Jesus is Risen

Holy Week is hastily approaching. Many are preparing themselves via The Lent season for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Others will attend services, and many will not even appreciate the reason for the season due to their secular upbringing, conditioning at schools, and self focused lifestyles. For many Holy Week is Easter, a time like Christmas when parents practice mysticism and pretend a mythological creature like the Easter Bunny has arrived. This ruse with its egg hunt seems harmless, but it undermines the main purpose of the holiday, The Crucifixion and Ressurection of Christ. I have often mediated on the Passion of the Christ, on His suffering, sacrifice, and sithing wounds; but we must remember The Ressurection of Christ with equal attention. For without the raising of God, sin and death could not be defeated, and we poor mortals would be left to observing the harsh Law of Moses that cannot save us, a distant relationship with God, and eternity in Sheol (nicer part of hell, where Catholics get purgatory, but it no longer exists).

While I whole heartily support venerating Christ Crucified, remembering His death as the Apostle Paul did, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified," (1 Corinthians 2:2), "We preach Christ and Him crucified," (1 Corinthians 1:23), and "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes," (1 Corinthians 11:26) we must not turn the Passion into a day of the dead, and nihilistic ceremony; for on the Third Day Jesus Rose again, "He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said," (1 Corinthians 15:4), "But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him," (Actys 2:24), and "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9). It is the anticipation of the Ressurection that gives poignancy to the Passion, Christ knew He would be risen (Matthew 17:23) which makes the suffering all the more romantic because He knows that by suffering and dying for Our Sins, "but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." (Romans 4:24-25). Jesus was raised to life, and the resurrection and life comes from Him, "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26). Jesus had the Third Day on His mind as his flesh was marred, mauled, and made into stripes (Isaiah 53:5). For from that mutilated form Christ would heal us, not of a physical condition, but a spiritual and soulish one; we were destined for death and damnation, but God in His mercy sent His Only Begotten Son (John 3:16) to die for our sins and we who believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. In order to seal this last promise, Christ himself had to be raised to everlasting life, for He is God and sinless, and so death had no power over Him. Unlike the first Adam, Christ the Second Adam had not tasted the forbidden fruit, and was in complete obedience to the Father (Hebrews 5:8, John 5:19, John 12:20-49).

In everyway Emmanuel proceeds us, for He had to be tempted in every way we are (Hebrews 2:18), tested in every way (Hebrews 4:15), had to suffer (1 Peter 2:21), died (John 19), and then proceeds us by being raised from dead (Mark 16). The Ressurection is not just celebration of Christ completing the work of salvation, it is a image of our own future state, that we too shall rise from dead, "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first," (1 Thessalonians 4:16), " a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed," (1 Corinthians 15:52), and "After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." (1 Thessalonians 4:17). God has gone before us, so we may not fear death, for there is no death for those in Christ, as Jesus said, "But about the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." (Matthew 22:31-32, cross ref Mark 12:27, Luke 20:38). In Jesus Christ these is no death, for He conquered it and given us the same victory, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). Christ now holds the keys to death, "I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." (Revelation 1:18), and He will one day caste them into the lake of fire, "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death." (Revelation 20:14). We are promised an end to death and pain, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4). The Ressurection is a promise, and we sealed with it, "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge," (2 Corinthians 1:21-22), "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit," (Ephesians 1:13), and "And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption," (Ephesians 4:30, NLT). We then should celebrate Ressurection Sunday with great rejoicing! For not only is a day to remind us of salvation from sin, salvation from a distant relationship with God, and salvation from hell; it is a salvation of our very lives, Ressurection by its definition.

Jesus Christ is risen! (Matthew 28:6). While Him crucified on the cross comforts us with its image of God suffering, thus knowing our suffering, God's love, that He gave His Son (John 3:16), and death has no power over us now; we need to also look to the empty Tomb and empty cross, for now death has lost, and love has won! Christ is not seated in heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6) and at right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19, Luke 22:69, Acts 7:55-56, Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 12:2), and His name is above every name and every knee shall bow before Him, "For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phillippians 2:9-11, cross ref to Romans 14:11). This Ressurection Sunday should raise our spirits to a soaring height of joy, that we may remind ourselves that it is not only about salvation from sin, but the complete salvation of even our souls, bodies, and minds; that we shall be like Christ, changed into His likeness, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is," (1 John 3:2), and no longer subject to tomernet, disease, and pain. Hallejuah! Hallejauh to Holy Trinity in Heaven and in every human that accepts the gospel written in the Bible, "whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but will have eternal life." (John 3:16).