A ROLLING STONE

Mark 16:6 “"Don't be alarmed," he said.”You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.”

The world has heard many important messages, learned many great truths and experienced many dramatic and life-changing events. But none of them can come close to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Indeed this is the heart of the Christian faith and nothing in the history of the world can match the significance of Jesus being raised from the dead because when Jesus rose from the dead, He proved that He was exactly who He claimed to be and had accomplished what He came to accomplish. His resurrection confirmed that death is not the end for the believer but a through road to eternity. This has been the hope of God’s people throughout history and it is a hope that depends on the resurrection of Jesus Christ because His resurrection guarantees our resurrection. The resurrection may be denied, it may be despised, it may be mocked, men may make an effort to explain it, to give some rational arguments to explain the phenomena, but it is the only hope of life after death, the only hope of eternal salvation, the only hope of being with God in glory forever. Without the resurrection of Christ there would have been no gospel and the cross would have been totally unnecessary. But the Lord has truly risen.

This is the reason why the Gospels do not end with Jesus’ death and burial. Instead of ending with despair and heartbreak they end with joy and the hope of a new life. Jesus Christ “was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”. Before the resurrection, Christ had appeared before two human courts, the religious court of the Jewish Council and the secular court of the Roman Governor. Both these courts rejected his claim to be the Son of God and condemned him to death. Furthermore, both these courts had united to prevent any breaking open of his grave. The tomb was made secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting a Roman guard at the site. The seal of the Roman emperor had all the power and authority of Rome behind it and a Roman guard consisted of a sixteen-man security unit of well-trained soldiers. In spite of these precautions on the third day the seal was broken, the soldiers were completely paralyzed and Christ rose from the tomb.

By this act God reversed the decisions of the Jewish council and the Roman Governor and publicly declared that the claim of Christ to be the sinless Son of God was true. The resurrection confirms that every promise of God is true. If all that he said about his death and resurrection were fulfilled, then his other promises had to be true and would also be fulfilled. The resurrection confirms God’s offer of forgiveness and salvation to every repentant sinner who puts his faith in Christ as “He was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25).

Our justification depends on the resurrection of Christ for had Christ remained on the cross, or in the grave, God’s promise to the sinner of salvation and eternal life would also not be fulfilled. If Christ is not risen from the dead, then he has no power to pardon or save us. But if he is risen, then this is proof of his power to pardon and save. It is only the risen Christ, received and confessed by faith, who brings to the sinner pardon, peace, eternal life and victory over sin. We celebrate a stone that rolled away. We celebrate a risen savior. Because he is alive – we live.