HE IS NOT HERE, HE HAS RISEN!

“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” Matthew 28:1-6

 He is not here, He has risen! These seven words declare the most important truth in the entire Bible. You may ask, “Could any truth be more important than the truth of the virgin birth of Christ or, the truth of the cross of Calvary? Or the miracles that Jesus did, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, and restoring the dead to life?” Yes! Because, it does not matters what Jesus did, or who He was, if death could have kept Him in the grave, All else would have been in vain!

 The cross and the resurrection of Jesus are inseparable one demands the other. If Jesus had not died there would, of course, be no resurrection, hence no faith, no salvation, no new creation; but had he not conquered death, hell, and the grave His death would have been in vain. Therefore, those who deny His resurrection might just as well deny that He was crucified! “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (I Corinthians 15:12-19).

 The devil did everything in his power to keep Jesus from the cross. He knew that if Jesus reached Calvary, His death on the cross would eventually lead to the downfall of his kingdom. Satan assembled all the forces of hell, in an all-out attempt to destroy Jesus before He reached the cross, but the Bible tells us in Colossians 2:15 that Jesus, “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He saw all the forces of hell allied together to crush Him; but an angel was sent to strengthen Him and He won the victory, putting hell to an open shame.

 The devil tried to kill Jesus on the Roman whipping post and failed. He tried to kill Him under the weight of the cross and failed. Jesus came into the world to die on the cross, and all the forces of hell could not stop Him! Even after He reached the cross and died there, they thought that they could keep Him in the tomb by rolling a heavy stone across the door, sealing it with the imperial seal of Rome, and placing a Roman guard over it. However, they did not reckon on the power of God and the fact that it was not possible for death to hold Him because He was God manifested in the flesh just as the gospel of St. John 1:14 tells us “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”

 It was not possible that death could hold Jesus! Death is the result of sin, “the wages of sin is death” says Romans 6:23, “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” says James 1:15, but Jesus did not sin; there was no sin in Him. Therefore, death had no claim on Him. Jesus did not die as mortals die; He did not die a “natural” death. He laid His life down of Himself, that He might take it again. He said in John 10:17-18, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” Jesus is Life, and it is impossible for death to hold life. He said in St. John 11:25: “I am the resurrection, and the life.” He took a body in order that He might die, lay His life down, and through death make eternal life possible for all who believe in Him. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

 No man killed Jesus! It is true that men demanded His death, men arrested and condemned Him, and the hands of men nailed Him to the cross, but make no mistake, friend, man did not take His life! Jesus was God manifested in the flesh, and God cannot die or be killed.   

 Pilate gave Jesus’ lifeless body to Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea. They took it down from the cross and placed it in Joseph’s new tomb, but it was not possible for corruption to destroy His body, and on the third day after His burial Jesus came forth from the grave in the same body Nicodemus and Joseph had placed in the tomb! If He had not risen bodily He would not have won total victory over death.

 Without His bodily resurrection, He would have won only partial victory over death. However, He did rise bodily, and the Word of God declares: “When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to god, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (I Corinthians 15:54-57).

 Thank God, He did not stop short of total victory, victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil, death, hell, and the grave. He took a body that was capable of dying and in that body, He died and rose again. His bodily resurrection is the guarantee that He conquered all He came to conquer, and He now holds the keys of hell and of death. “I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” (Rev. 1:18).  

 That the dead are going to be raised to life again is taught throughout the scriptures, “Verily, verily, I say unto you,  The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:25-29).  Two things are taught in this Scripture. The first thing is that everyone who dies is going to be raised to life again. The second thing is that some are going to be raised to life while others are going to be raised to everlasting shame and damnation.

 Everyone who has ever lived and died is going to be raised from the dead at the end of the age. They will either be raised to eternal life or to eternal damnation. What a person does with Christ will determine which of these it will be, “the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation  20:5-6, 11-15).