May 21, 2020
A dear servant of the Lord passed away. At the age of 74, Ravi Zacharias died of cancer on Tuesday (5/19). My heart grieves the loss of a passionate preacher of the Word. And yet I rejoice in the hope of the gospel. Ravi completed the call the Lord placed upon him. And the Lord saw fit to call him home. Ravi penned these words undergoing cancer treatment during Easter week. Be encouraged:
“When we rebelled against God, there remained in God’s economy the need for a savior, a perfect savior. That perfect savior was provided by God himself in his Son. That gives an idea of how much God values every individual life. As the prophets foretold, the redeemer would come. He would be crucified and buried—the normal destiny of a spiritual cancer. But in an amazing prophecy, Jesus rose from the dead in three days, the victor truly victorious. God’s life-giving breath was restored to us.
And so with the apostle we can raise the question, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55). Sin is the rogue cancer cell within us, but the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus turned the tide in favor of God’s created order. So let us celebrate this Easter with gladness of heart and let us not look for life among death, because the grave is not victorious. It is the ultimate reversal of the fall, the ultimate cure.
As Nicholas Wolterstorff of Yale said when he lost his son in a climbing accident, “When we have overcome absence with phone calls, winglessness with airplanes, summer heat with air-conditioning—when we have overcome all these and much more besides, then there will abide two things with which we must cope: the evil in our hearts and death.”
The answer lies in the radiating Son of God who deals with the death cell of disobedience and restores the living cell. How sublime a truth! What a message of hope!
May we be moved to wonder and worship this week as we contemplate the cross and celebrate our risen Lord. Our cities smell of death. We need the aroma of life—his name is Jesus Christ” (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/easter-reflection-hospital-bed-zacharias/).
The Lord has given a call to each of His children. It is the call of mission whatever vocation the Lord has placed before us. May we be reminded of the brevity of life. And encouraged by the model that Ravi lived out before us. My prayer is that we might all finish well. All for the glory of the Lord, alone!