For Monday July 18, 2022:

A NEW CHAPTER BEGAN

1 Corinthians 15:20 (NKJV)
But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Now, when we look at the Gospels we note an odd—and wonderful—thing. An extra chapter is added. Why?

Biography, by its own definition, must confine itself to the record of the life of an individual. That part of the book which deals with the family tree is not biography, but history, and that part which follows the record of the subject’s death is not biography either. It may be appraisal, or eulogy, or criticism, but not biography, for the reason that the “bios” is gone: the subject is dead. The part that tells of his death is properly the last chapter.

The only place in world literature where this order is broken is in the four Gospels. . . .

Then, for the only time in this history of human thought, a biographer adds to his book a new section which is authentic biography and begins to write a chapter to follow the last chapter. This time the story did not end with a funeral. . . .

That next chapter after the last is the source of all the Christian’s hope, for it assures us that our Lord has put death in its place and has delivered us from the ancient curse. Death did not end the activities of our Lord.… After three days, His spirit was reunited with His body and the new chapter began, the chapter which can have no ending.

Tozer on the Almighty God : A 366-Day Devotional (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2004).