Resurrection Hope with Abi Byrd
In today’s episode we’re continuing our biblical theology series with a conversation with Abi Byrd about life, death, and resurrection. This episode is rich with gospel truths, and it is also incredibly practical. We journey all through Scripture, and we talk about ways the resurrection actually impacts our day-to-day lives. We hope this conversation prompts you to glory in the joy of the gospel and to hope firmly in Christ’s resurrection and the promise of the coming resurrection.
Timestamps from the Conversation
05:40 — Why the Resurrection Matters
10:55 — The Life We Were Made For
13:40 — The Fall and the Reality of Death
21:25 — Jesus Is the Resurrection and the Life
28:50 — Living in Light of the Resurrection
42:40 — Looking Forward to the Future Resurrection
50:10 — Holding Out True Hope to One Another
NOTES & QUOTES
“Death no longer has dominion over us. When we truly sit in this truth, it does transform our attitude to our daily lives.”
“We feel the groaning that Paul talks about in Romans 8. Creation is groaning, and we're groaning too. The spiral of sin is just never-ending—or at least it feels that way to us.”
“This is the kind of God we know. He's a God who gives us hope and mercy right from the minute that sin comes into the world. Immediately he gives us hope to cling to. And as you trace sin through the Scriptures and we see it in the world, every single time you see this spiral, you see that resurrection hope.”
“There's always this tension between the two things—the spiral of sin and the glimmer of hope. And the two things are interwoven together because God is a God of mercy he loves his people and he wants from the very beginning to give them the hope of a Savior who will come. And that translates into the resurrection, which is glorious. And gives God's people the hope of eternal life ultimately.”
“Jesus has the power to save people from death, and he is the only one who has the power to do it.”
“We live in the light of the resurrection. Because if Jesus hadn't defeated death and risen again, he couldn't be God. So he couldn't be the resurrection and the life. He couldn't be who he said he was. And he couldn't have been separated from God by our sin. He couldn't have been that perfect substitute. He couldn't have been that perfect sacrifice. If he'd stayed in the grave, the ability to raise people from the dead wouldn't have been possible. And because of that, our ability to have a relationship with God himself wouldn't have been possible. And so the only way that is made available to us is because of the resurrection.
“We really need to remember that on the days when we just feel so far from God, when we feel beaten down, when we feel like our sin has got the better of us. We need to remember Jesus has opened that door for us. And we can step through it and have this relationship with God the Father, God the Creator. We don't need to stay in the grave because all of that has died. It no longer lives. And instead, there is this glorious resurrection that gives us this incredible hope. It allows us to look on the glory of the Lord. It means we can rejoice when our lives are really hard. And it means we can rejoice when our lives are going well too.”
“In those harder moments, clinging to the resurrection transforms everything.”
“We forget that we belong to Christ now. And so even though sin tempts us and we're caught in those traps of sin, Jesus died on the cross for that already. And so even though it's a struggle today, he has already taken that from us, so we can rest in it. That doesn't mean that we don't need to turn from [sin] on a regular basis because we're still pulled that way. But Jesus has already taken care of that for us.”
“In those moments when we're lying in bed awake, or we're just feeling really frustrated that we don't seem to be able to move past something, or maybe we're mourning a relationship where there's a conflict that we just can't resolve it…We forget in those moments, Christ already took this, and he does know all this. And we are now living in the light of the resurrection, and it won't be like this forever. That doesn't take away the pain or the hard of any of that, but it does give us hope for the future that it won't always be like this. Because in heaven, we aren't going to be lying in bed regurgitating those conversations that we wish we hadn't had. There is a hope there that this hard isn't forever.”
“In those moments when we do fear and forget, [Scripture] is what we need to be able to bring to the forefront of our minds. In those moments, if we haven't trained for them, we aren't going to be able to bring those Scriptures to mind. And so that is really important for us to, when we aren't in those moments of fear, to be diligent about memorizing Scripture.”
“I think a lot of our lives are much more entangled with fear and anxiety than we care to admit. And so reading those words—we do not need to fall back into fear because of what Christ has done—can really help us process and work through those hard situations that we all come up against, whether we're walking through them now today, or whether something happens next week, or if we've just come out of one of those situations. God's Word holds those riches for us that we can practically apply to our lives. And they make the difference between us being able to put one foot in front of the other.”
“Sometimes I think God gives us mercies that you wouldn't expect to be mercies. So just using the example of Cory and Betsy Ten Boom, the reason their Bible wasn't discovered was because their cabin was infested with fleas. And so none of the guards wanted to go in there. And you think that was actually a mercy and a kindness from the Lord because it meant they could continue to read his Word to the women in the cabin. And so when you consider those things and you think, okay, how does that translate to some of the things that I'm walking through, some of these things that I'm viewing as hardships, are actually maybe God's mercies, but I just don't realize it. And how does that then redirect my gaze to God himself and allow me to rejoice in these truths?”
“When we raise our eyes to him, everything that is weighing us down becomes lighter. Those burdens really do get released. But part of the problem is we're just not willing to let go of them. We want to cling onto those things that we're viewing as hard, and sometimes they are really hard. But if we allow God's Word to redirect our gaze to him, then somehow it's like his Word kind of prizes our fingers back from all the things that we are holding on to and it releases them and it allows us to have a right view of God himself, of our life in relation to him and what he has promised in the future. And because of that, it means that then we can face today with joy.”
“I truly believe that something extraordinary happens when women gather around God's Word and study it together.”
RESOURCES
You Stand in Grace: Devotions for Walking in Faith by Abi Byrd
COMA Scripture study method: One to One Bible Reading by David Helm
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
2 Timothy 3:1 to 13
Romans 8:22
John 11:25-26
Romans 7:15-25
Romans 8
Revelation 21
Galatians 1
Romans 6:1-11
Genesis 1 26-28
Genesis 2
Genesis 3
Genesis 3:15
Isaiah 24:1-6
Romans 1:18-32
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
In what ways do you experience the results of the fall in your everyday life?
Christ has completely changed how we, as Christians, now think about death. How does how Scripture speaks about death impact you?
How does thinking about your future resurrection and Christ’s return change how you go about your days now?
What sections of Scripture get you most excited about the resurrection? Consider memorizing one of those passages this week.
What might you do or implement based on what you learned in this week’s episode?
RECENT CONVERSATIONS
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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