The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus
Christ
In my previous
posts on the Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Chris, I tried to lay the foundation
for understanding why this season is so important to Christians. The tremendous sacrifice made by the Lord Jesus
accomplished what only God could do. He took upon His body the sins and their
consequences for all mankind, resulting in His horrific suffering, the shedding
of His holy blood, and ultimately His death.
In review
and retrospect, I failed to address two major points. The first point relates to an event that took
place some distance from the site of the Crucifixion. At the end of the three hours of darkness,
when the Lord Jesus dismissed His spirit, the thick, heavy veil (curtain) that separated
the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies in Israel’s Temple was “rent” / torn in
half from top to bottom. (Matthew 27: 51, Mark 15: 38, Luke 23: 45). This was significant because only a
supernatural force could have done that. Further, it signified the removal of
the barrier to direct communication between man and God. With the veil in place, only Israel’s Chief
Priest could enter the Holy of Holies to atone for sin, and even then, only
once a year. (Hebrews 9: 1-7). No longer would God require that man approach
Him through an intermediary / priest.
My other
omission was also very significant. The
Gospel of Grace that leads to man’s salvation, which our Ascended Lord Jesus
taught to the Apostle Paul, has three major components. Through faith, we are
to believe that: 1) Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He died to atone for the
sins of mankind; 2) He was buried; and 3) He was raised / resurrected from the
dead on the third day. (1 Corinthians 15: 1-4, Romans 10: 9-13) The prior posts focused on the Lord’s
Crucifixion that resulted in His death, addressing the first part of the
Gospel.
As we move
to the discussion of the Resurrection, keep in mind that even as with Adam, our
Lord Jesus was born of a woman as soul with a spirit placed in a human body.
(Genesis 1: 27, 2: 7, Matthew 1: 18-23, Luke 1: 26-35, 2: 4-7, John 1:14, Galatians
4: 4) He allowed the death of His physical body, but not His soul/spirit. (Matthew
27:50, Mark 15:37, Luke 23:46, John 19: 30). The distinction between the death
of the Lord’s body and His soul/spirit must be fully appreciated to follow the
events related to His Resurrection. Further, this distinction helps clarify for
us as believers in the Gospel, how those events have shaped our own futures.
Remember from our earlier Bible study, there
were certain factors that were necessary to fulfill God’s requirements for man’s
salvation / redemption:
· The human body of all people (including
that of the Lord Jesus) had to die because of Adam’s original sin. (Genesis 2:
16-17, Romans 5: 12);
· The life of the flesh is in the blood,
and it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul that has sinned. (Leviticus
17: 11). In fact, without the shedding of blood there is no remission /
forgiveness of sin. (Hebrews 9: 22);
· The blood of animal sacrifices provided
temporary coverage of Israel’s sins, but for man to be permanently restored to righteousness
in the eyes of God, his sin debt had to be paid directly into the Holy Place in
God’s Heaven. Only the Lord Jesus, the
Son of God, could offer His own holy, sinless blood to accomplish that. (Hebrews
Chapter Nine);
· Of all the people who had lived and
died before the incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus, some untold number had
obtained righteousness in God’s eyes. That
group included even the Patriarch Abraham. (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Luke 16:
19-31) However, by definition, the necessary blood offering in Heaven had not
been made on their behalf. That permanent atonement for their sins had to be
made to be redeem / restore them to their Creator, even as we also needed today.
(Luke 16: 19-31, 23: 39-43);
· The Lord Jesus had noted during His
earthly ministry that the souls/spirits of those who had died earlier were in
Hades / Hell. Dependent upon their earthly deeds / beliefs, they were either
there in the Paradise side or in the other side, the place of torment. Both
sides were awaiting their ultimate destination and their eternal bodies, even
as we do today. (Luke 16: 19-31, 1 Corinthians Chapter 15, 1 Thessalonians 4:
13-17, Revelation Chapters 20 - 22); and.
· There had to be proof / evidence that
the Enemy and death had been defeated.
The Bible
records that all these factors were met, and fulfilled God’s requirements,
demonstrating His Love, Justice, Righteousness, Mercy and Grace towards
mankind.
As noted earlier,
the Lord’s Crucifixion ended when He said: “Father, into thy hands I commend my
spirit:”, and then He dismissed His spirit and allowed His body to die. (Luke
23: 46). After His body was secured from
the Roman officials, it was prepared for burial and placed in a tomb where it
lay for “three days and three nights”, as the Lord had prophesied. That burial
of His body met the second part of the Gospel we are to believe, as noted
above. But as the scripture notes, His
spirit / soul did not rest in that tomb but went into the heart of the earth.
(Matthew 12: 40)
Note the bullet
above that refers to the abode in Hades / Hell where the souls / spirits of
those who had died earlier resided. At
some time during the three days and three nights, The Lord Jesus’ spirit / soul
went there to prepare those who would soon be relocated / carried with Him to Paradise
in Heaven.
During that
period of three days and three nights the Lord Jesus accomplished two other important
tasks. He collected some of His own shed
blood, that He would present at the Holy Place in Heaven to atone for the sins
of mankind. (Hebrews Chapter Nine) As a second task, He had to fashion His new
human-type body, composed of flesh and bone…without blood, capable of overcoming
the limitations of time, space, gravity and other earthly forces. (Luke 24:
36-46) The evidence of those actions would be shown later in the scripture.
As you
consider these several events and actions, remember that they took place after
the Lord’s crucifixion and death. They were hidden from the eyes of man, and done
prior to and in preparation for what we now call “His Resurrection”. There
might be other occurrences that also have been hidden. [Remember that an important
Bible verse informed us that God keeps things secret / hidden until He is ready
to reveal them to us, but when He does reveal them, we are to believe and accept
them. (Deuteronomy 29:29)
My next post
on the subject of “The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Part Two)”, will
look at the more commonly appreciated description of the events associated with
that title.
In the
meantime, I thought you might find interesting a website that I found during my
research for writing this post. It is titled:
Messianic Prophecies
from the Old Testament:
Dr. W.A.
Robinson
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