Death's Grave
Jesus is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
God’s grace and peace be your as we continue our celebration of the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
The Easter Season of the Church lasts for the full forty days from Easter Sunday to the day of Ascension. While we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus in the Church all year long, these forty days have a heightened focus as we expand our understanding of what He accomplished for us when He defeated death.
Throughout this section of his letter Paul has been proclaiming the truth that the victory Jesus won is a victory we partake in. Jesus shares all He possesses as Victor with those who place their faith and trust in Him.
Today we hear Paul speak of the final part of the victory with all His people, and it is an aspect of the victory we need to understand and hold onto.
When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 1 Corinthians 15:54-57
If we are honest, we reflect very little on our sinfulness. We have become very proficient at minimizing our sins and relating to them as no big deal! We have drawn up mythical categories for various sins and now there are some which have become acceptable and there are those which are to be avoided. People with acceptable sin in their lives are acceptable to us. Individuals who embrace the “bad” sins are the people we avoid. It is amazing the games we play in our relationship with God.
All sin is repugnant to God! He rejects both the sin and the sinner completely! The only hope for all of us who are trapped in sin is the blood Jesus shed upon the cross. His blood was shed as the One holy sacrifice which is acceptable before God and His innocent blood means forgiveness is not made available to all of sinful humanity. Simple faith is the key! Faith in Jesus means His blood washes you clean. No faith results in a person remaining repugnant before God.
While sin was dealt with at the cross and is shared with us today there is more to come. We live every day with the assurance of forgiveness and therefore free access into the presence of the Father. A child born into a Christian family could literally live from cradle to grave knowing God’s love in Christ and the assurance of eternal life. But there is the rub! The Grave! Even knowing of forgiveness in the blood and living with the hope of salvation and having confidence before God we still face the grave! The ultimate consequence of the Fall, “In the day you eat of it you will die” still comes true for all of us.
Jesus is the only One who has conquered death and His promise to each of us is that this part of His victory will be shared with us in time! It will come but it is not here yet! We still suffer from death and the pain it brings into our lives and ultimately to us personally. We are living each moment moving through our lives getting closer and closer to our final moment when death draws close and life in this world flees away. Until that day comes for us personally, we stand at the graveside of those we love and grieve that the victory promised is not yet here!
It is this aspect of the promise which Paul directs us to focus on today. Death has been defeated by Jesus and the day will come when He will share this part of His victory with us. As a way of tying the Old Testament promises of God to their fulfillment in Jesus, Paul quotes Isaiah:
On this mountain, the Lord of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast with aged wine, prime cuts of choice meat, fine vintage wine. On this mountain he will swallow up the burial shroud, the shroud over all the peoples, the sheet covering all the nations. When he has swallowed up death once and for all, The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken. -- Isaiah 25:6-8
Because of what has taken place on that particular mountain (Mt. Calvary) God will be able to wipe away all tears and remove the burial shroud from all people. This is His promise spoken before the events of Jesus’ life which He has made possible for us.
The end of the New Testament records the fulfillment of this promise and the sharing of Christ’s victory with us. John writes, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire” Revelation 20:14. Death ceases to exist! In other words, death dies! These are the greatest words of promise and hope spoken to us. When death is undone and life is restored then all the tears we have shed and the grief we have felt will replaced with absolute joy and celebration. This is the Victory of Jesus! This is our Savior!
Let us rejoice and live in hope and anticipation of what is coming. We shall live because He lives. He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Pastor Russ
God’s grace and peace be your as we continue our celebration of the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
The Easter Season of the Church lasts for the full forty days from Easter Sunday to the day of Ascension. While we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus in the Church all year long, these forty days have a heightened focus as we expand our understanding of what He accomplished for us when He defeated death.
Throughout this section of his letter Paul has been proclaiming the truth that the victory Jesus won is a victory we partake in. Jesus shares all He possesses as Victor with those who place their faith and trust in Him.
Today we hear Paul speak of the final part of the victory with all His people, and it is an aspect of the victory we need to understand and hold onto.
When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 1 Corinthians 15:54-57
If we are honest, we reflect very little on our sinfulness. We have become very proficient at minimizing our sins and relating to them as no big deal! We have drawn up mythical categories for various sins and now there are some which have become acceptable and there are those which are to be avoided. People with acceptable sin in their lives are acceptable to us. Individuals who embrace the “bad” sins are the people we avoid. It is amazing the games we play in our relationship with God.
All sin is repugnant to God! He rejects both the sin and the sinner completely! The only hope for all of us who are trapped in sin is the blood Jesus shed upon the cross. His blood was shed as the One holy sacrifice which is acceptable before God and His innocent blood means forgiveness is not made available to all of sinful humanity. Simple faith is the key! Faith in Jesus means His blood washes you clean. No faith results in a person remaining repugnant before God.
While sin was dealt with at the cross and is shared with us today there is more to come. We live every day with the assurance of forgiveness and therefore free access into the presence of the Father. A child born into a Christian family could literally live from cradle to grave knowing God’s love in Christ and the assurance of eternal life. But there is the rub! The Grave! Even knowing of forgiveness in the blood and living with the hope of salvation and having confidence before God we still face the grave! The ultimate consequence of the Fall, “In the day you eat of it you will die” still comes true for all of us.
Jesus is the only One who has conquered death and His promise to each of us is that this part of His victory will be shared with us in time! It will come but it is not here yet! We still suffer from death and the pain it brings into our lives and ultimately to us personally. We are living each moment moving through our lives getting closer and closer to our final moment when death draws close and life in this world flees away. Until that day comes for us personally, we stand at the graveside of those we love and grieve that the victory promised is not yet here!
It is this aspect of the promise which Paul directs us to focus on today. Death has been defeated by Jesus and the day will come when He will share this part of His victory with us. As a way of tying the Old Testament promises of God to their fulfillment in Jesus, Paul quotes Isaiah:
On this mountain, the Lord of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast with aged wine, prime cuts of choice meat, fine vintage wine. On this mountain he will swallow up the burial shroud, the shroud over all the peoples, the sheet covering all the nations. When he has swallowed up death once and for all, The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken. -- Isaiah 25:6-8
Because of what has taken place on that particular mountain (Mt. Calvary) God will be able to wipe away all tears and remove the burial shroud from all people. This is His promise spoken before the events of Jesus’ life which He has made possible for us.
The end of the New Testament records the fulfillment of this promise and the sharing of Christ’s victory with us. John writes, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire” Revelation 20:14. Death ceases to exist! In other words, death dies! These are the greatest words of promise and hope spoken to us. When death is undone and life is restored then all the tears we have shed and the grief we have felt will replaced with absolute joy and celebration. This is the Victory of Jesus! This is our Savior!
Let us rejoice and live in hope and anticipation of what is coming. We shall live because He lives. He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Pastor Russ
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