If Christ Be Not Raised... - Damon J. Gray
We recently celebrated Easter, a time for some to put adorable dresses on little girls and suits on little boys – a time for hunting or rolling eggs, and for children to overdose on chocolate.
For those in the body of Christ, however, Easter is so much more than dresses, new hats, eggs, and candy. Easter is a solemn remembrance and a celebration that is very tightly linked to Passover, a memorial forever commemorating death passing over those who are covered by the blood of the Lamb.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the hub around which the entire Christian faith rotates. The Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that Christ was “delivered for our offenses, and was raised for our justification.” Without that resurrection, we have no hope whatsoever. Jesus himself said, “because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:19) We live because He lives, and we live because we are justified by his resurrection, washed clean in the blood of the Passover Lamb.
It is astonishing to me, even unimaginable that Jesus, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9). I don’t want to taste death even for myself, much less every soul that has lived or ever will live. The sheer immensity of that load of sin boggles the mind. “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2, NASB) I cannot even visualize it, yet Jesus endured it for me, individually, and for all humanity collectively. My sins and your sins are removed from us as far as the East is from the West.
If there is no resurrection, if we have been duped into believing something that is untrue, then several things become true:
- Christ has not been raised.
- Our gospel message is useless.
- Our faith is ineffective.
- We are false witnesses or liars.
- We are still in sin.
- Those who have gone before us are lost.
- We are, of all men, most to be pitied.
But Christ is raised from the dead, and through his resurrection we are justified, made righteous, having conferred upon us the free gift of eternal life, life to be lived in the glorious presence of the one who created all that exists with nothing but a word. We are now at peace with the one against whom we made war with our sinfulness. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)
Walk in that assurance of peace, my friend.
Victoriously in Christ!
– damon
