Celebrate Resurrection--all year long!

But God raised Him from the dead (Acts 13:30).

Spring is nearly synonymous with new life—trees budding, flowers blooming, baby animals cavorting in pastures. As Christians, we know that new life—resurrected life—comes only from Jesus. But must we relegate that conscious knowing to the time we think of as the “Easter season”? We shouldn’t.

One of the most powerful statements in the entire Bible is found in Acts 13:30: “But God raised Him from the dead.” It’s as if that one short sentence—just seven little words—validates everything we believe. And it should be celebrated all year long.

Think about it. Would there even be a New Year’s celebration, based on the Roman calendar, if God hadn’t raised Jesus from the dead? Of course not. Despite His good deeds and exemplary life while He walked this earth, His name would have blurred into the mishmash of others who also did nice things and then faded into obscurity. It was His resurrection from the dead that validated His existence and, in turn, inspired the dividing line of B.C. and A.D. on our calendars.

What about Thanksgiving? Would there really be anything to celebrate with gratitude if God had not raised Jesus from the dead?

And then there’s Christmas—the “Royal Birth Day,” as I like to call it. Would we still recognize and celebrate Christ’s birth if He had stayed in the grave? I think not.

“But God raised Him from the dead” is the pivotal statement of our faith, the point around which all else in Christendom—and in the world and even in eternity—revolves. Without resurrection, we have no hope. There is nothing to celebrate or anticipate. As the Apostle Paul said, when stressing the importance and absolute necessity of the Resurrection, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

Our hope is not only in this life, but rather in the next. If God raised Jesus from the dead, we can rest assured that He will do the same for those of us who have accepted the Resurrected Christ as our Savior. Let’s celebrate the promise of resurrection—all year long!

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).

Jesus spoke many powerful words while He walked this earth, but none more meaningful than His last three: “It is finished.” If we Christians truly understood the power and meaning behind these words, how much more would we love and serve the living God—and impact the dying world?
When Jesus spoke those words as He hung on the Cross, He was referring to a lot more than simply the end of His earthly life or even the cruel and hideous death that evil’s ignorance and God’s righteousness had imposed upon Him. The original meaning of the statement included a “paid in full” stamp for the sins of anyone willing to repent and receive God’s forgiveness.
One of my all-time favorite Christmas cards shows a lamb standing in a field, looking up at a star shining in the heavens. Underneath it says, “He came to pay a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.” What an appropriate visual for our celebration of Easter! He came at Christmas…to pay at Easter. And if He hadn’t? Then there would be no hope for any of us, for there was a debt on each of our accounts that was beyond our paying if we lived to be a thousand. There are not enough “good works” for us to perform to earn our way back into God’s presence, so Jesus came and paid the price for us. And when He uttered those final words—“It is finished”—He stamped our account in His blood: “Paid in full.”
It is a gift we can never repay, but one that we must never stop appreciating. At the center of who we are and everything we say and do must be the joyous and grateful remembrance that “it is finished”—our debt is paid and we can once again come into God’s presence.
An empty tomb is our guarantee.