DEVOTION//Debunking the impossible

On May 6, 1954, at Oxford University's Iffley Road track, Roger Bannister shattered the notion that no human could run a mile in under four minutes.

The 4-minute mile myth

In 1945 Gunder Hagg of Sweden had whittled the world record down to 4 minutes and 1.3 seconds. But in the decade that followed, after multiple athletes had tried and failed to run a mile in under four minutes, the assumption was that it was a physical impossibility.

Bannister destroyed that assumption. Soon sixteen more runners turned in mile-times under four minutes. The current world record is 3:47.01. It is held by Yomif Kejelcha, an Ethiopian. He set it on March 3, 2019.

The inability to rise from the dead myth

A more widely held assumption is that no one can rise from the dead.

But Jesus shattered that assumption 2,000 years ago. The risen Jesus was seen -- not to mentioned heard, touched, and eaten with -- by over 500 people in the forty days after Easter.

"Because I live, you also will live" (John 14:19), Jesus promises. Because Jesus established this new world record by rising from the dead, those who trust him as Savior are also empowered to rise from the dead.

Freedom from a deadly myth

Paul explains, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his (Romans 6:4,5).

Don't believe that no one can rise from the dead. Jesus has shattered that notion. He has shattered it for you.