by Oswald Chambers
Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? —Luke 24:26
Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life. His resurrection means that He has the power to convey His life to me. When I was born again, I received the very life of the risen Lord from Jesus Himself.
Christ’s resurrection destiny— His foreordained purpose— was to bring “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We never have exactly the same relationship to God that the Son of God has, but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life— a life He had never lived before He was God Incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before. And what His resurrection means for us is that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we will have a body like His glorious body, but we can know here and now the power and effectiveness of His resurrection and can “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Paul’s determined purpose was to “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).
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by Roger Oakland
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. (Ephesians 1:7)
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (II Corinthians 5:21)
The heart and core of the Christian faith is based upon Jesus Christ’s shed blood at Calvary as the only acceptable substitutionary atonement for mankind’s sins. The Gospel message requires this foundation. The Bible says the wages of sin is death—thus every person alive should receive the penalty of spiritual death because none of us is without sin, since we are born with our sin nature intact. Satan hates the Gospel message. He understands what the Gospel means, and his agenda is to deceive mankind from understanding and believing so they can suffer eternally with him. While Scripture is very clear about the necessity of Christ’s death in order for us to be saved, some believe this would make God a blood-thirsty barbarian. Embedded within the structure of the emerging church is just such a belief.
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by Jacob Chacko Kallara
"So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit." – John 19:30
"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." – 1 Corinthians 15:57
When men were crucifying our Lord, they did not realize that they were fulfilling the scripture and the plan of God for mankind. Jesus Christ fulfilled every prophecy concerning the coming Messiah and at the end of His trial, He gave up His spirit on the cross into the hands of the Father. Because Christ died, we have been now reconciled with God the Father, and those who believe in the Lord will not see death but they live with the Lord forever. Thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
"And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work." – Jesus Christ
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
by Jacob Chacko Kallara
by James Smith
"A Purifying Hope" 1865
"And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself–just as He is pure." 1 John 3:3
The model after which the hopeful believer works, is Jesus–"just as He is pure." Jesus is presented as . . . our pattern which we are to copy, our example which we are to imitate, our copy after which we are to write, and the standard which we are to endeavor to reach.
No believer can look at the life of Jesus–without approving that life in his judgment. Nor can he be under the influence of grace–without admiring that life, and desiring to be conformed to it.
He would never ask, "What do others do?" But he asks himself, "What would Jesus do? How would Jesus act in this case? What would Jesus say under such circumstances?" And then he earnestly desires, heartily prays, and energetically endeavors to do–as he believes Jesus would do. This course corrects many evils, prevents many failures, stimulates him constantly to deny himself, and raises him to a pitch of purity and spirituality, which he would not otherwise attain.
by James Smith
by Ron Graham
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ…” Revelation 1:1a.
Here in the very first verse of the book of Revelation we’re told whose revelation it is. The Geek word “apokalypsis” means a disclosure of truth. Jesus Himself is revealing the truth to us. Almost immediately he explains to the reader the truth of just exactly who He is.
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8.
There are many scripture verses throughout the Bible which proclaim Jesus’ deity. Why then do so many of His professed followers dismiss the fact that He is God? For the most part, professing Christians have no problem with Jesus being the Son of God, but when the Son of God says He’s God Almighty (as the verse above plainly states) why is that so hard to believe? We are admonished over and over again to believe on the Son of God for everlasting life.
“I and my Father are one” John 10:30.
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by Answers In Genesis
Some people assert that the Gospel accounts of the locations, witnesses, and timing of the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus are contradictory. Scripture exhorts us to be always prepared with answers (1 Peter 3:15) for the hope that is in us. Since these answers and our eternal hope rest on the authenticity of Christ’s Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:17), we need to sort through some of the “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3) Scripture catalogs. As the annual time of our celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection draws near, presented here is a defense and proposed timeline of some of the most important events in history.
Contradictory or Complementary Accounts?
“To the mountain”
So where exactly did Jesus appear, and to whom? Some question the Bible’s internal consistency on the basis of the phrase “to the mountain.”
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. (Matthew 28:16–17, emphasis added)
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by Octavius Winslow
Excerpt
Jesus was the object of popular hate, because of the DIVINITY OF HIS PERSON. Are real Christians less so? Were we not partakers of the Divine nature, we would not drink, in some small degree, of this cup that He drank of. The world despises the image of Christ. If it hated the fair and perfect Original, it will also hate the copy, however dim and imperfect it may be. Be of good cheer, then, if a portion of the world’s hatred of Jesus comes upon you. It is a sure evidence that you are in some measure assimilated to your beloved Lord, reflecting His divine and holy image, though marred with many a blot, and shaded with many a cloud.
Jesus was despised because of the UNWORLDLINESS OF HIS LIFE. “The world hates me because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” His whole life was one ceaseless testimony against the ungodliness of this ungodly world. It rejected Him because He was holy. In proportion as the life we live is a solemn and consistent protest against the vanities and sinfulness of the world, so will it hate and cast us out. ”You are not of the world; therefore the world hates you.” In His memorable intercessory prayer, Jesus reminds His Father, ”The world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Accept, then, the world’s despisings as your glory. The farther you recede from it, the more powerful your testimony, and the more decided and consistent your unworldly walk, the more virulent will be its malignity, bitter its hate, and wide its separation.
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