Sunday, April 08, 2007

Hippity Hoppity



Yesterday morning, I awoke early in the morning, it was still dark. I began to think about the followers of Jesus, the ones walking with Him 2000 years ago. How did they feel the day after?
The day after His beating. The day after His torture. The day after His execution; the execution of a poor common criminal. If you had looked forward to serving Jesus as He kicked out the Romans, returned Judaism to the masses, set all things right in an occupied nation, how would you have been on the inside? That Sabbath would have been the first of many sleepless nights. The lump of grief in your throat would be all consuming. Eyes swollen from tears. Chest sore from heaving up and down through the sobs.
How would you have felt? Despair? Unhinged? Devastated? Alone? Hopeless?

This morning was VERY different!! Jesus is alive!! How long did it take His followers to understand that fact? We look back at History during Holy Week. Our emotions and context are far from what the followers of Christ were dealing with in their hearts and minds. We know, He is alive! He has risen! Death has been defeated. Sin has been overcome. The veil of the Temple has been ripped open! Pentecost is on the way! Freedom has come!

Romans 5

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.


HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!


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