The man said, “Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus from Nazareth, who was nailed to a cross. God has raised him to life, and he isn’t here. You can see the place where they put his body.” Mark 16:6
I hope everyone had a joyous Easter celebration filled with worship, food, family, and friends. I have been attending Easter Sunday services my entire life, and I shamefully admit that I thought I had heard just about every sermon version of Jesus’s death and resurrection. So, I love it when God smacks down my prideful attitude and gives me new pearls of insight into a familiar passage of His Word. He did just that this Easter weekend, and I pray I can convey how God renewed my mind about some of the most commemorated events in Christianity.
After Jesus’s resurrection, He came and stood among his disciples, but Thomas was not with them then. When they told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord,” he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his, I will not believe it.” A week later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, and Thomas was among them this time. Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands” (John 20: 24-26). Instead of focusing on Thomas’s doubt or how His nail-scarred hands fulfilled Old Testament prophecy, consider how foolish and unnecessary it was to nail our Lord’s hands to the cross. It was foolish because no manmade tool could have ever restrained the King of Heaven. He could have come down from the cross with or without nails at any time. It was unnecessary because it was not the nails that held Him to the cross but His love for you and me. The nails merely symbolize Christ’s amazing love for us and had absolutely no holding power over Jesus.
Most Easter morning sermons focus on the accounts found in the Gospels. We can rejoice from those accounts in the knowledge that Jesus took our sins upon Himself, He died and was buried, and on the third day arose from the dead. God fulfilled all His promises through Jesus; we were justified and made righteous at the cross. So why does Paul say in Romans 4:25, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification”? This is the only New Testament verse that ties justification to the Resurrection. All other accounts tied it to the cross. Our justification was accomplished when Jesus died on the cross, so what does Paul mean by this?
Think about when we purchase something online with a credit card. We fill out all the necessary information and hit the purchase button. Often we get an immediate confirmation response, but sometimes we receive a message that a confirmation email will be sent. Until that email comes, we would like to know if all the credit card info was correctly input; if it was accepted, will I receive the purchase I paid for? This is what happens with the Resurrection. Jesus pays for our sins on the cross, but the Resurrection justifies us because that’s our confidence that the purchase went through. It’s our confirmation email. Without the Resurrection, just like Thomas, we would wonder, is my sin truly atoned for by Jesus? The Resurrection is for our benefit alone, demonstrating that we would know that Jesus completely and wholly paid for our sins on the cross. The Resurrection vindicates our decision to put our faith in God and believe that Jesus died for our sins. Just like Thomas touching the nail holes in Jesus’s hands, it seals our faith; it shows us that Jesus was raised for our justification. Think about how well God knows the humanity that He created. He knew we would need confirmation. Out of His great love for us, He gave us the Resurrection to ease our fears, anxieties, and questions. God didn’t need the Resurrection; Jesus didn’t need the Resurrection, they knew the cross covered our sins, and we can be confident in this promise because of that 3rd Day! And that’s your Tuesday Tidbit.
The picture is of the empty Garden Tomb in Jerusalem.