The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is foundational to the Christian faith. On Easter or Easter Sunday, the Christian Church commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ the third day after His death. Christ’s resurrection is the most important event in Christianity because He triumphed over death and the grave. The word Easter does not appear in authentic translations of the Scriptures.
The Apostle Paul says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3,4).
Paul is sharing with us the same message he received from the Lord, not only that Christ died for our sins, and was raised from the dead, but also it is in accordance with the Scriptures.
The prophet Isaiah confirms this in Isaiah 53:5,6. “But [Christ] was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Note: Christ died for our sins. Not His sins because He had no sin. The Scripture says. “And ye know that [Christ] was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin” (1 John 3:5 KJV).
God’s plan of salvation for mankind required Jesus Christ take our sins upon Himself and die on the Cross to make forgiveness possible. Therefore, Jesus was “made sin for us.” The Bible declares: “For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
God made Christ to be sin for us means that Christ was God’s sin-offering on our behalf in order to reconcile sinful man to the holy God. Christians can rejoice in the fact that Christ has effectively dealt with the sin problem once and for all eternity. Glory be.
Who bore them in His body on the Cross.
Sinful man can now be reconciled to God
Who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
—Geoff Daniels 01/2022
There is also proof positive that Christ was raised on the third day in accordance with scriptures. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to visit Jesus’s tomb but on their arrival they were told by the angel, ”Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead” (Matthew 28:5-7). The other three gospels present similar accounts of Christ’s resurrection.
Christ spoke of his own resurrection when He said, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day” (Matthew 17:22,23). Jesus calls Himself “Son of Man” meaning He was a human being, though “very God of very God.”
Today, Christians rejoice that there is the empty tomb on earth and an occupied Throne in heaven where Christ is now seated at the right hand of God. Job, who lived many years before the advent of Jesus Christ confidently testified that his Redeemer was alive.
And at last He will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
Yet in my flesh I shall see God”
(Job 19:25,26)
God never leaves Himself without a witness. Paul presents a list of those to whom the risen Lord physically appeared after His resurrection. “He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Corinthians 15:5-8).
As a result of Christ’s resurrection, the Christian has a new life in Him: living and rejoicing in resurrection power.
Romans 6:6,8-10 says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God” (Romans 6:6,8-10).
Hallelujah!