About 4,000 years after Creation, Jesus was born, fulfilling dozens of Hebraic prophecies throughout his life. Since He was completely man and completely God, He was able to live the life we had been designed to live–perfect and intimate fellowship with His Father, performing miracles and walking as a man without sin. His words and actions infuriated the religious rulers who were so bound up in their rules and traditions that they missed God’s purpose of loving people. Jesus was wrongly arrested, unlawfully tried, and manipulatively sentenced to crucifixion. This, too, was prophesied and was the purpose for the Son of God to come to earth as a man. Because He was innocent, He could be the consummate and final sacrificial death and perfect lamb to “take away the sins of the world”.
The Hebrews had lived with a sacrificial system for millennia; yet that set of rituals and traditions never changed the DNA of the heart and the dead spirit. Individuals and the nation were unable to hold fast to God’s ways, although a few individuals continued to serve God after they repented of their sins. God promised through the prophets that, one day, He would write His laws on man’s heart and put His Spirit back inside humans. This would be the only way they could respond to God’s love and invitation to true life.
Jesus spoke about this before He died: humans needed a new birth from the Spirit of God and required the very life of Christ and His Spirit within them. These gifts would be given after Jesus accomplished His purpose of dying on behalf of each of us and forgiving all of our sins.
While Jesus was on the cross, many remarkable things happened. A thief next to Him asked to be remembered in His Kingdom. Jesus responded: this very day, the man would be in Paradise with Him, simply for believing who He was and asking. The world became dark for three hours, during which time the Son of God took on Himself all of the world’s sin–past, present, and future–bearing the unfathomable weight of separation from His Father and experiencing the full force of God’s wrath. My imagination sees Jesus during those three hours somehow (because He is God) inserting Himself into each life in a macro second so that He literally lived the full experience of every one of us.
and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
1 Peter 2:24
In this midst of this unbearable anguish of the body and spirit with the burden of 100+ billion sinful souls on His shoulders, He called out, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) Then, he gave up His life. Even though He was immortal God, He had become the sin of the world. By God’s decree, sin deserved death, and the place for sin is with Satan in hell. Jesus’ body died and descended into hell (Ephesians 4:9), where, again in my imagination, He confronted the devil and threw the load of all the world’s sin on him where it belongs. Jesus had paid the full price for every one of them, and the devil no longer had a claim on those who belonged to Jesus.
Since Jesus’ spirit was still alive and he divested Himself of the sin, death could not hold Him. He rose triumphantly on the third day, just as had been foretold by the prophets and His own words.
He met with His followers for 40 days, showing them how all the Scriptures pointed to Him. Telling them to remain in Jerusalem, Jesus pronounced that they would be baptized in the power of the Holy Spirit in a few days, and then He ascended into Heaven. Ten days later, 120 disciples were praying and they were indeed baptized with the power of the Holy Spirit through the sound of rushing wind and flames upon their heads. The dead human spirit was alive once more in the believers, and the Trinity took up residence in their hearts. Immediately, Peter preached a powerful sermon to the worshipers in Jerusalem who were gathered for another holy day, and the message was translated by the others into every foreign language represented. The crowd cried out to be saved also, and 3,000 people were born of God’s Spirit and became believers that day.
All these were born of the Spirit and of God, and they had the power within them to walk in God’s ways. This same Life-power was made available to anyone who believes these truths: God is the Creator. Since Adam and Eve, we humans are born with a dead spirit of sin and can never be good enough to to walk in God’s holy presence. God loves us and wants us to have the intimate fellowship of knowing Him and seeking to walk in His ways. The only way that could happen is for God Himself, in the form of Jesus Christ, to live as a perfect, sinless human and die as the perfect, unblemished sacrifice on our behalf. As Christ took on Himself all of our sin and the full punishment, and then rose back to life, He gave His Spirit to those who seek Him as Lord. Once again, our spirits are alive and holy and righteous and we can walk with God in His ways.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:11
We therefore were buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a sign that this same life and power are open to you and me and all of us right now.
Is there anything keeping you from accepting this free gift of Life and Salvation?
I would love to hear your comments and experience with Jesus! Thanks for sharing.
Blessed RESURRECTION DAY!
(c) 2020 Holly Craw
Designed to Draw Near 
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