“Now I am on trial because of my hope in the fulfillment of God’s promise made to our ancestors.”
Acts 26:6 (NLT)
Paul stands on trial because he believes God has fulfilled His promise to their ancestors. Jesus came from heaven, told the Good News, died on a cross, rose from the dead, and ascended back to heaven. He fulfilled what the prophets said the Messiah would do. Paul is not teaching some new thing. His hope is rooted in God’s Word and in Jesus: the Savior King, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of God.
To the people hearing Paul, the thought of resurrection seems incredible. It seems preposterous, far-fetched, and unreasonable that God would raise the dead, not only His Son, but others after Him. Yet the incredible is what brings us into a relationship with God in the first place. Jesus came to earth as a man, lived a perfect life, suffered for us, rolled the stone away, and offers eternal life to us if we believe in His sacrifice and trust in Him.
If we can believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then why do we treat the rest of His promises as impossible? We profess to trust God’s Word, but what does it promise that we dismiss as crazy, weird, or unfathomable? The same God who fulfilled His promises in the Old Testament through Jesus promises forgiveness for our sins, a permanent home among His people, and that He will raise us from the dead as well.
Today, we get to choose whether we will stand in opposition, like these Jews, because God’s promises seem too incredible to matter for us, or choose to have faith in God. Because we believe in Jesus and the incredible thing He’s done for our salvation, we can also believe the other incredible things He says are possible through a relationship with Him. Today, I want to align with the incredible, with Almighty God, and not stand in opposition to Him.