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2 Corinthians 5:4-6

Reincarnation or Resurrection?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 2, 2025

Reincarnation is the belief that our souls pass on from one body to another until we’ve arrived at karmic equity, at which time we’re absorbed into “God” either personally or impersonally. But resurrection says that after death, the same physical body will be made incorruptible. Rather than a repetitive series of bodies, one after another, resurrection calls to live forever the same body that died. Christianity doesn’t see man as a soul in a body but as a soul-body. Geisler says, “While reincarnation is a process toward perfection, resurrection is a perfected state. Reincarnation is an intermediate state, while the soul longs to be disembodied and absorbed in God, but resurrection is an ultimate state in which the whole person, body and soul, enjoys the goodness of God. Quite a difference, huh?”

Many Christians accept the New Age concept of a soul residing in a body rather than the biblical concept of soul-body continuity. We will have real physical bodies after our resurrection. After all, Jesus did. In Luke 24:39, after his resurrection, he called his disciples to “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Further, he was recognized for who he was in life as well. He even ate fish! You could not do that without a real physical body. However, as Geisler goes on to explain about the resurrection body, “But it had some differences too. He could appear and disappear at will (Luke 24:31; John 20:19, 26). And He ascended into the clouds without a jet pack (Acts 1:9–11). These differences show that the raisings of Lazarus (John 11:1–44) and of the widow’s son (Luke 7:11–17) were not resurrections but only revivification of their mortal bodies (since they both died again). So the resurrected body was material but immortal. It was physical, but imperishable (1 Cor. 15:50–54).”

When Paul talks about our existence in heaven, he says we will be “changed.” He says that Jesus’ resurrection is a picture of our resurrection. It speaks not of a disembodied state but of a perfected literal body. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, “We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (51-52). When the body is resurrected, it is a perfected body with all the qualities and characteristics of Jesus’ resurrected body: perishable becomes imperishable, and mortal becomes immortal. The weaknesses and imperfections of our current body will be no more. We will have a perfect body! The burdens, pains, and weaknesses of our bodies in this world move us with a longing not to be bodiless but to live in a resurrected, glorified body. According to Paul, “…while we are still in this tent (physical body), we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed (be a disembodied spirit), but that we would be further clothed (given a new body) so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage.” The Holy Spirit is God’s pledge and promise of our physical resurrection into life everlasting! (2 Corinthians 5:4-6)

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2 Corinthians 5:21, John 3:16, Ephesians 3:8-9

Karmic Purgatory

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 1, 2025

Reincarnation is the view primarily proposed by the Hindus and Buddhists that the suffering in this life is the result of wrong living (sin?) from a previous life. We live now as a reward or punishment for a past life. When we die now, our soul returns to this world as an animal, mineral, vegetable, or human. It proposes that this process will continue until all are saved, yet salvation is most often described as absorption into the whole. When the scales of our behavior balance, we enter nirvana, a state of nothingness. The latest Pew Forum survey of religious beliefs puts the overall percentage of Americans who believe in reincarnation at 24% (men 21%, women 28%). Strangely enough, Blacks (34%) are almost twice as likely to believe in reincarnation as Whites (21%), with Hispanics in the middle (29%).

Geisler describes the problem: “Explaining suffering as results of karma from a past life never gets to a real explanation. For each previous life, there would have to be another life before that to account for its suffering. One could keep going on like that forever but would never reach an explanation. He would just be putting it off indefinitely. It would be like covering a hot check by depositing a check in one bank from an account in another bank and covering that withdrawal with a check from another bank, and so on. Ultimately, some banker is going to ask you, ‘Where is the money?’ And when he does, you had better have it in the account that the last check was written from. There has got to be a payoff somewhere. Reincarnation doesn’t have a payoff when it tries to explain evil. It just keeps passing bad checks.”

To me, this is just another kind of purgatory where people must pay for their own sins before they can enter into the presence of God (heaven). Surely, one cannot fail to see the difference between personal atonement, paying for one’s own sins, and substitutionary atonement, having the penalty paid by another. Jesus became our substitute because “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). Paul explains the Christian view in 2 Corinthians 5:21. He writes, “For our sake, he (God) made him (Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (Christ) we might become the righteousness of God.” The law of karma insists on the reincarnation of our soul until we’ve paid for all our sins. But the Bible is clear that Jesus paid all our “karmic debt” as he suffered and died on Calvary’s cross. To the Ephesians, Paul explained, “It is by grace we are saved through faith; it is not of works…” (Ephesians 3:8-9).

