The Power of the Resurrection
Psalm 49:15
15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
Tad R. Callister wrote:
“[E]ntropy . . . is the process of going from a more organized state to a less organized state. . . . It is no surprise that Jacob, who observed that ‘death hath passed upon all men,’ also observed that ‘there must needs be a power of resurrection’ (2 Nephi 9:6; emphasis added). There had to be some reversing power to thwart the inexorable march of decay, decomposition, and ultimate disorder. Decay and death are constant forces, or powers, wreaking havoc upon God’s creations. David called it ‘the power of the grave’ (Psalm 49:15). Paul made reference to ‘him that had the power of death, that is, the devil’ (Hebrews 2:14). It should be no wonder that in the scriptures he is sometimes called ‘the destroyer’ (1 Corinthians 10:10). With poetic insight, Goethe called the evil one the ‘son of chaos’ [Goethe, Faust, 163].
“Isaiah saw the day when the Lord would finally ‘punish leviathan’ (Isaiah 27:1), referred to in the footnotes of the [Latter-day Saint] edition of the Bible as ‘a legendary seamonster representing the forces of chaos that opposed the Creator’ [Isaiah 27:1c]. As powerful as is this sinister force that promotes death, chaos, and destruction upon all living things, there is a countervailing, counteracting power that emanates from the Atonement [of Jesus Christ]. It is the power of the [R]esurrection.”
(The Infinite Atonement (2000), 167.)
