On Friday we celebrated "Good Friday." On the face of it, it's a stark concept, depicting the murder of the Son of God by His creation as "good." But we get it, we who believe. The ultimate evil gave way to the ultimate good. By that travesty of justice, justice prevailed so that God could be "just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom 3:26). We get the Cross. We celebrate the Cross. It was, in the final analysis, a "Good Friday." But ... what about the Resurrection? What was so good about that?
I love the language of Paul in his description of what happened on the cross. He said that Christ canceled the "record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands" (Col 2:14). How? He set it aside, "nailing it to the cross" (Col 2:14). See the picture? Dying there for the sins of the world, Christ "posted a notice" -- "It is finished." He nailed that record of our debt to the cross, along with His "paid in full." And they buried Him. What followed 3 days later was His magnificent resurrection. When Paul lays out the basic facts of the Gospel, he says it was "that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15:3-4). The Resurrection was a fundamental component of the Gospel. Why? Well, Christ's resurrection was, in essence, God's receipt given for Christ's payment for sin. Scripture says that God made us alive together with Him (Col 2:13), that because He lives, we can live, too (Rom 6:4-5). In fact, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins"
(1 Cor 15:17).
The Good News is truly massive. The Creator (John 1:3) took on flesh (Php 2:6-7), lived a sinless life (Heb 4:15), willingly died in our place (Rom 5:6; 1 John 2:2; 1 Peter 3:18) "according to Scripture," and rose to new life with hundreds of witnesses to attest to it (1 Cor 15:4-8). The sinless Son of God died in your place to give you new life, to make you His adopted co-heir with Him (Rom 8:14-17). The Resurrection, then, is huge, too. Not just a heartwarming story; a "proof of life" from God. And that "proof of life" isn't just that Jesus is alive, but that we can be alive, too. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
1 comment:
He is risen indeed. Without Resurrection Sunday, we would have no hope in the cross. He would have been just any other man killed for expedient reasons, a danger to the religious and political elite. We need a symbol that combines the cross and the empty tomb. The cross is important for remembering His death, but His Resurrection is even more important to our salvation.
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