He is risen.
There’s a lot going on when we say that. More than meets the eye…much more.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”
Romans 1:18 ESV
What are we talking about there when we read about the wrath of God. Well, most obviously, death. Everyone dies. Only One rises from the dead. Only One’s tomb is empty. This proves that Christianity is true and all other worldviews, philosophies, and religions are false. Totally false.
The Bible is painfully realistic. It addresses subjects we like to suppress. And the most obvious thing we suppress is that we’re going to die. We suppress it because it proves that what the Bible says about sin is true and that we must repent. Think about this for a good moment: no competitor to Christ, no ideology whatsoever, explains both why there’s death and what to do about it. Some talk about reincarnation (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism) but fail to logically reconcile the reason for death and what to do about it. For example, Scripture teaches that God created the world and man. Man sinned and death is the judgement against this cosmic rebellion. This logically explains both where everything comes from and why there’s death in one non-contradictory explanation.
Buddhism, on the other hand, like all other false religions, takes death for granted. It fails to reconcile where everything came from and what that has to do with death and ethics. Its concept of reincarnation as a continued rebirth driven by one’s ethical choices is logically incoherent. The goal is enlightenment. There’s no rational explanation for who is judging this process of ethical evaluation through the reincarnation process except that it just is. This is a massive contradiction because if there’s no personal God, there can be no ethics. An impersonal force can’t be ethical. It just is.
Furthermore, the fracture of logic between enlightenment and death is never explained. Why did lack of enlightenment enter the world and how would we know it if we aren’t enlightened to start with? You see, the Biblical explanation for where we came from and why there’s death logically explains the reality we see around us.
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
Romans 1:19-20 ESV
The issue of sin is that we deliberately – and without excuse – reject the obvious. Where, oh where did everything come from, why is there right and wrong, and why is there death (wrath)? Only Scripture makes sense of these basic human questions.
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,”
Romans 1:21-22 ESV
The thought that sinners are innocent and neutral is further evidence of the rebellion of sin. Don’t be misled. Our problems, at bottom, at their core, aren’t psychological or financial. They’re due to sin. Sin is rejecting the obvious proof of God in nature, refusing to honor and thank Him, and then going off to try and build our lives on a lie all while actively suppressing the obvious fact that we’re going to die someday.
“because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
Romans 1:25 ESV
The rejection of the truth about God for a lie is the sin and sin itself. Downstream of this “exchange” are all other sins. We become “futile in our thinking” because we’re basing everything on what’s patently absurd. What else explains where everything came from, why nature is totally awe-inspiring, why truth matters, and why all of us die? To reject God is to actively and willfully suppress these questions throughout our lives and, therefore, call the Almighty God a liar. This is why there’s a death penalty for sin.
So, and here’s the rest of the logic of Easter, we owe God. Sin has incurred a debt. It must be punished with death since rejecting the righteous God of life logically means death. It’s for this that Christ died as our substitute. He was punished for your sin and, so that you’ll know that God has accepted the sacrificial substitution, Christ walked out of the tomb! This is all an amazing piece of truth! God is both just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. He doesn’t simply overlook sin as if it’s no big deal. No! Sin is cosmic treason. It’s anti-truth and anti-life. It must be punished. At the cross God poured out holy wrath on Jesus who had no sin so that we might be cleansed. Forgiven. Restored. Raised up. Loved.
The high logic of Christ is thus:
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:21-26 ESV
That the tomb is empty shows not how cool we are. It doesn’t show that we’re saved because we’re a pretty good person. Nope. You and me and all of us are under the power and penalty of sin until we’re called to faith. It is Christ who saves us and it is in His righteousness that we praise and love Him. Does that sound weird? The resurrection shows God’s righteousness as well as His love for us. Let’s marvel today at God’s holiness and the miraculous fact of our salvation – us…sinners who have spit in His face with our thanklessness. The day is about God. The glory is His alone and never ours.
Faith is love of God’s righteousness and work in history to save us. Faith reverses the “exchange.” Repentance is the mourning of sin and hatred of it in light of God’s vast holiness. Faith is the holy exchange of the lie of sin (ours) for the truth of God (from Him).
“Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.”
Romans 3:27 ESV
We celebrate the resurrection of Christ today in faith and through faith because only there do we truly understand what it means. The fact of the empty tomb brings together the whole story of creation, man’s fall into rebellion, the penalty of death, and what God has done about that in Christ. Thus, we aren’t saved to a life of sloppiness, but progressive holiness. How exactly? Not through the law, but through faith! In all our ways – now on the other side of the exchange – we acknowledge Him and give thanks in faith. And we present our whole lives as living sacrifices in faith (Romans 12:1). For love. For joy. Not arid legalism or pride, but for the pure amazement of what God has done. Faith is not a mere feeling, but the wholeness of the gospel, the enormity and deep beauty of it, living in our bursting hearts!
“Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”
Romans 3:31 ESV
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