He Is Risen

            

            My husband calls me the female version of Dave Ramsey.  While I am nowhere near as experienced or knowledgeable as he is, I do enjoy working with numbers, creating charts and tables, and managing our finances.  I'm a bit of a budget nerd.  For that reason, Propoganda's description of Jesus's death and resurrection in this video speaks to my heart in a very powerful way.  The entire video is jam-packed with rich theology, but these stanzas in particular always sink deeply into my heart.  He proclaims: 

"Clearly since the only one that can meet God's criteria is God, God sent himself as Jesus to pay the cost for us.  His righteousness, His death, functions as payment.  Yes, payment.  

Wrote a check with His life, but at the resurrection we all cheered, 'cause that means the check cleared.  Pierced feet, pierced hands, blood-stained Son of Man, fullness, forgiveness, free passage into the promise land.  That same breath God breathed into us, God gave up to redeem us."

What a vivid and relatable analogy of the importance of Jesus's resurrection!  Picture this: You have a massive medical bill that needs paid off, and your insurance won't cover it.  As you desperately try to think of ways to scrimp and save, you slowly realize that nothing you can do will ever enable you to fully pay off that large of a debt.  Then, a kind and compassionate stranger offers to write a check for the entire balance, no strings attached.  Of course you would have a glimmer of hope that you might really be free from your debt, but you wouldn't know for sure if this stranger really had the money in his bank account.  You could only rest in certainty and freedom after seeing that the payment was accepted by the hospital because the check cleared.  

Jesus's resurrection gives us certainty that His payment for our sin was accepted by God.  Without it, we would have no way of knowing whether Jesus's death was of any real significance at all.  We would have no assurance of forgiveness or freedom.  We would have no way of knowing that He was not just another dead man who taught nice principles.  Paul describes it like this: "And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.  In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost!  And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world" (1 Cor. 15:17-19 NLT). 

Praise God that Christ has in fact been raised from the dead!  My debt has been paid in full (which is the literal meaning of Jesus's final words, recorded in Jn. 19:30, that He spoke just before giving up His spirit: "It is finished.") My Savior is alive and interceding on my behalf (Heb. 8:24, 25).  My future is certain because "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in [me].  And just as God raised Jesus from the dead, he will give life to [my] mortal [body] by this same Spirit living within [me]" (Rom. 8:11 NLT).  I live, and live abundantly, because He lives!  

Jesus's resurrection offers true hope.  This hope is not the type of uncertain wish that says, "I hope that I never get into a car accident," which may or may not happen.  No, this hope is in an entirely different category.  It is a confident expectation, sure and steadfast, rooted in what we know to be true, that provides an anchor for our souls (Heb. 6:19).  What greater cause could we possibly have for celebration?  He is risen!