"It is finished!"

The resurrection is God’s exclamation point that at the end of his Son’s death sentence. It says, “Enough.”

On the cross, as Jesus breathed his last, he uttered, “It is finished.” So too, the resurrection was the Heavenly Father looking upon his Son’s suffering to bear the guilt of sinners and saying, “It is finished.” Divine justice had been satisfied.

If Jesus were still in the grave, we might claim he’d died in our place, but we could never be sure that our guilt had been fully cleared—that the punishment had matched the crime and was sufficient to meet the right and holy demands of the All-Glorious Lord.

In fact, if Jesus were still in the grave, we’d have to conclude that his entire salvation project was a flop, because a dead Jesus is a Jesus who goes on suf­fer­ing the punishment for our sin. And until that punishment is fully meted out, our guilt is not resolved: the damning burden remains on our desperate shoulders. But…

“[Jesus] was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25). In other words, while Jesus died as our substitute—as a sin-bearing sacrifice for us—it’s only with his resur­rection that our “justification” is fully achieved. The resurrection is pivotal!

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17): no resurrection means no rescue from the catastrophic consequences of unforgiven sin.

Further, God would be unjust to declare us “not guilty” if his Son were still in the tomb. But the Bible is emphatic to say God certainly is both just and the justifier of all who have faith in Jesus (Rom 3:26).

Easter is God’s remedy for our sin and its guilt. By nature our hearts and habits are spring-loaded to honor ourselves; we’re prone to make much of “me” and then connive ways to enlist God in the service of our own self-exaltation. The mercy of Easter is that the Lord didn’t just leave us to wallow in our shame. Instead, he sent a Savior to pay sin’s penalty for us—for all who place their trust in Jesus.

So the big question on Easter is about faith: are you trusting Jesus to clear your guilt, rule your heart, and love you forever? If you’re still worshipping the god of self, I urge you: run to the Risen Lord today!

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"God meant it for good"

The breathtaking story of Job drives home the point that affliction is not necessarily a punishment for sin (1:1; see also John 9:1-3). Nor is it helpful to say that Satan caused the pain, since Job spoke correctly (1:22) in stating, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away…” (v 21).

Isaiah 53 prophesies of God’s Servant, the Substitute who would bear the guilt of sinners: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (53:6). This, of course, anticipates the sacrificial death of the Son of God who “gave his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Was Christ’s death the grim result of sin? Yes (Acts 3:15). Was it owing to the insidious schemes of Satan? Yes (Luke 22:3). But there’s more to say: at root, the cross was God’s doing. Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…” (so too Acts 2:23).

In both cases of extreme affliction, ultimately it’s God’s hand we see in action. Same with Joseph (the guy with the coat of many colors). His jealous brothers abused him and sold him as a slave, and he ended up wrongly imprisoned in Egypt for years—all undeserved. But God was up to something—God, the key Actor behind the scenes; God, the initiator of good plans even though they lead through dark valleys. The Lord maneuvered Joseph into an influential office in Egypt in order to save countless lives from a coming seven-year famine.

This good end is recognized by Joseph (eventually!). In Genesis 45:5-9 he says four times that it was God who sent him to Egypt. Now, of course he remembers how his nasty brothers had shipped him off with traders. But he’s looking beneath the surface: who was really at work in all those years of pain? It was God. Same in 50:20, where Joseph says to his penitent brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” All that misery he’d gone through was intended by God to take place and (of course) lead eventually to God’s good goals.

There’s no shortage of pain and trauma to go around today, what with economic turmoil, crime, family breakdown, disease… The Lord is stretching our faith: are you willing to trust him to weave a beautiful fabric, in his time and in his way, even when it includes the black strands of your pain and suffering? Are you willing to let God be God, and to leave it to him to put things right in time or eternity?

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Waiting for the Morning

We live in tumultuous times. Granted, a “Bubonic Plague” isn’t wiping out half our population; obviously, things could be worse. But the convergence of escalating campaign tensions, a “once in a century credit tsunami” (Greenspan’s expression), and the other life challenges we face can discourage and depress: this is a moment when our faith in Christ is on the stand. I urge you to find time today to let the life-giving, perspective-providing Word of God in Psalm 130 (NIV) speak to your soul [brackets indicate my comments]:

1) Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; [Let your weakness, fears and afflictions prompt you to turn to God and not just to stimulate greater self-motivation; “the depths” is a place of helplessness from which we need the Lord to lift us up. Can you admit to being there?]

2) O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. [Of course, calling for mercy means confessing sin—we’re not just down or downcast because of bad stuff “out there” coming at us, but also because of our own wayward, rebellious hearts.]

3) If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? 4) But with you there is forgive­ness; therefore you are feared. [Notice this absolutely crucial connection—really important: awareness of God’s mercy and forgiveness does NOT lead to an attitude on our part of taking sin lightly (“You can always confess later…”), but to an attitude of deep awe and reverence: God is “feared.”]

5) I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6) My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. [Faith involves waiting—yet waiting has no meaning if all is well, if all is easy, sunny and smiley. God builds all kinds of “waiting rooms” into our lives, and he does so for our good: waiting is just what the Great Physician has ordered for us. How do you handle life in the “waiting room”?]

7) O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8) He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. [Notice the adjectives describing the Lord’s love and redemption: they are “unfailing” and “full.” Notice the reach of God’s redeeming love: from “all” their sins. Amidst the tsunamis of today, with our minor crises and even some major calamities, let the strong, unshakable love of God calm your soul and undergird your faith!]

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