the Word of God was sown in everyone who believed in him, and those people proclaimed it to other people. The death of Jesus produced — and continues to produce — much fruit.
Currently, the number of Christians is over two billion, or nearly one-third of the world’s population. All this is the result of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Whenever I celebrate Communion, I want to reflect on how Jesus willingly sacrificed, and like a little grain of wheat, was buried so that the fruit of faith, love, and hope could be produced in countless lives.
The Author: David Nababan (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Thought for the Day: Christ died so that we can live.
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying and rising from the dead so that we can live forever with you. Amen.
Prayer focus: Christian martyrs
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