Victory in Jesus part 3 | Easter Sunday
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Today is Easter—Resurrection Sunday!
We celebrate the Risen Lord who conquered death and sin through His death, burial, and Resurrection. It is the most important day of the year for the Christian calendar. It is because of the resurrection that we can be saved. In the passage we just read, Paul reminds us this Gospel is “of first importance.”
Without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is no victory over sin and death. There is no resurrection of those who have died. Life really is just a meaningless existence until the silence of death. But, if Jesus really has risen from the dead, then that makes all the difference in the world! Paul tells us in this passage to test and see that Jesus is risen. He gives a list of disciples and witnesses who saw the Risen Christ.
The Resurrection is not just a story. It is an historical reality that changed human history. God really has come to us. The Lord has visited this earth, brought healing and restoration, and one day He will return to complete the work that began 2000 years ago.
For the last couple of weeks, we have looked at how the Bible describes the work of Christ on the cross answering the question, “How does Jesus dying on a cross 2000 years ago save us today?”
To illustrate the various ways the Bible describes the Atonement, we’ve used this gemstone.
On the top is “Christ the Victor.” Christ has conquered death, sin, and Satan, and we are able to share in this victory because of the grace of God. How Jesus is victorious is described with the other faces of the gemstone.
Below, we have the other models of the Atonement as faces of the gem. In the last couple of weeks, we talked about Christ as Redeemer, Propitiation, and Expiation. Through the cross and resurrection, Jesus purchased us from the slavery to sin and Satan (Redeemer), paid our debt of death because of sin (propitiation), and made a cure for our sin disease (expiation).
Today, we will turn the gem some more to see the other ways in which Jesus has brought victory through the Resurrection. While the previous weeks have focused on what Jesus did, this week, we can look at why Jesus brings victory.
Christ our Reconciler
Why does Jesus come?
The answer goes back to the very beginning of the story. Creation exists for God’s pleasure and His desire for a people that will be His image and likeness. Sin’s corruption has not changed God’s plan. The Lord still desires a people to govern His Creation. His great love for His people compels Him to reconcile His people with Himself. Thus, the work of the devil to usurp control and destroy God’s work is itself destroyed by Jesus.
Jesus came to transform us from God’s rebels to God’s people.
Consider how Paul describes it:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
When we trust in Christ, we become a new creation. In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born again which happens through the Holy Spirit. This is what Paul means by a ‘new creation’. We are no longer our old sinful, corrupted selves, we are new creations—born again through faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit.
This is done so that we can be reconciled to God. Where our sin separates us from God, Christ brings us back into communion with God. This is why you hear Christians say things like, “It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship”. Christ makes it possible for us to know God and to have a relationship—to be in communion with Him. Where we were once enemies, now He calls us children. Paul urges his readers in verse 20, saying we are ambassadors for Christ, to be reconciled to God. God Himself is making this appeal through Paul—be reconciled through Christ.
The goal of the cross was for man to be reconciled to God.
Going back to the models of the Atonement we see:
Jesus made the payment for sin.
Jesus is the payment for sin.
Jesus made the cure for sin.
Jesus is the cure for sin.
The reason for this work is so that we can be in communion with the Lord. Now, there is one more aspect that needs to be addressed. There is a process that occurs by which we receive the grace of God who pays for and cures our sin. It is the Great Exchange.
Christ our Exchange
The New Covenant, as it is called, requires an exchange. Ancient covenants are much like modern contracts. Two parties are involved in which there is a mutual exchange. We have already seen God’s side of the covenant. He provides forgiveness, cleansing, and eternal life. So what do we bring to the covenant? Look again at 2 Corinthians 5:21.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
Jesus, who knew no sin, takes on our sin. We talked about this aspect with Propitiation. Where we deserve death because of sin’s curse and corruption, Jesus takes our place. Peter describes it this way:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1 Peter 2:24-25
Jesus bears our sins in his body on the cross, so that we can die to sin and live to righteousness. We are not left in vacuum to fill with more sin, God transfers the righteousness of Christ to us.
Though Christ never sinned, He took on our sin.
The covenant created in Christ is to turn back the curse from Adam. When Adam sinned, it introduced the corruption of sin into humanity that continues to today. Each person is born with a propensity to sin, because our very souls have been corrupted by sin’s curse. But just as one man brought condemnation to us, one man brings salvation.
