Redemption by His Resurrection
We have scientific proof the Bible was inspired by God;
By simply reading some passages in the Bible we will find scientific proof that the Bible was totally inspired by God and as such, we are not only to believe it but live it. One very simple proof is the roundness of the earth. Remember being taught through our formative years in school that when Columbus sailed for the Indies in the fifteenth century everyone thought he was crazy? They truly believed he would fall over the edge of the flat earth! Here I present 4 passages from the Old Testament that prove that long before man knew the earth was round, God knew. Why? Because He created it! Let’s examine these before going on to the assurance of our Redemption.
Job 26:10 – “He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness.”
Proverbs 8:27 – “When He prepared the heaven, I was there. When He drew a circle on the face of the deep.”
Isaiah 40:22 – “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heaven like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”
Amos 9:6 – “He who builds His layers in the sky, and has founded His strata in the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth – The Lord is His name.”
Jesus the Resurrection
Knowing that the Bible is not only inspired by God but that it is the Word of God, we must believe the words of Jesus when He tells Martha in John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” The whoever Jesus is talking about is you and me, and the question still is “Do you believe this?”
Mathew 28:1-6, Mark 16:6, and 15-20, Luke 24:4-6, John 20:19-21, and Ephesians 4:8-12 all tell us assuredly that Jesus was raised from the dead.
Philippians 3:9-10 tells us that by knowing Jesus and the power of His Resurrection, we are to faithfully ask in prayer and expect Him now to do everything He has done and more.
Jesus and the power of His Resurrection are the result of His being resurrected by the Word, and we know that we will be resurrected with a shout! For in Thessalonians 4:16 we are told “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” We should comfort each other just as Paul did the Thessalonians for with the resurrection we have redemption, and we should reassure each other with this great hope.
We enjoy a great inheritance, one that is reserved for us in heaven as we are redeemed, and that hope is guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
The Bible not only assures us of His Resurrection, but also forewarned of Jesus’ death and resurrection throughout the Old Testament. Further, Jesus Himself told his disciples and the authorities that He would rise when he said that He would rebuild the temple after 3 days.
We have evidence of Jesus’ Resurrection
Not only do we have the Prophets predictions throughout the Old Testament, but in the Gospels we find Jesus Himself telling His disciples of His death and resurrection. The apostle John tells us in John 2:22 at the very start of his book that the disciples remembered what Jesus had said to them, and that they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had said.
Jesus demonstrated His divinity by performing many miracles. He turned water into wine, walked on water, raised the dead. His resurrection was no fluke. It was but another miracle, the Miracle which is consistent with His life.
He died for us. Without His human death there could not be a resurrection. Jesus could have avoided the agonizing death that He suffered, but He had to be submitted to the cross, for He had to pay for our sins, and He knew that He would conquer death.
The Jewish authorities were never able to produce a body to contradict the resurrection of Christ. What better way to disprove the Risen Christ than to provide a body, which would have dispelled the evidence of a resurrection, a resurrection which is the hope for our eternal life.
Doubting Thomas – The disciples were not anticipating the resurrection. Two of them did not even recognize Him when walking with Him and listening to His teachings. What about Thomas who had to put his fingers in Jesus’s wounds? Just these two incidents prove the reality of the resurrection of our Lord.
Not only do the apostles testify to Jesus’ resurrection, but over five hundred people testified since Jesus appeared to them. Isn’t it ironic that out of all those people not one was found who would deny their testimony.
The early Christianity martyrs who died in the name of Jesus were witnesses to the resurrection, and they would rather die than deny it. Who would die for something they knew was a hoax.
The ever present Holy Spirit. Jesus promised us that when He would ascend, a Helper would come down to us, and that Helper, the Holy Spirit convicts us and reminds us every day that Jesus is the risen Son of God. We Christians have one privilege that no religion, belief system or even cult has and that is that we have the only LIVING GOD! For He is risen.
As we defend our knowledge of the resurrection we are in a position to respond to anyone’s objection or questions about our faith. We have evidence of that resurrection and therefore our redemption.
Redemption the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:49 – “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” We all have a body, each looking different, each with different strengths and weaknesses. But as physical, earthly bodies, they are all alike. Christians are promised life after death and a body each bearing the image of the heavenly man, Christ, a resurrection body.
God created us to be His eternal companions. This is our body, when we came to God it became a resurrection, no longer just a creation.
We are guaranteed that we will experience a difference between our physical bodies and the resurrected bodies
Physical Bodies – We are perishable, sown in dishonor, sown in weakness, we are natural, and we came from the dust.
Resurrection Bodies – We are imperishable, raised in glory, and power, we are Spiritual and from heaven
Adam was neither mortal nor immortal. He was eternal, a perfect human being until Satan’s temptation and the resulting sin changed it all. Our bodies completely renew themselves about every seven years. If we did not have the aging process, we would last forever. Adam lived 930 years, almost a millennium. Immortality will come to the Christian at the time of Jesus’ return, negating all that sin has brought upon us.
The Resurrection is the most natural thing that will happen to us as believers in Christ; it is the completion of the plan of redemption.
The key to the Resurrection is found in Revelation 1:5 “and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” And in 1 Corinthians 15:20 “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Jesus is the first begotten. We are joint heirs with Him, and everything that He received after He resurrected from the dead, we receive.
Revelation 1:18 - “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”
First John 3:2 – “Beloved now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Notice John tells us we know, there are no doubts in that statement.
John 5:29 – There are two resurrections “and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”
Those who have rebelled against Christ will be resurrected as well; they will hear God’s judgment against them and will be sentenced to eternity apart from Him. There are those who wish to live well on earth, ignore God, and then see death as final rest. Jesus does not allow unbelieving people to see death as the end of it all, There will be judgment to face.
The Resurrection demonstrated that God has the power to overcome death; He raised Jesus from the dead so that we can put our faith and hope in Him. The resurrection of Jesus shows us that He lives eternally as planned from the beginning, and of course taking place at His appointed perfect time.
At the beginning of this writing I pointed to a few scriptures from the Old Testament alluding to the scientific verification of the Bible by the mentions of the roundness of the earth starting with the book of Job 26:10, a book that was written between 2,000 and 1,800 BC, 35 Centuries (3,500 years) before all of the wise people in the world warned Christopher Columbus about his impending fall off the face of our flat earth. So we know that;
We are redeemed and forgiven of our sins, for the Resurrection validates the claims that Jesus has victory over sin and therefore death. The result of sin is death and Jesus conquered it. When we believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we are saved; His resurrection is the reason for our saving faith.
1 Peter 1:18-19 – “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible thins, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” God redeemed us from the tyranny of sin with the precious blood of his own Son. We cannot escape from sin on our own, only the life of God’s Son sets us free. Therefore we know that God is very much involved in our lives. The Resurrection is proof of our Redemption. God predicted it, planned it and performed it.
Once we accept the Resurrection we achieve Redemption for whatever is thrown at us: temptations, attacks, or any other barrier the enemy tries to place in front of us. Then and only then do we have the answer. The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen
Rayed Redemption
