24 This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
- Psalm 118:24, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.
Dear Friends in our Risen Lord Jesus Christ,
Like Christmas, for Christians Easter has a number of different facets. First and foremost are the grand and glorious spiritual implications it has for all of us, which we’ll be considering in just a minute. But Easter is also one of those benchmarks by which we measure the passing of time...
So, what has gone on in your life since last Easter? How has your life changed?
Maybe this has been a year of loss for you. Maybe – either expectedly or unexpectedly – you found yourself at the grave of a loved one. If that is the case, take heart. Because this day is for you.
Or maybe your life, which at this time last year seemed so ordered, so on track, has in some way been derailed. Maybe it’s the loss of a job, or an opportunity, or a change in a relationship, or a change in your or a loved one’s health, or you-fill-in-the-blank. But whatever the case, life isn’t quite the same and doesn’t hold the certainty it once did. If that is the case, take heart. Because this day is for you.
Or maybe nothing noteworthy at all has happened. Maybe life has been a veritable flat line from last Easter till today. Yet, because of world events, you have been made very much aware of just how quickly things can change, and you find yourself wondering if and when the shoe may drop in your life. If that is the case, take heart. Because this day is for you.
This day is, of course, Easter. And this day changes everything. This day makes everything right. This day puts everything into perspective. This day, as we apply it to our lives, brings only joy and healing and happiness. Because, in the words of the Psalmist:
THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE
Today we celebrate the Risen Christ and we joyously commemorate everything the resurrection says to us about life. But truth be told, if not literally, figuratively the smell of death was also in the air on that first Easter. When Jesus burst forth from the tomb, he left some casualties in his wake. Because Jesus lives, some other things died. In fact, we might say that a double funeral also took place that glorious morning...
First, there was a funeral for sin. Easter marks the death of sin. Not of its presence in our life and this world, because that will be with us until the Risen Christ returns. But of its power to condemn us eternally. As a condemning force in our lives, the empty tomb means the death of sin...
Perhaps the most familiar passage in 1 Corinthians 15, the
great resurrection chapter of the Bible penned by the Apostle Paul through the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is this triumphant statement: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power
of sin is the law. But thanks be
to God! He gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We could put it this way. When we don’t keep God’s law (His commands and demands summarized for us in the Ten Commandments), we sin. And when we sin, we fall under God’s righteous decree that “the soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:4) – and we are talking about eternal death. So sin, deriving its power to condemn from the law, is a force – a deadly force – in our lives...
But not any more. Sin as a power to condemn us eternally was not just neutralized, but completely obliterated on Easter. We have victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Law which gives sin its power was kept perfectly and completely by Jesus. The sin that condemns us was overcome by Jesus’ sinlessness as our substitute. The death our sin deserves Jesus took upon Himself on the cross. This was the plan God had set in place for our salvation. This was the mission of redemption that Jesus came to do...
How do we know that Jesus did all these things satisfactorily? How do we know that “the strife is o’er, the battle is won?” The empty tomb. The Risen Christ. Paul says in Romans 4: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (forgiveness). The resurrection of Christ is the testimony that his mission was accomplished. Which means our sins no longer condemn us, because our sins have been forgiven.
The most fitting illustration of all this that I’ve ever encountered comes from that classic of Christian literature, “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” The main character – the “pilgrim” who is making his way from earth to heaven – is named Christian. As he begins his journey he is deeply troubled by his sin and guilt before a holy God, which is symbolized by a large, heavy sack that he carries on his back...
Along the way he asks a man named Evangelist if he knows where he can find some relief from his burden. Evangelist points him to a hill in the distance where three crosses can be seen. Christian begins the uphill climb, still reeling under the weight of his sin.
As he approaches the center cross, a most amazing thing happens. Involuntarily Christian’s heavy load falls off his back, rolls down the hill and is swallowed up by an open and empty tomb.
We get the picture. We
have been freed from our sins by the cross, and they are now dead and buried
in the empty tomb of Christ. Sin as a
condemning force in our lives is dead, because this is the day – Easter – the
Lord has made.
However, not only does Jesus’ resurrection mark the death of sin, it also marks the death of death. That’s the second funeral that took place on Easter...
Sometimes people indelicately refer to those who have passed
away as being “dead and gone.” Easter
does not allow us to apply that phrase to Christians. Christians are never dead and gone. Christians, because of the atoning work of Christ
proven by his resurrection, will never die. It’s just as Jesus said in John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though
he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
In one of his sonnets the English poet John Donne wrote: “One short sleep past, we wake eternal, and death shall be no more. Death, thou shalt die!” And that’s exactly what happened on Easter. Death died. Now, for us, it is but the gate to eternal life – and for all our loved ones who died in Christ, whom we will one day see again... Jesus put it simply: “Because I live, you also will live.” And the glorious message of Easter is that he lives.
Indeed, this is the day the Lord has made – a day of blessed finality for the power of sin and the fear of death. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
But Easter is also a day of blessed assurance for us in the present as well.
The Gospels tell us that early on that first Easter dawn when
the women went to the tomb they were not met by a three day old corpse in the
beginning stages of decay. No, they were
met by angels who told them that “He is not here, He is risen, just as He said.”
Think of the significance of those four words and the application it has for us today. Jesus predicted – several times – that he would die, and then rise from the dead. Well, to make a long story short, on Good Friday he died. On Easter Sunday he rose. Both events happened “just as he said.” Does it not stand to reason that if Jesus Christ can make good on the promise of his own resurrection, he can make good on every other one as well? The empty tomb is our blessed assurance of Christ’s reliability in all his words and promises to us...
So when we are tired and worn out by the ups and downs of life
or feeling overwhelmed, we can believe him when he says: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.”
When we feel the pain of loneliness or sting of rejection,
we can believe him when he says: Others
may, “but
I will never leave you or forsake you... I have summoned you by name, you are
mine. When you pass through the waters
I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep
over you. When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of
When we are struggling because things aren’t turning out exactly the way we had hoped or planned, we can believe him when he says that whatever we don’t have is really inconsequential, because if we have Jesus, we have everything, and that he will provide for our every need...
How can we be sure of these claims and promises? Look at the tomb. It’s empty. “Just as he said.” And the empty tomb is all the evidence for Christ’s reliability that we need.
And so we go boldly forth into the future with the sure confidence and blessed assurance that
He lives to silence all my fears
He lives to wipe away my tears
He lives to calm my troubled heart
He lives all blessings to impart.
He lives and grants me daily breath
He lives and I shall conquer death
He lives my mansion to prepare
He lives to bring me safely there.
All of which is to say that whatever our circumstances may be now or in the future, this is our day. This is the day that puts everything into perspective. This is the day on which everything is made right.
This is the day on which sin was rendered powerless to condemn us...
This is the day on which death died...
This is the day on which past promises were kept and future promises are guaranteed...
“This is the day the
Lord has made,” so... “let us rejoice
and be glad in it.” Because Christ
is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia. Amen.