He is Not Here – He is Risen!
Today, we celebrate the good news that He is Risen! This is a time for us to reflect on His life, death, and resurrection. Christ came down in the flesh, and willingly and lovingly gave His life to atone for our sins. Expressing His grace and mercy to us. And because he died for our sins, sin was defeated, justifying us and giving us the ultimate hope in Christ to live with Him in eternity.
1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Jesus Christ’s Life, Death, and Resurrection
Jesus’ Life
So as the scriptures tell us, our Father sent His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to die for us to save us from our sins and give us eternal life. This is the ultimate expression of love that anyone has shown to another – no one else has the capacity to love like our Father.
John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Jesus Christ is the personification of perfection, and of love. And as followers of Christ, this is what we strive for, to become like Him, not within our own strength, but through the power of His Holy Spirit. In addition to Him coming down in flesh to save us, He showed us how to live righteous and holy lives.
He taught us how to live our lives righteously, and holy, refraining from sin. Being kind to one another, forgiving one another; and above all else, love one another. This is why we must follow His example and live by His commandments.
Romans 12:10 “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another.”
John 15:17 "These things I command you, that ye love one another."
Jesus’ Death
We know that Jesus came down in the form of man and willingly died for us. He bore the sins of the world and forgave us all of them, reconciling us to the Father.
1 John 2:2 “And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
When Jesus died on the cross, He redeemed us, through His blood, so that we would be forgiven of our sins forever. Notwithstanding, Paul encourages us to “not let sin abound.”
Of course, only believers who choose to believe in Him, and worship Him have been redeemed and justified unto the Father, through Jesus’ death, preparing them for eternal life with Him in glory. We know that, despite the fact that Jesus sacrificed Himself for the whole world, some have chosen to reject Him and continue in sin, and will, therefore, not have eternal life.
John 9:31, “Now, we know that God heareth not sinners, but if a man is a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth.”
Therefore, only righteous followers of Christ living in His will – not sinners who rejected Him – will have eternal life with Him.
Jesus’ Resurrection – He is Risen!
The resurrection of Jesus Christ signifies the power of the Holy Spirit of God, which raised Him from the dead. And will resurrect us too, to give us eternal life. Also, it proves that Jesus is the Son of God. And all the works that He did while on earth: healing the sick, raising the dead, teaching us how to live godly, moral lives, etc., were through the same Holy Spirit that raised Him from the dead.
Without His resurrection of the power of the Holy Spirit, we would not have hope for eternal life. And, that same power of the Holy Spirit is with us today, guiding us through life. And it is this same Holy Spirit that will bring us to perfection, preparing us to live with Him in eternity.
Subsequently, Christ’s resurrection exemplifies our end of life here on earth – after our death, we will be resurrected too.
1 Corinthians 15:21, “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.”
Christ’s death was victorious, it couldn’t keep Him in the grave.
1 Corinthians 55-56 “Death is swallowed up in victory – O death, where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy victory?”
Christ victoriously defeated death and rose again on the third day, and ascended to the Father in Heaven.
To that end, Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection have meaning for us today and give us hope of eternal life with Him in glory, if we live for Him. He showed us mercy and grace by willingly dying for us, so we must not let His sacrificial death be in vain, instead, we must honour Him with our lives and live in His will.
Finally, we must follow Paul’s instructions to, “not let sin abound in our lives.” The very thing He came into this world to give His life for and save us from. We are blessed that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is dwelling amongst us in our lives today, and is guiding us to eternal life.