God's Final Word... Not Death, But Life!

Walter Martin said, “Science says if there is any such thing as infallible proof, it is the repetition of the same experiment. Jesus rose from the dead, and

     Mary Magdalene encountered him—experiment one.

     The women encountered him—experiment two.

     The disciples encountered him—experiment three.

     The apostles encountered him—experiment four.

     Five hundred people saw him after the Resurrection—experiment five.

“Each one of these is the repetition of the same experiment. They all encountered the same phenomenon. What was it? He was alive! That's what changed the history of the world.”

(“Proof of the Resurrection,” More Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion, Compiled by the editors of PreachingToday.com, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois, 2003, 240)

These witnesses had first experienced the cross. They were there when Jesus was crucified. They all knew well the fact of His burial by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Now they had all experienced His appearing after the resurrection!

The cross and the resurrection. Two sides of the same coin. Without both, the coin would not be whole or complete. Together, they give us victory over sin, along with the power to live as Jesus lived.

The cross: Jesus laid down His life for you. What a great truth! Jesus did for you, what you could never have done for yourself. He paid the penalty for your sin, to buy your pardon and give you eternal life.

Picture yourself at the garden of Gethsemane. After the last supper, you had followed Jesus and His disciples, curious as to what was happening. What a great week! From the triumphal entry into Jerusalem like a king, right up to this very moment. But suddenly things changed.

Judas arrived with the chief priests and Pharisees, along with a detachment of Roman soldiers. Jesus left the garden a man under arrest! “He was on His way to be falsely accused, falsely tried, falsely convicted and wrongly executed.” (Henry Blackaby, Experiencing the Cross, Multnomah Publishers, Sisters, Oregon, 2005, 53)

Yet, Jesus did not resist. He went willingly! While He was being tried, He remained strangely quiet. He refused to come to His own defense. Isaiah prophesied of just such a happening surrounding the Christ: “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

Why did Jesus not respond? We find the answer when we look at this scene from God’s perspective. Henry Blackaby points out that “Jesus sought approval from One and One only: His Father in heaven. And He knew that before God, He was absolutely innocent. So why bother discussing or defending it with men? Why waste words? Why play their game? As long as God knows—that’s enough.” (Ibid., 54)

Jesus remained silent because He was confident in His relationship with the Father. He knew that everything He went through was the Father’s will. He knew the Scriptures and He lived by what it said. Do you do the same? Do you know the Scriptures and do you live by what it says?

Jesus grasped the full meaning and the promise of Scripture. He knew that His death was necessary. But He also knew that death, even the death of the cross, wasn’t the end of the story. He knew His horrible death would be followed by the glory of His promised resurrection and the final fulfillment of God’s plan and purpose for man’s redemption. Hebrews 12:2 says it was “for the joy that was set before Him” that He “endured the cross.”

Jesus said, “I lay down My life… no one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself” (John 10:17a, 18a). And He adds in verse 18b: “I have power to lay it down.” Jesus willingly went to the cross and, though He knew no sin, He took your sin upon Himself so that you might live—that you might have life abundant and life eternal in His name and by His power.

The resurrection: Jesus rose again from the dead for you. He completed the task of providing for your salvation by rising from the dead, defeating even death itself, to give you life in His name, eternal life in the heavenly kingdom with Him.

Pay special attention to the rest of John 10:17-18. Jesus said, “I lay down My life that I may take it again” (v. 17b). “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (v. 18b). The cross and the resurrection are always connected. They always go together like two sides of a coin. This is true in God’s plan and purpose, and it must be a truth we never let go of. Always think of the cross and the resurrection together, because there is no victory without the resurrection of Christ. If there was no resurrection, it would mean that Satan won, because the cross would have defeated the purposes of God. There would be no salvation.

But we know the truth! On the cross, Jesus bore the sin of the world. He took your sin and my sin upon Himself, upon His body, and died for our forgiveness. He paid the penalty for us. But it wasn’t until three days later, when He rose bodily from the dead, that God’s plan of salvation was complete. The cross and the resurrection. Jesus had paid the penalty for our sin on the cross, and the resurrection proved that God had accepted the sacrifice. Sin had been dealt a decisive blow, and the evidence of that fact was the risen, living body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The resurrection brought it all together and was the final fulfillment of the redemptive purpose of God. That is why the major theme of the apostles’ preaching in the book of Acts in the early days of the church, was not the crucifixion of Christ, but the resurrection. Oh, the crucifixion was certainly a part of their preaching. It was one side of the coin. It was necessary for our salvation. But the resurrection was the focal point, because it made everything complete. Without it there was no salvation. At Pentecost Peter preached to the crowds, “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2:32).

The cross was the beginning of our Lord’s provision of salvation, while the resurrection was the conclusion. The cross was not the end, but a necessary means to the end. The resurrection is God’s final word… not death, but life!

Early on, Jesus understood the connection between the cross and the resurrection. In John 2:18, the Jewish leaders protested Jesus’ first cleansing of the Temple and asked for a sign. Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (v. 19). The Jews didn’t understand (v. 20), but John goes on to explain, “He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said” (vs. 21-22).

Let the chorus ring out: He is risen! Everyone join with me in proclaiming: He is risen! Amen.