WHY DID HE RISE
"I now send you, to open their eyes; in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me." (Acts 26:18)
God does not lie! He said our deliverer would come, be crucified, and be raised from the dead. Jesus came and He said that He would be crucified, and be raised from the dead. And so, just as they said it would be; it has been. God made a plan for the redemption of His man and He kept it. He loves us! Of course we all know this, but as we have been saying, there is more to why He came, why He died, and why He rose again, than just to tell a story.
Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy, bring glory to God and restore us to fellowship with Him. It was for more than to give us an Easter Celebration. In fact, there are those who love the Lord who despise the historical origins of this holiday, but we are not going to discuss that now.
It stands to reason that if all of this took place because it was promised, then all the rest that was promised is going to take place as well. Jesus was called the First Fruit, indicating that there would be more fruit. We have been selected as the more fruit.
I believe that the words that Jesus spoke to Saul (Paul) are a good description of a primary purpose of the resurrection of our Lord. The Life that is in Christ was, is, and always will be an eye opener for anyone who will look.
The Life that was in Jesus even on the cross opened the guard’s eyes. He has been opening eyes forever. If we will allow Him to, He opens our eyes continuously.
The power of His resurrection is like the wind, like a wave on the sea; it never stops! It cannot be stopped. It is always working to accomplish the purposes of God.
Jesus rose to give us life! There is no life without Him. We really cannot do anything without Him. We may think we can, or that we have, but when we really think about it; we have to admit, that it was not anything without Him.
His resurrection turned on a light in the darkness and He wants everyone to experience that Light that is Life to all who find it. He must have felt good on that Resurrection Morning. We all love it when a plan comes together!
He must have felt invigorated. I know He always felt the Father’s presence and knew the Power of God, but there must have been something special about knowing that He had just paved the way for abundant life for all people everywhere. He made something that was difficult for Him, so simple for all of us. We need only to believe in order to experience the resurrection of our Lord and receive the keys to eternal life!