He is Risen

In just a couple days, it will be time for the greatest Christian celebration of the year, and I did promise my friend, I would go rabbit hunting, especially for the ones that cackle and lay chocolate eggs filled with goo.

In all seriousness, I will try to bring this Easter Celebration to this blog post.

He is risen, will be the theme in many churches across our nation, a great time to know you can be set free right now.  As I write on this Friday, over 2000 years ago, Jesus now felt the full weight of the sin of the world.  Then, came the overwhelming realization of the work he had come to complete and, which no other could complete; felt he the real abandonment of the father, cried in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?  Which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?

In the 19^th chapter of St. John, verse 30: “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “’it is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.

So what does “He is Risen” mean for the average Joe/Jane walking down the street just trying to make it through life, and after all the Atheists tell us something else.  The Jew didn’t believe it then, so what does it do for me now?  Is not Christianity an antiquated religion?  I will admit that because of Jesus and the Christian faith, life in this country has been somewhat better than the rest of the world.  I doubt if now is the time for me to get too excited about Jesus.  Nevertheless, it’s your blog post and I am just an imaginary person you’re having a conversation with.

What “He is Risen” means to mankind and the individual is, when God created all that was created, and without him nothing was created, he created man.  Now the Atheist, and the Darwinist will tell us that it was all just an accidental explosion, like a big bang happening in the universe, and over the millions or perhaps billions of years, a couple or so, little microscopic elements got together and started the most minusculee twitching and everything just evolved from there.  Perhaps that is a bit too simple, (that is why Atheists understand it so well), but evolution is what Charles Darwin used to explain what he otherwise could not!

Humankind?  God created humankind Holy, just like him, Holy and pure in his image, never doing anything fun, daring, or just plain stupid and boring, another misconception in the liberal atheist mindset and propaganda.  Nevertheless, seeing God is the sovereign God, we, his creation, would have some rules to live by, but there was only one rule, one law.  …  “DO NOT EAT OF THE TREE IN THE MIDST OF THE GARDEN”!  Only one rule, … for living an obedient, productive life.  …  They could not get it right.  That was called the ‘fall of mankind’ from the holiness of God, to the, here’s a word that Atheist hate, (SINFUL nature of humankind).  God demanded instant condemnation of his creation, and being a holy and just God, he had to condemn for sin; and he did, thousands of years he did, yet they could not get the whole thing about sin and rebellion against the will of God, as deserving no condemnation.  What we do is SIN, how we do it is SINFUL, therefore, we deserve death and eternity alienated from the presence of God, just in his grace and love!

Okay, so now because he is a God of a second chance, (truly the only real second chance), Jesus brings a covenant of grace to humankind.  The first covenant, was the covenant with Abram

(Abraham), and it would be based on faith and sacrifice.  BLOOD SACRIFICE, the blood of a ram or lamb, (in the Old Testament), without getting too technical about it, basically once a year the Hebrew (Jewish) children would gather and offer the blood of a ram for the atonement of sin, (there is that word again, sin is anything that separates a person from the undeserved favor of God).

So by the sin of one we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  We are guilty, and need some way to get us out of the tough spot we find ourselves.  Okay, what we would need would be an advocate, a lawyer to represent us at the bar of judgment.  In the case before us, we find the advocate, or lawyer, is actually called ‘the redeemer’, because he redeems, somebody who redeems somebody or something, especially somebody who rescues another.  A blood sacrifice of a ‘spotless’ lamb, the only qualifier in the running was prophesized, (“ For unto us a child is born.  Unto us, a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Is. 9:6)).

A spotless paschal lamb, a blood sacrifice for the sin of the world. (humankind’s individual sin, and the original sin), and accomplished by the Grace (unwarranted love or favor of God), through faith in Jesus Christ!

Jesus is that redeemer, who is called the ‘Savior’ saving souls from the eternal separation from God.  …  Therefore, my imaginary friend, it is now time to ask whom Jesus is.  I only prompt this question because the name Jesus is not that popular any longer.  For over 2000 years it has not been popular, the world hated him and his own knew him not.  He was persecuted from infancy, but reminds us that he is the one who told us the world would persecute and hate us, because they hated him first.

Jesus is God.  The second person of the trinity, the person of the trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost)  three separate personalities, or three separate persons.  Christians and Jews have a monotheistic belief system, different, but there is only one God.  But of course the Muslims believe in the same God.  Just different belief systems, Christians believe in an incarnate God who came to save the world from the bondage of sin.

I do not expect a ‘so called Atheist’ to even start to understand the truth of God, because without the Spirit, they understand nothing, about spiritual truth.  So to me they only present ignorant rhetoric; God calls this truism as a clouded or darkened understanding.  I call it a personal hate problem, and don’t consider the emptiness of their actual refusal of their own stupidity.  Maybe it is the cowardice of facing ownership to sin!

Okay, before I become totally sidetracked by Atheists, let us continue.  We have the fall of humanity from the undeserved favor of God.  That is sin and the wage for, (payment), sin brings about death, spiritual death.  When the fall happened to mankind, physical death was introduced.  Physical death is something that we will never escape, it will happen.  It is therefore of grave importance that I settle the SIN problem with God, and I am justified before his throne.  Being justified in Jesus, simply means, by the blood atonement wrought by Jesus, I have right of passage into the Kingdom of God, and to be in his presence for eternity or hereafter – forever – time without end.

The resurrection, when on the dawning of the first day of the week, (Sunday), the first day after the Sabbath, the women, and disciples visited the tomb and the large stone had been rolled away,

When they bowed down to peer in, they were told that Jesus had risen, he no longer was in the grave.  An inquiry from one woman follower, to whom she thought to be a gardener, brought such a loving compassionate answer, “ woman why do you seek the living among the dead?”

The resurrection of Jesus, was preformed through God’s  power, the Holy Ghost, God’s power; no third person, and it freed mankind from the bonds of death, there is no sting to death, there is no victory of death and the tomb.  The victory is ours over death and the tomb.  Jesus’ victory became a seal as well as a sign that the work of Jesus was finished.  His work of redemption, has justified the believer and redeemed the believer to God for eternity; the resurrection sealed that issue through the Holy Ghost.

I thank my imaginary friend for listening, (even though they may not have exercised that portion of faith that he/she has within ‘that they may first believe’), that is what Easter is all about, and that is what it could mean to you.

I refrained from quoting scripture verse by verse, especially for those who do not believe, if they wish, (and I hope they do), they need to get a Bible, and read the account of the suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, for themselves, —  make sure I am on track.

I celebrate Easter, because I know that I know, that I know, that Jesus has risen!  Therefore, I celebrate it as a high Christian celebration, and even enjoy a hardboiled egg with the children. (1Co. 9: 19 – 22)

God Bless…  Rev. R.S. Helms