A LOOK INSIDE THE EMPTY TOMB

To begin, two quotes on the single most important event in history. . .

“Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no single historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ.” B.F. Westcott

“Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion … If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed.” John R. Stott

 

THE CROSS ALONE WAS NOT ENOUGH

The Cross of Jesus, by itself, was not enough to give eternal life to you and me.

Shocked?

You shouldn’t be. Because the Bible itself states this to be true:

If Christ is not risen, then you and I are still in our sins and will perish.

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! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. I Corinthians 15.14-19

In fact, it is the Resurrection that proves Jesus to be the Son of God, the One, the only one, who is able to remove our sin from us:

… concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ (Messiah) our Lord, … Romans 1.4

Of this critical doctrine, R.A. Torrey wrote,

Gospel preachers nowadays preach the Gospel of the Crucifixion, the Apostles preached the Gospel of the Resurrection as well. The Crucifixion loses its meaning without the Resurreciton. Without the Resurrection the death of Christ was only the heroic death of a noble martyr; with the Resurrection it is the atoning death of the Son of God. It shows that death to be of sufficient value to cover our sins, for it was the sacrifice of the Son of God.

Christianity is a religion that rests on the historical fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus of Nazareth died but was not resurrected from the dead, then Christianity is false and its Christ is either a deluded lunatic or a deceitful liar.

“No resurrection, no Christianity.” Arthur Ramsey

 

BUT IF . . .

But if Jesus of Nazareth really did rise from the dead, as He claimed He would, and as hundreds of witnesses – Christian and non-Christian – afterward said He had, then two things must be true: Jesus of Nazareth is who He said He is, He is the Christ (Messiah), Savior and Lord,

AND, if Jesus is the risen Christ, then these seven life-changing statements must be true:

 

1. We can be born again

“By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3

Even before we were born into this world, we were already in sin.

“Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 51.5-6:

And so, because sin can never enter the presence of the God who is holy, it is impossible for any of us to ever enter the presence of God or know Him. In other words, because our very nature is sinful and we are born as sinners before the holy God, we are eternally separated from God. Unable to be with Him, after we leave this world, we can only exist eternally where He is not, ie, hell.

But it is because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are born anew, born again to a new and living hope – eternal life in the kingdom of God, a life free of sin and all that would separate us from God.

We can be born again because of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

2. We are forgiven our sins

“If Christ has not been raised, your hope is futile and you are still in your sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:17

If Jesus died on the Cross thinking to Himself that it would pay for our sins, but then, He was not raised from the dead, His death would have only been the sad conclusion to a sad and misguided life.

But with the Resurrection, everything changes: the death of Jesus on the Cross is unlike any other death in history: it is the payment that gives us access to God the Father, it is makes us sons and daughters of God, it is peace with God, it is life so eternal that it is abundant and life so abundant that it is eternal. All because the death of Jesus is the payment for our sin and by it, we are forgiven.

 

3. We can receive the Holy Spirit

“This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear.” Acts 2:32–33

And we have the Holy Spirit in two fundamental ways:

The infilling of the Holy Spirit, received by all believers as the seal of our salvation. With this infilling comes guidance in the truth, guidance in life, conviction of sin, comfort, and more;

The baptism in the Holy Spirit, received after salvation by believers as they ask God. With the baptism in the Holy Spirit comes power to announce to the world our first-hand experience with the resurrected Christ.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living inside us. As followers of Jesus Christ, we can ask that we be immersed in Him so that He overflows through us to the world. This is only possible because Jesus was raised from the dead

 

4. We are no longer condemned by God.

“Therefore ,there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8.1

“Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Romans 8:34

Romans 8.34 asks just who it is who has the right to condemn me for my sins against God? The answer is simple and clear: Only one, Jesus Christ. There are two reasons.

It was against God that I sinned: Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit. God then has the right to condemn me for my sins;

It was because of my sins that Jesus had to die on the Cross as payment for my sins. Again, He has the right to condemn me.

BUT, the One who has the right to condemn me does not condemn me. Even more, the One who has cause to condemn me chose instead to die for me on the Cross, forever paying the price for my sins. And then He was raised from the dead to declare me justified before God.

Because of the Cross and the Resurrection, I am not condemned by God, but connected to Him.

Therefore, if the only one in the universe who has right to condemn me does not condemn me, “there is now no condemnation.” Not now. Not ever. None.

 

5. We have proof of coming righteous judgment.

“God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:31

How is this a blessing?

To know how this is a great blessing, simply look at the key words in the verse: God, judge, and righteousness.

Yes, because He is a righteous God, He will judge you, me, and the world. And He will do so in righteousness. Not by the arbitrary, prejudiced, or capricious standards of human beings, but by His perfect righteousness, that righteousness that expresses His perfect holiness and His perfect love.

Years ago, dear friends of ours suffered the terrible loss of their mother when they were young. That’s hard enough to deal with, but even more difficult was the fact that, though she was a follower of Jesus, she had taken her own life. Our friends struggled for a long time with what their mother’s act meant with regard to her own soul. They landed on solid ground when they read this righteous promise in the Word of God:

He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. Deuteronomy 32.4

Whatever our friends did not know, this they did know: God is a righteous judge who can be trusted.

The Cross and the Resurrection display God’s perfect righteousness to the world. It is a righteousness that is the expression of both His holiness and His love. And I can trust my life to it. My eternal life.

Christ’s resurrection from the dead is God’s assurance to you and me that His judgment of us when we face Him will not be arbitrary, prejudiced or capricious, but righteousness and true, just as He has described in His Word.

 

6. We have salvation from the future wrath of God.

“We wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 5:10

Because we have believed on Jesus the Christ, we are in Christ. Therefore, we do not live in terror of God’s judgment or the wrath He will pour out on the world at the Last Day.

We do not live in fear of the wrath to come, be it in the judgments of the Great Tribulation on earth or the eternal judgment that awaits those who have not responded to God’s invitation to salvation. This is true because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Resurrection of Jesus demonstrates conclusively that God is who He says He is, and so, when He says He will deliver us from the judgments to come, we know that He can and He will.

 

7. We know that we shall be raised from the dead in the life to come.

“We know that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.” 2 Corinthians 4:14; Romans 6:4; 8:11; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:20

Because God raised Jesus from the dead, we know that we know that He will raise us as well and usher us into His presence for eternity. In fact, when Jesus rose from the dead, He killed the killer: death is destroyed for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Thomas Watson said it this way: “We are more sure to arise out of our graves than out of our beds.”

So, tomorrow morning and every morning as you arise from your bed, let it remind you that it is simply practice for the rising of risings that is to come: the day you be raised in a new resurrection body to be with Jesus!

Because Jesus is risen from the dead, neither shall all or any one of these defeat you and me!

 

COMMENCEMENT

Because Jesus is raised from the dead, we know that He is who He said He is and He did what He said He came to do.

The Resurrection is the proof that Jesus is the Son of God, Savior of the World, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Eternal Judge and Ultimate Ruler of It all.

The Resurrection is the proof that Jesus accomplished what He said He came to the world to accomplish: His death on the Cross is the once-and-for-all payment for your sins and mine, giving us new life, removing all condemnation, giving us the Holy Spirit, protecting us from the future wrath of God on this world, and, at the last day, give us resurrection from the dead.

“The resurrection of Christ is the Amen of all His promises.” John Boys

And as II Corinthians reminds us, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us!”

 

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