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Job 19:25-26, 1 John 2:24-25, John 11:25

A People of Hope

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 31, 2025

In my studies about life after death, I’ve become bored to death with the liberal scholars who suggest that the idea of life beyond the grave is a modern invention and was not even part of the Old Testament religious system. Listen, you all, no matter what you’ve heard in your secular philosophy of religion class or your Old Testament Class at some University. It’s clear in the Bible that there was an awareness of life beyond the grave from the very beginning. It was the loss of this reality that instilled the sins of Lamech as well as those living at the time of Noah. It was the loss of that reality at the tower of Babel that brought man’s self-idolatry and worship of the pleasures of this life. It was to Abraham that God began to renew the world with Faith!

It has been proven time and again that monotheism is not the product of an evolutionary development of human religious systems. A recent discovery at Ebla assures us of its existence long before the evolutionary chart suggests it emerged. It has roots in the oldest book of the Old Testament, the Book of Job. Job asserts his faith in God amidst the greatest trials one can imagine and says, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God…” (Job 19:25-26). Geisler (See “When Critics Ask”) argues that the phrase repeated in Genesis “gathered to his people” most “certainly seems to indicate more than merely being buried close to his kinsmen.” This phrase is used for Abraham (Genesis 25:8), Isaac (Genesis 35:29), and Jacob (Genesis 49:33). This last passage indicates that it wasn’t Jacob’s burial that was being discussed but his death. It reads, “When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.” The gathering took place immediately upon death. Further, in Deuteronomy 32:50, Moses is said to have ascended the mountain where he passed away and was gathered to his people. As the book of Jude affirms, there is still no record of a burial site for Moses.

Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection were purposefully God’s plan to bring us back to a true understanding of the depth of God’s love for us all in the assurance of life beyond the grave. It was Christ’s message from the beginning and His ultimate promise at the end. John expressed it this way (1 John 2:24-25), “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.” In the Gospel itself, Jesus is quoted as saying, (John 11:25) “He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live.” Jesus has promised eternal life to believers, free from all tears, sorrow, and pain (Rev. 21:4). That is why when it comes to death; Christians are a people of hope.

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Genesis 3:10, 1 John 1:9

Free at Last!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 30, 2025

Jesus sets us free from the power of sin and guilt. He wants us to live a healthy and wholesome life. Yet, he knows our makeup and our nature. He realizes we are sinners and that we’ll always struggle in this life with feelings of guilt, some phantom and some real. But He died on Calvary’s cross to pay the penalty for our sins and to deliver us from the punishment for it, the power of it as we grow in God’s grace, and from the presence of it completely in paradise. Yet, the process now of being delivered from its power is dependent upon our comprehension of the depth of God’s love for us. As our roots sink down into the rich soil of God’s love (As Paul prays for us), we come to a deeper and deeper appreciation of His vast, immeasurable love for us. John writes in the opening verses of the Book of Revelations a commendation of praise to Jesus for His love. In Revelation 1:5-6 we read, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Guilt made Adam and Eve blame each other for their sin. Guilt and shame made them try to cover their sin, and guilt made them run from and hide from the God who made them and loved them. Although the relationship continued, the trust was never the same. Yet, God, in His grace, provided a covering, the skin of a sacrificed lamb. Because of the blood of the sacrificed Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, we can have perfect and complete forgiveness. But our guilt must be confessed. “If” and only “if we confess our sins…” we receive God’s forgiveness. John also tells us that “if we say we have no sin,” we lie, and we’re not walking in the truth.

Today, in keeping with the practices of Adam and Eve, we hide from our sins. We run from God. We blame others for our problems, yet we live enslaved completely. We live with the punishment, power, and presence of our true guilt. Yet, we  will scream, “I’m free, I’m free.” Cecil Sherman writes, “These days, there is an all-out assault on guilt. Some schools of counseling have declared war on guilt. If you have it, you are trapped in an old, repressive way of thinking. Get rid of guilt. Free yourself from the baggage of a Puritan morality, and you will fly like a bird. You will be un-caged, loosed.” He goes on to warn us, “Watch this trash talk. Guilt is to the soul as nerves are to the body. Guilt awakens you to moral danger as nerves alert the body to a burn or a blow. You are in mortal danger when you are guilty.” Guilt is not the residue of “bad religion.” It’s God’s alarm clock to wake us to the reality of our sins. Guilt, true guilt, is God’s wonderful gift of His grace to move us to confession and repentance that results in real life, a life in which we’re set free in all ways imaginable.

