Easter Sunday was an especially glorious day at my church in Granada, Spain.
Flowers. Baptisms. Celebration. Joy. Resurrection.
"For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:16-17, emphasis added).
Jesus died a terrible death on the cross, taking on Himself the sins of all the world, cut off from communion with the Father...and we put Him there.
Like the verses say, if that was the end, we have no hope. Paul continues on to say that if there is no resurrection, we are to be the most pitied - our faith comes to nothing! It is only a temporary hope that cannot hold up when faced by death.
The celebration of Easter holds within its grasp this idea of mourning the death of Christ, but it is shortly overcome. The grave could not hold Jesus down. HE IS RISEN!! This is the hope that followers share.
Jesus is alive.
His resurrection is the foundation of our hope, joy, freedom, life. Because He died and rose again, we are new creations with a reason to live on this earth. With our eyes on the Lord, who has conquered sin once and for all, we await His supreme reign in the better world to come.
The Sunday service was full of people, hearing the news of that glorious day, tasting a piece of the eternal worship and communion that is to come. "...so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11).
What a day that will be. All through one Spirit - to the glory of God our Father - praising the name of Jesus.
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