HALLELUJAH! CHRIST AROSE!

“Father, if you are willing,

please take this cup

of suffering away from me.

Yet I want your will to be done,

not mine.”

Luke 22:42 NLT

~~~~~

When we read about early Christian martyrs being tortured for their faith in Christ, amazingly some of them sang praises to God and some even welcomed the flames that killed them. They wholeheartedly believed what Paul wrote, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Death held no fear for them. They knew Christ’s death assured them eternal life. Jesus taught, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. (physical death) Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. (spiritual death – eternal separation from God.) As born again believers we can confidently face physical death because our Lord has suffered the spiritual death we deserve.

As Jesus approached the time of His crucifixion He said, “Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came! Father, bring glory to your name.” The night He was betrayed He prayed in Gethsemane “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.

Jesus struggled so profoundly at the thought of dying for our sins because it meant complete separation from His heavenly Father. It meant the fellowship - peace - joy - glory and fulfillment which He had enjoyed with His Father from all eternity would be cut off. He would be in utter darkness, completely removed from all light. No wonder Jesus cried out from the cross, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? In absolute darkness – totally separated from His Father - He suffered the hell our sins deserve.

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. The Father was completely satisfied with the sacrifice of His sinless Son so on the third day after His death, having fully paid for our sins on the cross, He raised Him from the dead.

“Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!”
-- Robert Lowry

Listen to  RESURRECTION  - Guy Penrod