Big Idea - Today, we celebrate the wonder of the resurrection. Jesus died a terrible death on the cruel cross laying down His life and shedding His own blood as the perfect sacrifice for our sin, and taking on Himself our guilt and punishment that we might have life through His blood! But death was not the end of the story. He rose again bodily. In the resurrection, we understand that His death was sufficient to reverse all the terrible effects of sin and to give us life in Him and the hope of the same resurrection. We have looked at all the wonderful effects of the blood of Christ leading up to today. One might think that once we move past Good Friday and the cross, and now we come to the day of resurrection, there is nothing left to say about the blood. That the blood has no place in the story of the resurrection or in the glorious realm of heaven where Jesus now resides and rules on high. But, we find that we are not done with the blood! What is the place of the blood of Christ in the resurrection and in the joy of heaven?

First, we see that the power that brought Jesus to life again from the dead is the very blood of the covenant. Death was the result of the curse or rightful punishment for sin. When Jesus took upon Himself a human body and on the cross took upon Himself the curse of sin, He brought on Himself all its consequences, the greatest of which is death. The only way He could escape the grave is if the curse was broken by paying the full price for sin. He is eternal Spirit and lived a life in the flesh of perfect obedience. This gave His sacrifice, His blood, the power to reverse the curse of sin. So, it was by His own blood that Jesus rose again from the dead.

Second, we see that the blood of Jesus is what gives us the right to stand before the throne of God in heaven, to receive all the glory and benefits of eternal life with Him, and what is even more, it is the ultimate source of our greatest joy for all eternity as we rejoice in our great salvation and the incredible sacrifice of the Lamb for us!