What did He go through?

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Permalink Reply by Colby on August 7, 2012 at 6:11pm

To non-believers, the Passion of Jesus--the story his excruciatingly painful death nailed to the cross--is a gruesome and masochistic event.  Mel Gibson's popular movie, "The Passion of the Christ" (2004), focuses on this pivotal event, graphically depicting Christ's death on the cross, while giving scant attention to the resurrection that followed. 

 

For believers, the cross and the resurrection help us all keep God's big picture in mind. There is no way to the resurrection except by way of the cross. But the ultimate purpose of God in the cross of Jesus is our reconciliation with God and our new life that begins now and heads into eternity.  Together, the cross and the resurrection symbolize for us the completed work of our Lord Jeus Christ--our Messiah.

 

Jesus Christ wass not only fully divine but also fully human. He shared the same status as God as the second person of the Holy Trinity but did not exploit the privileges of his divinity. Instead, he rejected this equality with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and chose to took on the status of a humble servant.

 

When the time was right, he became human and chose to stay that way during his selfless life and selfless death. He emptied himself and suffered the worst kind of death--crucifixion. Rather than running away from hardship, he turned towards that most obedient and humble moment on the cross. He poured himself out for the life of the whole world.

 

Christ on the cross has made a way for us to approach God with faith instead of fear. Because of what God has done in Christ, we can indeed “approach God with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” We can indeed “hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.” What God has done in Christ on the cross makes hope and confidence to approach God possible.

 

But let us not dwell on the crucifixion, the vivid imagery of a dying Jesus nailed to the cross, to the point that we ignore the resurrection. The Gospel is nothing without hte resurrection.  Through his resurrection, Jesus defeated death for all of us. If Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead, what gospel are we proclaiming? Where’s the good news here? And if Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead, why are we Christians?

 

The Apostle Paul drives the point home. “If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection?"

Christ broke the bonds of death and rose victorious from the grave.

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!

Humbly and faithfully in Christ,

Colby

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