Psalm 118 is filled with the recognition of God’s goodness. In the middle, there is much strife and suffering for the psalmist. Then, as the psalm turns again, it turns around the way God rescues. He rescues with His STRONG RIGHT ARM. Jesus sits at God’s “mighty” right hand. The result is the psalmists exclamation “I will not die”. God gives LIFE in Jesus Resurrection. He undoes death in Jesus. The Resurrection of Jesus is our guarantee that we will not die, but LIVE to tell God’s Story FOREVER!

Life everlasting awaits those who depend on him rather than their own wisdom or ways. Daniel 12:1-4 is a key Old Testament text undergirding the more explicit New Testament teaching of the resurrection of the dead. The New Testament is so much clearer on this gospel doctrine because it is written on the other side of the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus himself. Paul explains that Christ is “the firstfruits” of the end-time resurrection from the dead. That is, Jesus’ resurrected body is the first installment of the coming great harvest of the redeemed (restored in body and spirit) in which all those united to Christ will inevitably be included.

Today, we celebrate the victorious and rescuing work of Jesus Christ. We celebrate what He has done FOR us, that we could not do for ourselves. And what He has done and is doing IN us, that we cannot do in ourselves.

In the scandal of the gospel, Christ was cursed/ hanged on a tree not because of his own sin but because of ours. He was condemned in our place as our substitute. The purpose of this was that “in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to” us (Gal. 3: 13– 14). All those who trust in Christ, whatever their ethnic background, share in the eternal blessings of the gospel as Jesus removes our curse of sin on the Cross!

The new creation is described in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” The word “therefore” refers us back to verses 14-16 where Paul tells us that all believers have died with Christ and no longer live for themselves. Our lives are no longer worldly; they are now spiritual. Our “death” is that of the old sin nature which was nailed to the cross with Christ. It was buried with Him, and just as He was raised up by the Father, so are we raised up to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). That new person that was raised up is what Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 5:17 as the “new creation.

When we look at the biblical depiction of sin as a crime, we see that Jesus acts as the Substitute, taking our place at the bar of God’s justice. For this reason, we sometimes speak of Jesus’ work on the cross as the substitutionary atonement of Christ, which means that when He offered an atonement, it was not to satisfy God’s justice for His own sins, but for the sins of others. He stepped into the role of the Substitute, representing His people. He didn’t lay down His life for Himself; He laid it down for His sheep. He is our ultimate Substitute.

There is darkness before every dawn. The story of Christ on the cross is the great plot twist in the Bible. The innocent one is convicted in a court of lies. Little did we know that God was actually coming through in this scene. The death of Christ wasn’t the end, it was the beginning!... The beginning of a new life for you and I.

We’ve been talking about Jesus’ Might Acts over the past few weeks. How He has power over sin and death and how His power has purpose and that His power is available to us through The Holy Spirit and can be manifest just by using the authority of His name. We talked about how it can “move mountains” by faith and by faith even walk on water. But there’s times in our lives that God’s will is that His power “gets u through”. Why? So God can show the world that His power will never fail and that His Love can’t be stopped. That His Love will go on and on forever!

Luke Chapter 9 starts with Jesus calling together his twelve disciples and giving them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases. Then he sends them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. They see lots of success until doubt in that power begins to creep in. The moment we begin to respond to doubt and operate in our own power and not in the power of Jesus Name, we’re on thin ice. Our salvation MUST be rooted in the Mighty Power of Jesus, not in our own!

The fig tree had ONE JOB... So do we. And it’s not to “find our purpose”. Our purpose on earth is clear. To glorify God. Now, if we just TRUST God and work toward that, we then produce the fruit He’s looking for. When we trust in THAT “without a doubt” we can see God do things that are beyond human reason.