Easter – He is Risen Indeed!

Easter – He is Risen Indeed!

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.’” John 11:25 NKJV

“I am the resurrection and the life…” As I was preparing this week to write this blog for Easter Sunday, I received word that my Grandma was going into hospice care for her last days here on the earth. Even though we had been preparing for this day for a long time, no one is ever fully prepared to get that news. In the midst of a whirlwind of emotions and rearranging my schedule to be able to go see her, this portion of Scripture kept coming to me.

Jesus conquered the last enemy of Death when He died on the cross and rose again three days later. Because of His ultimate sacrifice, we not only get to spend eternity with Him in heaven, but with all our friends and relatives who are saved. This assurance is what allowed me to say goodbye to my Grandma with only a bit of sadness in my heart. The rest of me was filled with joy and gladness at the thought of her going to heaven to be with Jesus, to not be in pain anymore, and to see her husband who had gone on 30 years before her.

This Easter, as I contemplate the Father’s love for me, I see the arms of Jesus, His Son, stretched out wide before Him. Those arms were stretched and nailed to the cross. Not only did Jesus see all of us when He was hanging there going through sheer agony, but our Father saw each of our faces as He turned His back on His Son for the first and only time in history. It’s as though each person ever created were standing shoulder to shoulder and he looked into each face one by one as He turned away. It was a painful turning, but a necessary turning, if He would ever have the family He desired from the moment He created Adam.

That is why this Scripture is true for us: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17 NKJV)

The Amplified Bible says it this way: “Every good gift and every perfect (free, large, full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light, in [the shining of] Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [as in an eclipse]. And it was of His own [free] will that He gave us birth [as sons] by [His] Word of Truth…” (James 1:17-18a AMP)

God the Father will never cast a shadow on us by turning His back on us because He did that with His Son, Jesus, Who was the redemptive sacrifice for all our sins. We are privileged to look on God’s face, to see the bright shining of His glory, because of what Jesus did.

Jesus died so that we might be part of the New Creation, created in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:10). When we were born again into the family of God, the Holy Spirit made His home in us. He is called the “Spirit of truth” (John 15:26; 16:13). The Spirit of truth testifies to the Word of Truth, that is, the Person of Jesus. Jesus was the Word made flesh (John 1:14).

Each of these realities are brought together in the following Scripture: “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” Ephesians 1:13 NJKV

Each person of the Godhead – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – was involved in overall plan for mankind in a distinct, yet integrated, way. This plan that had been birthed even before the foundations of the world was culminated in the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of Jesus.

This Easter, think of the LIFE that Jesus opened to us by His death, burial and resurrection. He made us sons and daughters of God. He saved us from eternal damnation. He delivered us from sickness and disease. He gave us peace for our minds and our hearts. He made a way for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in us – to guide us in all truth, to teach us all things, to empower us to preach the gospel to every creature. He redeemed us from poverty and lack. He restored fellowship with our Father God. And this is just a sampling of what He did! The heights and depths of His love for us we will never fully comprehend.

Because of His resurrection, we will be raised with Him in that last day.

“And when this perishable puts on the imperishable and this that was capable of dying puts on freedom from death, then shall be fulfilled the Scripture that says, Death is swallowed up (utterly vanquished forever) in and unto victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? …But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory [making us conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:54-56; 58 AMP

Praise the Lord! He is Risen… He is Risen Indeed!