Empty Grave

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

What’s the meaning of the empty grave? Death is conquered. We tend to focus on the conquering of natural death. The real significance of the empty grave is that spiritual death is conquered. Because the grave is empty, the we can live eternally.

Take the empty grave, add faith, you have eternal life. The empty grave is about possibilities. Because the grave is empty, eternal life is possible. Being born again, is being born spiritually. Since Adam we are born dead, spiritually dead. Since Jesus, we can get that spiritual life back.

To be born again is to be different. Years ago I remember gathering in Baton Rouge to demonstrate in favor of life. There were two groups present: pro-life and pro death. The demonstrations were large but peaceful. Just before the crucial vote, the pro lifers without any direction, lay silently on their faces and began to pray. The pro deathers were confused but stood in respectful silence. They were in the presence of something spiritual. Something they did not understand. The two groups were different. It wasn’t that one group was good and the other bad. It wasn’t that one was right and one was wrong. It was that some were alive and some were dead.

Spiritual life is about possibilities. When we are born again we gain new possibilities: the possibility to love like Jesus loves, the possibility to grow, the possibility to bear fruit, the possibility to make an eternal difference.

Today we celebrate possibilities. Now it’s possible to live forever with God, if to the work of the cross and the resurrection, we add faith. It’s possible to make a difference, if to new birth we add following the Savior.

The empty grave trumpets unlimited possibilities. It’s why we celebrate. It’s why we sing, “hallelujah.”