By Johann Gerhard (1582-1637), a German Lutheran pastor and professor of theology. He wrote dozens of books, including Sacred Meditations, a collection of 51 meditations published in 1606.
We may find hints of the resurrection in all nature around us. The plant that lies dead through the long winter springs into new life at the approach of Spring. As the season ends, they begin again, keeping on in constant succession. The fruit comes to maturity and dies to reproduce other fruit from its seed. Unless the seed decays and dies it will not spring up into fruitfulness. Thus in nature all things perpetuate themselves by dying; and out of death evermore comes a new life. Shall we ascribe more power to nature in these natural resurrections than to God, who promises to raise our bodies at the last day? He who gives life to dead seeds (I Corinthians 15:37), so that they furnish sustenance for your life here, will most certainly raise from the dead your own body and the bodies of your loved ones, and with them you shall live eternally. –From Meditation #44
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I John 1:8-9 — If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
I Corinthians 15:35-38…42-44 — But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body… So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
James 4:13-15 — Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
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