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Death & Resurrection
(3rd
in a Series of the Death, Burial, Resurrection, &
Ascension of Jesus)
Everything good that we have today is because Jesus is
our redeemer. Every good and perfect gift comes from
above. (James 1:17) Anything good that comes to
us today is because of God’s redemption for us. If you
took all of those good things away, what would your life
look like? Imagine that there was no way to escape from
sin, from depression, from sickness. There would be no
escaping those things if Jesus had not redeemed us from
them.
God sent Jesus to take
our place. His death was our substitute for sin. He
paid a debt that we had no ability to pay. The best
description for the burial of Jesus is found in
Matthew 12:40. Jesus said: “For as Jonas was three
days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth.” Jesus himself said that he would spend
three days in the heart of the earth. The prophet
Isaiah told about this hundreds of years before Jesus
came to the earth.
“He was taken from
prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his
generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the
living: for the transgression of my people was he
stricken.
And he made his
grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his
death; because he had done no violence, neither was any
deceit in his mouth.”
Isaiah 53:8-9
This shows
us a clear picture of Jesus’ death and burial. He was
cut off from the land of the living, and He spent three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Why
was it necessary for Jesus to die and be buried? He
explained it in John 12:23. He said, “Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit.” As long as an acorn is
attached to a tree, it is alive and has no ability to do
anything but be an acorn. It has no ability to
reproduce itself. But when the acorn dies, falls from
the tree and is buried in the dirt, it then has the
ability to grow and produce other acorns. This is what
Jesus was saying here about Himself. As long as he was
on the earth, he could not reproduce Himself. But when
he died and was buried, he had the ability to rise up
and produce much fruit.
The scripture calls
Jesus the firstborn from the dead. (Colossians 1:18)
He died so that we would have power over death. Many
people don’t believe that Jesus died spiritually during
his death and burial. But really this can be answered
with a simple question: In order for Jesus to be the
complete substitute for man’s spiritual separation from
God, wouldn’t he have to suffer the same separation? To
illustrate this in another way, let’s say you had a ten
thousand dollar debt. What is the only thing that could
satisfy that debt? Only the amount you owed. So Jesus
had to pay what we owed, which was spiritual
death-separation from God. On the cross, this is why
Jesus asked, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
(Matthew 27:46)
It is not a mark
against Jesus’ deity to say that he had to suffer
spiritual death for our redemption. He did not suffer
and die with the intention of staying there. Jesus died
so that he could take from the devil the keys of death
and hell. (Revelation 1:18) Through death, He
was positioning Himself to be able to destroy death. He
did not go there to stay, but to take the power of death
and hell from the devil and be resurrected from the
dead. Now that same resurrection power is in us
today-just because of what He did for us. (Romans
8:11) It speaks of his love for us that he would
pay that price for us.
The death and burial
of Jesus should give us a picture of how much God loves
us. That part of the gospel is all about what He has
done for us. The resurrection and ascension are about
His power. In Acts 2, Peter is preaching about
the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. In Acts
2:36, he says, “Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same
Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Jesus was made both Lord and Christ. ‘Lord’
summarizes Jesus’ authority and power; ‘Christ’ means
messiah or savior. Most people only know
Jesus as savior. But Jesus is not just the savior from
our sins-He arose from the grave as our Lord. We submit
to Him as Lord of our lives.
“Beware lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the
traditions of men, after the rudiments of this world,
and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete
in him, which is the head of all principality and
power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen
with him through the faith of the operation of God,
who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead
in your sins and the uncircumcision of the flesh,
hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven
you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of
ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to
us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made
a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”
Colossians 2:8-15
What this
scripture is saying is that when you get saved, God puts
you in union with everything that Jesus did. Jesus’
victory was our victory. He used death to destroy him
who had the power of death. He made a triumph over
death, over all principalities and powers. He did not
leave hell just having paid a price for our sins; He
left hell having disarmed all the power hell had over
us. Romans 8:11 tells us that the same Spirit
that raised Him up from the dead lives in us.
Resurrection power was not limited to two thousand years
ago; it can reach us today. In Ephesians 1:19,
the Apostle Paul prayed that we might know the exceeding
greatness of His power toward us who believe, according
to the working of His mighty power which He worked in
Christ when He raised Him from the dead. He was praying
that we might know the power that was there on the day
Jesus was raised from the dead. Resurrection power was
not just limited to the day Jesus rose from the grave.
That same resurrection power is available to us now.
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