Our Faith Rests Upon.... {Easter '13}.

The core of our Faith rests on something which happened after the Cross... the Resurrection of the Son of God.  Jesus said, “I lay down My Life-- only to take it up again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.  I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.  This command I received from my Father” {Jn. 10:17b-18}.  Jesus has authority, meaning the right, the power, the dominion {just as His Father does} over Life and Death.

The Cross is a stunningly beautiful truth, a gift of unimaginable grace: our sins are entirely forgiven, the power of the ‘sin within’ broken, a ransom offered, a redemption accomplished, the fatal fracture between holy Creator and His fallen Creation healed forevermore, our pasts redeemed, our futures secure and our presents finally making sense.  All because our Lord and Liege chose to offer Himself as our Substitute, in our place, on our behalf, a stand-in paying a price none other could pay and finishing a Mission none other could finish!  These are glorious realities belonging to each of us now-- as birthrights, because by faith we have become the Sons and Daughters of God.

But apart from the Resurrection, as glorious as this is, it is incomplete.  Apart from the Resurrection, there is no Life beyond the walls of this world.  Apart from the Resurrection, we are going to be wonderfully forgiven corpses one day... all of us.  Beyond a Life with God which spans Eternity, there is no Hope for experiencing intimacy with Him now, no hope for healing and wholeness and holiness, no hope for beauty and transcendence in our lives or courage and conviction in our hearts.  The Spirit of the Living God, through whom these things are even possible, is a Gift of the Resurrection.  The Spirit of Jesus is His Resurrection Power alive and well within us.  Jesus died, as Paul wrote in Romans 6, not only for our sins but to our sin natures; but without His Resurrection there is no way to experience this freedom from a lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of it!  There is no way to live ‘beyond ourselves,’ and all the chaos and carnage which self can wreak on an unsuspecting world, apart from Jesus’ Resurrection Power.  It is the centre-piece of our Faith, the primary event around which Eternity revolves: the Triumph of the King of Kings over the darkness of sin and death.

The Cross is a fatal blow to the enemy... but the Resurrection is the note of Triumph, the trumpet announcing the Glorious News of Grace to all the afflicted: that the captives have been freed, the prisoners turned loose, the year of the Lord’s favor is upon us, the mourners have been comforted and the “Oaks of Righteousness” planted “for the display of Abba’s splendor” {Isa. 61:1-3}.  And there is nothing the enemy can do about it ...but look upon it and hate.  This is the Glory of the Resurrection.


Ric Webb

Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community

www.hjcommunity.org