Resurrection
Sunday. It is early. I am still. Lord, what do I say? We celebrate Easter with
bunnies, baskets, hidden eggs, and squeals of delight, while an empty tomb
beckons. An empty tomb. One day a dead body. The next, only burial clothes. One
day a fortified cell. Defeat. The next, a symbol of hope. One day the finality
of man’s worst punishment. The next, the finality of God’s eternal deliverance.
What
is here for me at the mouth of the empty tomb? The resurrected life. Alive in
Christ, having died in Him. God shows me: Selfishness cannot live in the face
of sacrifice. The dying to self of the crucified life is absolutely necessary
for the glory of a resurrected life. What may appear to be a checklist of good
works (see Thursday’s blog, “The Crucified Life: Dying to Self”) is but the
natural result of a crucified self. But there is nothing natural about it. Not
when God sums up the condition of man’s heart as “deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked” (Job 17:9). We can honestly say we were born that way.
For that, Jesus died. Brutally. Innocently. Without sin. For what we deserve.
To pay the eternal penalty we owe for our sin. Every one of us. No exceptions.
Jesus’ shed blood is the only verdict that will stand in the heavenly court of
law when we stand before a holy God. To put our faith in Jesus as the only
source of our salvation, to be saved by grace through faith and nothing else,
is to die to self and be raised in new life in Christ. Just like He was.
Resurrected from death to eternal life. Yes, eternal life in heaven when we are
saved. Guaranteed. Because of one man’s sacrifice. The Son of God.
How
do we not see? How do we not fall on our faces in joy and sorrow? How do we not
rejoice? How do we not receive the free gift He offers? How do we not respond
with the one simple requirement: faith. In Him, and Him alone. How do we not
love Him because of His great love for us?
The
empty tomb awaits. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become
new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Where once our tomb was a place of hopelessness, uncertainty,
death, and bondage, in Christ, it is now empty.
Do
you see it? When we place our faith in the resurrected Christ, all things are
made new. Where there was once sin and destruction, there is now an empty tomb.
A place of hope. A new life. In Christ. Where alcoholism once sealed us in our
tomb, it is now empty. We are raised to new life in Christ. Where sexual
immorality once sealed us in our tomb, it is now empty. Only grave clothes. We
are raised to a new life in Christ. That old self is no longer there. Where
anger and strife once sealed us in our tomb, it is now empty. We are raised to
a new life in Christ. Where ambition
once sealed us in our tomb, it is now empty. Jealousy, envy, and discontentment?
Only grave clothes. Eating disorder? Only grave clothes. Hurt, brokenness,
unforgiveness, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, broken marriage,
broken home, drugs, stealing, murder, homosexuality, hatred, judgment, gossip,
unkindness, selfishness, self-seeking, pornography, impure thoughts, vulgar
language, coarse jesting? Yes, grave clothes!
In
the emptiness of the tomb we find the sobering uselessness all our pursuits for
a substitute. The uselessness of the counterfeits Satan offers to distract us
from true salvation. True deliverance. True joy. True security. We find that
Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). And as He continues in
that verse, “No man comes to the Father but through me.”
Will
you come to Jesus? Maybe for the first time. Perhaps, like me, for the fifty
millionth time. To find forgiveness. To find peace. To find hope. To find the
crumpled up burial clothes of a life once eternally condemned. To find an empty
tomb because you’ve been raised up in Christ to a new life where all things are
made new.
Are
there burial clothes you need to find
crumpled on the bed of your heart? Sins you need to confess? Bondage from which
you need to be set free? When you go to the empty tomb, do you find yourself
wearing your burial clothes again? Jesus died for it all. He secured victory,
once and for all. The sins we’ve committed, are committing, and will commit. It
is all on Him. It is only on us to come. And to return. Romans 8:1 assures us, “There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not
walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” We must take
responsibility, but condemnation is not ours. Not in Christ.
Thank you, merciful, gracious,
heavenly Father for the gift of Your Son. The sacrifice. The empty tomb. The
hope. The forgiveness of our sins. Forgive us now, Lord, for the sins we have
committed, are committing, and will commit. We stand at the mouth of Jesus’
empty tomb and rejoice. Death is defeated. Eternal life a guarantee for those
who put their trust in Jesus. Jesus, we place our faith in You and You alone.
Thank you, Lord, for sending the Holy Spirit as our helper. We ask for help now
to take responsibility for our obedience. Responsibility to come and to return.
May we find grave clothes crumpled in the tombs of our hearts every day as we
become more wholly Yours.
Shauna Wallace
Holy His
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