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1 Peter 1:3-4, Romans 8:18

A Living Hope!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 29, 2025

On Easter Sundays in the past, I preached several sermons entitled, “I have a hope.” It was based on 1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 3 and 4. It says, “Praise be to the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade away – being reserved for you IN HEAVEN.” This imperishable, unspoiled, non-diminishing hope we have of life beyond the grave, established and confirmed by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, is the greatest motivator in life.

We often struggle with the difficulties we experience in this world, in this decaying flesh, in these imperfect bodies with imperfect minds and emotions. Our human sufferings are given a new context with the reality of our hope of heaven. Paul says in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Amidst all the trials and sorrows in this life, we can all cling to the living Hope Jesus purchased for us on the Cross of Calvary.

When John Todd was six, his mother and father both died, and he was raised by a kind aunt who loved him as his mother. He was studying for the ministry when she fell ill and, from her deathbed, wrote him a letter asking if there was really something awaiting her beyond the grave. Here is his reply: I, as a boy of six, was left quite alone in the world. You sent me word you would give me a home and be a kind mother to me. I have never forgotten the day I made the long journey to your house. I can still recall my disappointment when, instead of coming for me yourself, you sent your servant, Caesar, to fetch me. I remember my tears and anxiety as, perched high on your horse and clinging tight to Caesar, I rode off to my new home. Night fell before we finished the journey, and I became lonely and afraid. “Do you think she’ll go to bed before we get there?” I asked Caesar. “Oh, no!” he said reassuringly. “She’ll stay up for you. When we get out o’ these here woods, you’ll see her candle shinin’ in the window.” Presently, we did ride out into the clearing, and there, sure enough, was your candle. I remember you were waiting at the door, and you put your arms close about me—a scared and bewildered little boy. You had a fire burning on the hearth, a hot supper waiting on the stove. After supper, you took me to my new room, heard me say my prayers, and then sat beside me till I fell asleep. Someday soon, God will send for you and take you to a new home. Don’t fear the summons, the strange journey, or the messenger of death. God can be trusted to do as much for you as you were kind enough to do for me so many years ago. At the end of the road, you will find love and a welcome await you, and you will be safe in God’s care.

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Philippians 3:20, John 17:16-17

Heaven is my Home!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 28, 2025

The Bible tells us in Philippians 3:20 that “…our citizenship is in heaven…” It is our one true home! In the “Heaven Answer Book,” Billy Graham writes, “Jesus mentions Heaven about seventy times in the book of Matthew alone. It appears from the very first verse in Genesis—“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”—to the last reference found at the end of Revelation—“[He] showed me the great city . . . descending out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:10 NKJV). In fact, fifty-four of the sixty-six books in the Bible mention Heaven. Remember: the Bible is our only authoritative source of information about Heaven.” I can’t express the importance of Billy’s last exhortation for us to remember there is only one authoritative source about heaven. That is the Bible.

The certainty of its existence and my confident assertions that I have a place there has nothing to do with my living a “good” life. George W. Truett once said in a sermon on Grace, “I could not trust my hope of heaven on the best second I ever lived!” My faith and assurance of heaven surely have everything to do with God’s grace and nothing to do with my goodness. Jesus continually made it perfectly clear that no one would enter into His Kingdom based on their own goodness. Furthermore, my certainty and hope of heaven are never verified by the visions, dreams, or stories of after-death or near-death experiences that often make headlines in our world today. If a subjective experience serves to verify a biblical truth, then a subjective experience may be used to falsify a biblical truth. The truth of heaven and the certainty of it being my home must rest totally and completely on the authoritative words of Scripture.

In her book on Near-Death Experience and Christian Hope, Carol Zaleski presents, as one reviewer described it, a “sustained meditation on the human right and need to imagine the possibilities of the world to come.” To her, it’s the imagination that matters. The reviewer of her work even describes her premise as “truth lies in the imagination.” Jesus disagreed with her. Our imaginations and experiences are not the basis of life after death. They will give no comfort in the darkest part of the valley of the shadow of death. But God’s unchanging truth will. God made us not for this world but for the next world. He sent Jesus to make sure we get there safely. In Jesus great prayer in John chapter 17, he said, “They (The believers) are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:16-17) He tells us that he’s gone there to prepare a place for us. He promises to take us there! Billy Graham goes on to say, “If someone asks you about Heaven, you can say with assurance, ‘We know that if the earthly tent [body] we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands’ (2 Corinthians 5:1). What a promise! What a destiny!”