We are made righteous by placing our faith in Christ’s death on the cross.
And now, having been reconciled to God through Christ, having exchanged our sin for Christ’s righteousness, we are given a new option for life. We are no longer bound to sin and its curse. We can live righteously as Christ lived. Let us take one more look at the Gem of the Atonement.
Christ our Example
This brings us to the final facet of the Atonement. Christ's death demonstrates God's love and is our model for obedience. This facet has found popularity among more liberal denominations because it places less focus on our sin and more on God's love. I do not dismiss this facet though, because it is in the New Testament. However, as we have seen, if we simply acknowledge Jesus as a great example and fail to see the fullness of the Atonement, we will miss out on our need to be forgiven. If we take 'Example' as the only meaning for the Atonement, then we will find ourselves in some works-based religion that says we just need to try harder to please God. That is where many have gone wrong in speaking of Christ as our example. However, their faults do not discredit that Jesus is our example for right living.
In fact, the positive side of this model is that it reinforces the demand the Gospel places on us. If the gospel we share is void of transformation and new life, it is not the whole gospel. We are transformed by Christ, not to continue life as usual, but to live under a higher, heavenly calling.
Let’s return to Paul in Romans:
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:6-11
I love this passage because we can see several models of the Atonement interplay with one another in how Paul describes the work of Christ. Look again, though, and ask ‘why?’. What drives God to send His Son and save us? It is in verse 8.
God demonstrated His great love for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I cannot fathom the love of God that would die for us...for me. We are like Gomer, Hosea’s wayward wife, and Israel—an adulterous people who constantly seem to find other things more important than our Creator. And yet, He still died for us so that we can be saved. And He still calls us to repentance time and time again so that we can experience the unsurpassed love He gives so freely.
The Atonement is the ultimate act of love.
Returning to 1 Peter, Peter again calls his readers to live godly lives in light of God's mercy. Even if we suffer for doing good, we should suffer graciously because this is the life Christ calls us to. He came and suffered for doing the good we needed to be saved. We can follow in His footsteps.
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
1 Peter 2:20-21
Christians are called to follow Jesus’ example in living and dying. We are called to put sin on the cross, killing it and removing it from our lives. We are called to live in union with God and fellowship with one another.
Because we are redeemed from sin and cleansed of sin, we can follow Jesus' example of godliness.
Putting our Faith in the Atonement
Taking a look at the diamond again, we see that Jesus accomplished a lot on the cross. We have been reconciled to God and freed from sin--both its judgments and its corruption.
But the cross is only effective for those who trust in faith. Salvation is a free gift of God, but it must be received in faith. How? It's like two sides of a coin. On one side is 'believe'. We must believe that Jesus is who He said He is, and that through His death and resurrection we can be saved. The other side is 'repent'. We must repent--turn away--from our sin and surrender to the Lordship of Christ. That is what the diamond is all about.
Salvation involves both belief and repentance.
We believe in Christ as propitiation, Christ as Exchange, and Christ as Reconciler.
We repent knowing Christ is our Redeemer, Christ is our Cure, and we follow Him knowing Christ is our Example.
Putting those together we receive Christ's Victory over Satan in faith and thus we have victory. We have Victory in Jesus, because He died on a cross for our sin, He arose again on the third day, and He is returning to make Heaven and Earth perfectly good once again. At that time, there will be no more mourning, no more dying, and every tear will be wiped away. Because at that time, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess what every Christian here already knows--Jesus is Lord. He is our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. By Him we are saved, and no other name.
Remember Matthew 16:24, "Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” To follow Jesus is to follow Him to the cross. It is a call to put to death the old self, and follow as a new creation.
Today, I urge you to believe and repent. Believe in the work of Jesus who died for your sins. No amount of work will ever get you into heaven. Jesus has accomplished what no other person can. Salvation is in His Name. Believe! And, repent! Repent from your sins. Turn away from the very things that are killing you. Be cleansed by the blood of Jesus who shed His blood so that you can be saved and purified.
I will close quoting from the great hymn by B.B. McKinney, “Wherever He Leads I’ll Go.”
‘Take up thy cross and follow Me,’
I heard my Master say;
‘I gave My life to ransom thee,
Surrender your all today.’
- B. B. McKinney (1936)