There are few certainties in life, but death is indeed one of them! It is not something we humans normally look forward to; in fact we often fear death.
Just as all of us will inevitably die, so Jesus too had to face death and a premature one. He had to die to pay the price for our sins, but that was not the end of the story nor of the salvation plan that God had predestined. Jesus cried "It is finished!" and yet his followers had no idea that he would rise from the dead just three days later.
God's sovereignty over all things was demonstrated supremely through Jesus' power over the grave. Many of his followers, no doubt, could not understand the death of their leader, the man they had grown to love. But without the crucifixion there could be no resurrection. Without death there could not be life. Without death, God's power could not have been demonstrated in such a dramatic and all powerful way.
Death followed by resurrection claims victory over all manner of things: the injustice of a perfect man's death, evil that aims to overcome good, a corrupt society that sent a blameless man to his death. God performed the greatest miracle ever through Jesus' death and resurrection. He also performed an impossible mathematical operation by turning a negative into a positive.
The legacy of the death and resurrection lives on. It should be far more than just something we remember; it should also take hold of our lives. If we can but grasp a fraction of that power in our lives, that desire by God to turn the negative in our lives into a positive, then what transformation we will see!
The resurrection of Christ was not a one-time thing. It represents an ongoing opportunity for us daily, minute by minute, to break the powers of injustice, sin, despair, or whatever grips us in a negative fashion, and to seize the positive power of Christ in our lives.
That same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. What an amazing, mind blowing thought to ponder.
- 18 APRIL -