He Is Risen

May 10

Judges 17-18

Psalm 58:1-5

Proverbs 13:9-10

Luke 24

He is Risen

“He is not here, but He has been resurrected.”    Luke 24:6 HCSB

This verse is the basis of our faith.  If Jesus did not raise from the dead, there is no reason for us to place our trust in Him.  During His time on Earth, He lived a perfect life.  He fed the hungry, healed the sick and cared for the poor.  He was humble and gentle.  He was a good teacher and had lots of followers everywhere He went. He was a good man.  But if we look back through history, there have been a lot of good men.  None of them were perfect like Jesus, but there have been many good teachers, many people who selflessly gave of their time and resources to feed the hungry, heal the sick and care for the poor, and many humble and gentle servants of God.  But the thing that sets Jesus apart from every other person who has ever walked the face of the Earth is that He raised Himself from the dead. 

There are 10 different accounts in the Bible of people being raised from the dead.  Elijah raised the son of a widow in Zarephath, Elisha raised the Shunammite woman’s son, an unnamed man was raised when his dead body was thrown into Elisha’s tomb and touched his bones, Jesus raised the son of a widow from Nain, Jairus’ daughter, and Lazarus.  Many holy people in Jerusalem were raised from the dead when Jesus died, and the curtain was ripped in half.  There was an earthquake, and many tombs were cracked open.  Peter raised Tabitha from the dead and Paul raised Eutychus, the man who fell asleep in a window listening to Paul and fell three stories to his death.  Being raised from the dead is certainly unusual, but we don’t follow those who were risen from the dead because they eventually died again.  What makes Jesus’ resurrection unique is that He raised Himself from the dead.  He didn’t need someone else to raise Him.  He raised Himself and then ascended into Heaven forty days later.  He overcame death and Hell. The grave could not hold Him.   No ordinary man could do that.  Only the Son of God, the Messiah, could once and for all defeat death and make a way for sinful man to live eternally in Heaven with Him.

No other religion serves a living savior.  No other religion claims that their god came to Earth to die to save them from their sin and make a way to bring them to Heaven.  No other religion has a savior who loves them and abides in them to lead, guide, comfort, strengthen and help them.  All the other world religions are based on a system of working really hard to try to be good enough to earn your way to Heaven.  Our Savior knows that we cannot possibly be perfect and so He willingly bore our sins and took the punishment we deserve so that we can have a relationship with Him.  This is the Savior I choose to follow.