As I reflect on the Resurrection of Jesus our Lord and Savior, what stays with me is that Jesus was born to die, and He knew it. He didn’t just know it, but He chose it, on purpose. We know this because Jesus’ very words are recorded in John 10:18: No one can take My life from Me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what My Father has commanded.”
Jesus was not coerced into dying for my sins, for the sins of the world, but rather chose to, compelled by love as John 15:13 says There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
One of the most famous Bible verses is John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Love is what inspired our great redemption purchased by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Jesus came to die because God is a God of justice and sin must be punished. Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The reason why it is so important that Jesus, specifically, came to die is because Jesus was fully God and yet fully man. That means He and only He could lay down His life and then take it up again. Plainly speaking, He is the only One who could die for our sins, conquer sin and death and rise up again in victory to everlasting life.
If a regular human being had died, they would not be able to resurrect. You might ask well what about Lazarus, he resurrected. What about the boy that Elijah prayed for, he resurrected. What about Jairus’ daughter, she resurrected. What about the man whose dead body hit Elisha’s bones and came back to life, he resurrected. What about the son that Jesus met as his mother was going to bury him, he resurrected. Well, yes, it is true that they resurrected but they are not alive right now they eventually died again. Jesus, however rose to life eternal. The Bible tells us that He is alive forever more, seated at the right hand of God the Father. That is the difference. Romans 6:9: We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.
Jesus often referred to Himself as the son of man. He took pride in the human form He had taken on because He needed it to accomplish the work that He came to do. I’m so glad that He came to die for the sins of man because only He could have walked out of that grave!
The work Jesus came to do on earth is finished! He was successful because it is impossible for God to fail. Now that Jesus finished the work of dying on the cross as the once and for all sacrifice that was needed to permanently deliver us from the bondage of sin and death, He is seated at God’s right hand, still doing work on our behalf as He intercedes for us. Therefore, He is also able to save forever those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25) What a beautiful Savior!
Romans 8:34: “Christ Jesus Who died—more than that, Who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
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