Easter Morning!

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” (Matthew 28:1-7 ESV).

The shout in many of our churches today will be, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” The question then is: What is the implication for us of the stunning claims and reality of Easter? Above all, we must say that the resurrection vindicates Good Friday and Jesus’ death. His death really did cover the sins of his people. And, it means our sins are forgiven (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:17). His death really did cover the sins of his people. It really did provide a perfect righteousness for us. The Apostle Paul says he “was delivered up,” that is, to the cross “for of our trespasses and raised for our justification” (cf. Romans 4:25), meaning that just as our sin brought him to the cross, the finished work of taking care of our sins brought him out of the grave. So, practically speaking, one thing you could say of Easter is that every day, the promises of God to me to help me every minute of my life are secured by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because the resurrection vindicates the cross when those promises were bought for me. And, then, because of Easter we also know that Jesus is going to give me a body like his resurrected body (cf. Philippians 3:20). When I die, and I am raised from the dead, Christ will give me a body like his glorious body. So Jesus’ risen body is a forerunner, it is the first fruit, it is a kind of paradigm of the way all of his people are going to have new bodies. And then, as if that were not great enough, the Apostle Paul says that “when the freedom of the glory of the children of God” comes to pass and they are raised from the dead and given glorified bodies, the whole creation gets made over as a suitable galactic playground for those of us who have been given bodies that will never sin again, will never get sick again, all tears wiped away (cf. Romans 8:21). The implications of Easter are simply staggering. They are personally precious for every day’s life of struggle, and they are globally precious because the resurrection guarantees that this whole created order is going to be made new. He IS risen! He is risen indeed!