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Romans 3:21-24

Not Guilty!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 27, 2025

Like the phantom pain experienced by my Dad when he lost his arm, false guilt is produced by something that isn’t really there. We’ve failed to live up to the expectations of others, we’ve not met a standard that we’ve set too high for ourselves, or we’ve let God down in such a way that we can never be forgiven. Like my dad scratching the palm of his amputated hand we often dig at the itching from past sin and unmet expectations. Bruce Demarest in “The Cross and Salvation” explains the source of phantom guilt. He writes, “Some Christians live in the legacy of a stern and legalistic upbringing, in the home or in the church that has imposed on them a stringent code of ethics with accompanying taboos. Unfortunately, certain Christian churches have been legalistic, more negative than positive, stressing personal wretchedness rather than God’s grace in Christ. Other believers may have had imposed upon them the unrealistic burden of sinless perfection, which insists that God accepts them only on the condition that they be perfect.”

I’m convinced that God doesn’t want us to live lives overwhelmed by this sense of guilt. He not only wants us to be guilt free he wants us to “feel” guilt free. But this is more difficult to achieve. Demarest goes on to suggest an answer to this problem. He continues, “The solution to this unreasonable sense of guilt is to recall that the omniscient Lawgiver and Judge declares believers “not guilty!” and, indeed, clothes them with the righteousness of Christ. Christians need to remind themselves that they are God’s forgiven, justified, and adopted children. The righteous God has pardoned, cleansed, and freed true believers from the burden of sin and guilt. Overly scrupulous Christians need to celebrate this glorious reality.”

I’m also convinced that this “glorious reality” doesn’t come by hard work. It can only come as we grow in our walk with God. The more we get to know Him, the more His grace can overwhelm us and cleanse us from the misery of phantom guilt. Meditating on God’s Word to us can help with this process of stepping into this glorious reality. After pointing out the sinfulness of every human being in the first three chapters of his letter to the Romans, Paul offers us the solution. In Romans 3:21-24 he writes, “Now God says he will accept and acquit us—declare us ‘not guilty’—if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, by coming to Christ, no matter who we are or what we have been like. Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal; yet now God declares us ‘not guilty’ of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins.”

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Phantom Guilt

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 26, 2025

At 56 years of age, my dad lost his right arm just below the elbow in an electrical accident. He was rebuilding another old house on 60th and Pratt in Omaha (His 4th!), and he and my mom lived in the basement while he rebuilt the kitchen above. It took some time for his arm to heal and the worst part of the injury was what the doctors explained as “phantom pain.” It’s the sense that the wrist and fingers of his right hand were burning or itching, and he couldn’t scratch them because they no longer existed. He would often dig at the stub to relieve the pain, but it didn’t help. It was frequent at first and drove him crazy. It took some time to get over it. Dr. Paul Brand, writing with Philip Yancey, told a story about a man named Mr. Barwick, who had a serious and painful circulation problem in his leg but refused to allow amputation. But finally, the pain became too great for him to bear, and Barwick cried at last, “I’m through with that leg. Take it off.” He had developed an irrational hatred for his own leg, and after the operation, Barwick took the amputated leg and put it in a pickling jar. He actually installed it on his mantle shelf. He said, “Then, as I sit in my armchair, I will taunt that leg, ‘Hah! You can’t hurt me anymore!’ ” But the leg had the last laugh. Even long after the wound healed, according to Brand, “Barwick could feel the torturous pressure of the swelling as the muscles cramped and itched and throbbed.” Brand then made the comparison of phantom pain with false guilt. He writes, “Phantom limb pain provides wonderful insight into the phenomenon of false guilt. Christians can be obsessed by the memory of some sin committed years ago. It never leaves them, crippling their ministry, their devotional life, their relationships with others.…” False guilt is produced by something that isn’t really there. We’ve failed to live up to the expectations of others, we’ve not met a standard that we’ve set too high for ourselves, or we’ve let God down in such a way that we can never be forgiven. Many of us have our false standards and expectations of others right alongside our past sins. Jesus died to pay the penalty for whatever we have up on our mantle, and we often just stare at them and feel the pain of our failures over and over again. We dig at the stubs of our sins. But there really isn’t anything there. They’ve been removed by the great physician himself. In 1 John 1:9, we read that whenever our sins are confessed to God, He is faithful (can be depended upon!) to forgive us and cleanse us of our sins. But then, in 3:19-20, It says, “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” Sometimes, we have truly hurt others in the past, and that guilt is not false, but we must accept God’s forgiveness and move on.

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