He's Alive!

If you haven't yet read my post from yesterday, please take a look at it. This post today will make better sense after reading yesterday's.

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He’s alive! I don’t know how . . .  it's a miracle. A glorious wondrous miracle. He’s alive. I saw him die. I buried him. But he’s alive! Alive!

I just talked with him. Even ate with him. At first we didn’t know it was him. But Oh! how our hearts burned when he spoke with us about the Scriptures.

He broke bread. And then . . . then he was gone. Vanished. Suddenly. Before our eyes. But Oh I remember His words, and I know what was finished when he shouted, “It is finished.”

Death, yes even death's power is finished. They killed the Prince of Life, but Jesus swallowed up death. And now, everyone -- everyone who believes and obeys him will live, even if he dies. And everyone who lives and obeys him will never die. Oh death where now is your victory? Grave, where now is your sting? We know the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but Almighty God has given us the victory over death through Jesus our Lord.

God’s wrath against us for our sins is finished. We went astray. We turned, every one of us, to our own way. But God laid all of our iniquities on him. His wrath is finished because God reconciled us to himself through Jesus’ death by making him to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Now we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins according to the superabundant riches of God’s grace which he lavished on us.

He’s alive. He is the alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end. The first and the last. He holds the keys of death and of hell – and He’s alive. All authority in heaven and earth belongs to Him. It is finished. The battle is over between life and death, good and evil, hatred and love – it is finished. It’s the end of the conflict. It is finished.

And Jesus is lord.

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My note: I thought it appropriate to add this piece from Handel's Messiah. Happy Resurrection Sunday :)