By his great mercy he
has given us a new birth into a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and
unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of
God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
The lynchpin of the
entire Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah,
from the dead. This is the method of God’s
mercy to bring new birth and living hope. The new birth promised begins with the new
birth of Jesus at His resurrection. He
was, to use that worn out yet loaded term, literally, born again.
Now choose. You believe Jesus was resurrected, brought
back from the dead, by the power of God, or you don’t. If you believe it, the system makes sense,
Jesus the final blood sacrifice, Jesus the instrument of God’s perfect mercy,
Jesus the First Born of the New Creation.
If you don’t believe it, if you consider Jesus simply to be a ‘moral
leader’ or a ‘teacher of good’, my question is how?
If it wasn’t all
true, Jesus exhibited suicidal tendencies, he was definitely delusional,
probably manifesting a full blown break with reality. He advocated very strange
religio-cannibalistic behavior and the Romans did us a favor by killing
him. Despite all that, he was the charismatic
leader extraordinaire, because he inspired his followers to perpetuate the most
effective cover up in history. That
charismania continues to this very day, because people who don’t believe in the
whole death to life thing can ignore all the crazy talk and still praise him
for his ethical teachings. You can’t
have it both ways.
Jesus is the
Messiah OR Jesus is a 55 gallon drum liner’s worth of nutbag!
The resurrection of
Jesus from the dead is the lynchpin of Christianity. It is the ultimate demonstration of God’s
merciful power, to return us from the judgment of our sins-death-to life, but
not simply as it is now, but a life made new in Jesus. From here, we look to what that means for us.
To quote Ripley, “A
man came back from the dead…believe it, or not.”
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