It’s probably overly ambitious to say I’m taking a three-day break from this blog, but I’m going to try! The following post was previously published in April 2004. Thanks for visiting LBC. I’m grateful to you for your time and interest.
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“Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’” And they remembered His words. (Luke 24:6-8)

To an unbelieving world, the saving power of the cross of Jesus Christ is foolishness; but for those who’ve been saved by His grace, it is the power of the living God! That saving power comes through the bodily resurrection of Christ.

The foundation of Christianity rises or falls on the truthfulness of the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. His death on the cross is the basis for salvation, and the power of the resurrected Christ lives in all believers. He’s sitting at the right hand of God as our High Priest, making intercession on our behalf.

In Matthew 20, Jesus predicts his own death:

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day He will be raised to life!” (17-19)

To an unbelieving world, this is utter nonsense. But what faith is this if the claim is untrue? The apostle Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthian church. Although they’d been taught about the bodily resurrection of believers, some of the Christians in Corinth, influenced by the pagan culture and the Sadducees (both of whom didn’t believe in resurrection of the dead), were confused about their own resurrection.

Paul wrote:

“Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up — if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! (1 Corinthians 15:12-17).

So why was Christ’s death necessary in the first place? In Genesis 3, we read that man became separated from God when Adam and Eve disobeyed Him and ate the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Consequently, every human inherited Adam’s sinful nature. That sinful nature separates us from God and affects every part of us. The Bible describes us as spiritually dead and unable to do anything to save ourselves.

Just as Lazarus was physically dead in his tomb, we are spiritually dead in our sins. But when the sovereign hand of God quickens us alive, we rise as Lazarus rose when Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth!” Before He commanded Lazarus to rise, Jesus comforted his sister Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

Yes I do!

But unbelievers laugh at our faith and make a mockery of it. Though they mock, they seem to inherently know they’ll have to answer to “someone” for the “bad” things they’ve done. So they come up with their own salvation plan, believing the “good” they do will outweigh the bad. What they don’t realize is that one sin is enough to put us under God’s wrath, and we all know our sins are innumerable. While we may forget, He knows about every single sinful thing we’ve ever done. There is no way for us to satisfy His righteous standard: perfection. But God has provided a way for us to “get around” His impossibly high standard: Jesus Christ. He stands in the place of believers, receiving the due penalty of our sins. Christ suffered the wrath of the Father so we wouldn’t have to!

The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ sets us free from the penalty of sin by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Salvation comes through the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is the very Son of God in human flesh.

Think about it.