Unstoppable
Death in vain forbids Him rise,...Christ hath opened Paradise,...
--Charles Wesley, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today"
Perhaps the greater mystery than that the Son would rise is that the Son could die. He prophetically explained His sovereignty over both events in John 10: 17, 18: "...I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again..." So absolute is the Son's power over death that the apostle Peter, in his famous sermon on the Day of Pentecost, proclaims that it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Christ (Acts 2:24).
Jesus' resurrection, while it astounded earth, was expected and anticipated by heaven. Luke records that the angels at the tomb on Resurrection Morning asked the Lord's followers, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." (Luke 24: 5-7). The event could not be stopped; death had no power to hold Jesus Christ in the grave. The One Who called Himself "the Resurrection and the Life" in John 11:25 could not be bound to the tomb nor imprisoned by its walls. All the stones on earth and all the soldiers in the Roman army could not stop the Son of God from coming forth.
And, as the apostle Paul points out in Romans 8: 11, "...if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
And this is very good news.
--Charles Wesley, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today"
Perhaps the greater mystery than that the Son would rise is that the Son could die. He prophetically explained His sovereignty over both events in John 10: 17, 18: "...I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again..." So absolute is the Son's power over death that the apostle Peter, in his famous sermon on the Day of Pentecost, proclaims that it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Christ (Acts 2:24).
Jesus' resurrection, while it astounded earth, was expected and anticipated by heaven. Luke records that the angels at the tomb on Resurrection Morning asked the Lord's followers, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." (Luke 24: 5-7). The event could not be stopped; death had no power to hold Jesus Christ in the grave. The One Who called Himself "the Resurrection and the Life" in John 11:25 could not be bound to the tomb nor imprisoned by its walls. All the stones on earth and all the soldiers in the Roman army could not stop the Son of God from coming forth.
And, as the apostle Paul points out in Romans 8: 11, "...if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
And this is very good news.
posted by herewegoagain at 7:53 PM
2 comments
