Living Proof

Christ: God’s Living Proof

Do you ever have days when a thought won’t leave your mind? For a math minded person, it has seemed strange for words to stick in my thoughts and not let go. Words instead of numbers. For most of my life, I would never have expected this to happen. My world revolved around my high school math classroom. Talk of Pi was easier for me than talk of Pie. I’m still in amazement that God Almighty, creating me with a love of numbers, would decide to change things up as I enter my sunset years. Humans usually don’t do that. As something nears the end of its usefulness, we typically set it aside or throw it out. But God does things in a way no one else does!

Yesterday the term “living proof” came to mind. I was thinking about Christ’s resurrection from the dead, wondering why God didn’t just let Christ pay for our sins, and then go to heaven after three days instead of bodily resurrecting first. He could have done it that way. After all, He’s God.

But God knew we would need more. Seeing Jesus in the flesh, after the disciples saw Him crucified, was a complete shock to their senses. It was exactly what God wanted for us, Living Proof!

Merriam-Webster dictionary declares that “living proof” is “someone that provides an example that proves that something can be done.” Enter Jesus. Someone who provides an example that proves that something–rising from the dead–can be done!

Jesus is the epitome of living proof. He proved that death is not final. He proved that death can be conquered. His offer of eternal life has more meaning to us because He is Living Proof that His offer is good!

Believers: Christ’s Living Proof

Personally, I think God expects us to be living proof as well. Proof that we believe what He has told us about Himself, that He is God and there is no other (Isaiah 46:9), that we are to worship Him alone (Luke 4:8), that He loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3), that our relationship with the God of the universe is possible because Jesus paid the price for our sin (John 3:16).

Scripture tells us that it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Galatians 2:20). Do I live as if that is true? Do I love with the love of Jesus? Can others tell by looking at me that life everlasting is an option (John 6:40)?

Sometimes I think that God moving me from my years in the math classroom to opportunities using words instead of numbers is a type of living proof. Proof that God thinks outside the box. Proof that God uses the weak things of the world to confound the wise (I Corinthians 1:27). Proof that God’s ways are different than man’s ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). Proof that with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)!

Application: Live The Proof

Let your brain mull over all the ways you can be living proof today. Think for awhile about the amazing way Jesus is the ultimate Living Proof. Did you notice that living proof is made up of two wonderful words? “Living,” referring to that which is full of vitality and hope and joy and love and power over death. “Proof,” referring to showing others that which is true, not allowing falsehood to rule.

Let’s walk today as living proof that the ultimate Living Proof really did speak the truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). His way is perfect (Psalm 18:30). And we are His forever if we say, “Yes!” to Him (1 John 5:13-14).

Death has been conquered through Christ. Life can be lived abundantly because of Him. Joy is ours today and every day because Jesus showed us that God is trustworthy and all-powerful. Walk today as living proof to the world that Jesus is worth investigating. Choose today to live knowing that He is risen from the dead, and prove once again that God is who He says He is. Jesus really is our Living Proof!

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.”

John 11:25 (CSB)

(Photos taken by Carolyn Thigpen, April 2021, Tribble Mill Park, GA)