Empty Womb Empty Tomb

Now Sarah, Abraham’s wife, had borne him no children.  And the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, “Look toward the heavens and count the stars if you are able to count them.  So shall your descendants be.  Indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore.  And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” 

Against all earthly odds, Abraham believed God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.  Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, and the deadness in Sarah’s womb.  And he said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old?  And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”  Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, gave glory to God, and was fully assured that what God had promised he was able to perform.

Because Abraham believed God, it was reckoned unto him as righteousness.  But not for his sake only was it written that his faith was counted as righteousness, but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

The miracle of the Resurrection was the sign which Christ Himself promised as the proof of His divine mission.  Had He failed to return to life on the third day, He would have been convicted of being an imposter.  His enemies, the priests and Pharisees, understood full well the importance of this sign.  Therefore, they took precautions to seal the tomb and post the guards.  Since these arrangements excluded the possibility of fraud, they thereby increased for posterity the certainty of the miracle.

For if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved.