Grace tidings: He has risen

By The Southern Eye | Apr. 17, 2022

After Jesus said, “It is finished,” His head slumped to His chest, and He drew His last breath in His mortal body (John 19:30). He was then taken by those who loved Him and put in a tomb. Mary Magdalene, and the others who were last to leave the scene of the Cross, journeyed with His body as it was taken to the tomb, and there they saw the soldiers seal the grave.

By Doug Mamvura

During this Easter season and always, remember that Jesus is alive! He’s not dead! They could not keep Him in the ground. The grave could not hold Him. He is the Resurrected Christ, and He is still alive today for you and me.

Crucifixion day, which dawned more than 2 000 years ago, was the darkest day in the history of the world. On that day, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was hung on a cross and crucified.

The Jewish leaders and the high priest had said, “Let’s seal the tomb lest His followers steal His body and say that He has risen.” So, they had a stone put in front of the tomb to seal it.

Then they added, “Let’s post guards to make sure His followers don’t break the seal and roll the stone away.” So, they posted centurions to stand guard in front of the tomb (Matt. 27:64-66).

When the devil had Jesus crucified, he played into the hand of God one more time. That tells me that the devil doesn’t know everything. Yes, he knows some things, but he doesn’t know everything. If he had known the complete outcome of the Crucifixion ahead of time, then he would have had to have been even more stupid than he already is to have crucified Jesus. But the devil didn’t know the future, so he thought he had it made by crucifying the Son of God.

In that dark hour, at the bleakest time in the pages of history, Jesus’ disciples—the men who had followed Him and enjoyed His fellowship, who had been taught by Him and loved Him with a love that was unsurpassable may have wondered, “Did we leave our fishing boats for this? Did we leave our occupations to come to this end? To live in fear for our lives?” Most likely, the disciples’ dreams and hopes came crashing down around them, only to realise three days later that He had risen.

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The resurrection of Jesus was the greatest event that ever took place, either in the sense realm or in the spirit realm. Satan is defeated. The head of the New Creation is a victor. He is the example for all members of the New Creation. They are to be overcomers, masters of circumstances and all demoniacal forces. Christ arose to the full stature of His Godhead in the presence of the adversary.

He threw off from Himself the principalities and the powers. He made a show of them in the presence of all Hell. Then, taking the trophies from the hand of the conquered, He arose from the dead. You can hear Him say, “I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” (Rev. 1:18) That brings to your memory the scene in Matthew 28:5-6. The women had come down to the sepulcher.

They found it empty, but an angel was there. “And the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, even as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

He died as Jesus, the Lamb. He arose as the Lord High Priest. He conquered death and the grave. When Mary met Him, she fell at His feet, calling Him her Lord. He said to her, “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” His last cry on the cross had been, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He had paid the penalty of man’s transgression. He had met the demands of justice. Now He is about to take His own blood, as the High Priest, into the Heavenly Holy of Holies, to make the eternal redemption.

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus let love loose. It enabled God to give eternal life, a perfect redemption, a perfect freedom, to Satan-enslaved man. It made Jesus the head of a new creation. It made this new creation man a creative being, who is in the class with God. Out of that dark tomb came the light of the ages. Now we can understand John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in the darkness, ‘but shall have the light of life.”

New creation men, a new type of men, a new species of men, are to walk the earth. There were physical giants upon the earth at one time. Now there are spiritual giants.

Jesus had the life and the light in Him, but it could not shine during His earth walk. Now He is giving that life to the little light-bearers, the new creation. In the midst of this darkness of sense knowledge, we are to shine as lights. The life of which Jesus spoke so often was going to produce the light, the wisdom, the creative ability, that the world had never had. There had not been a creative mind since the fall of man. It was life and light from the tomb.

It came streaming forth, a radiance that has lighted the world. If one were poetically inclined, he would become lyrical thinking of that empty sepulcher as giving birth to life, light, freedom, love and a new creation. They thought they had rid themselves of Jesus, but that empty sepulcher gave birth to millions of Jesus men. When one realises what the resurrection of Jesus has meant to the human race, one stands amazed.

When the Master arose from the tomb in Jerusalem, He gave to the world a new kind of love, a new kind of life. Jesus lived it. Paul gives it to us. He says, “It seeks not its own but always its brother’s good.” This new thing that came out of the empty sepulcher is the most revolutionary thing that ever touched the human. It never takes advantage. It never does an unkind thing. It is never the parent of tyranny or bloodshed.

It gives birth to new creation men with God’s life. This new kind of life gives to man the ability to stand in the presence of God without the sense of guilt, condemnation or inferiority. It took out of man the fear of circumstances, the dread of old age, the shrinking of the weak in the presence of the strong. It made all men equal. It made the strong bear the burdens of the weak. It made the world a safe place for babies to be born and reared.

After His resurrection, He carried His blood into the Holy of Holies; for you remember He died a lamb and He arose the High Priest of the New Covenant. That New Covenant had just come into being when He carried His blood into the presence of the supreme court of the universe. The blood was accepted. That blood cleansed the Old Testament saints who had trusted in the blood of bulls and goats; it put their sin away. That blood sealed the New Covenant. It only required one offering.

It makes no difference what you’ve done, or haven’t done, Jesus Christ is interceding for you at the right hand of the Father. He is alive! He is well! The grave could not hold Him. Chains could not hold Him. The devil did not win! He lost an eternal battle that will ultimately be consummated with the devil himself being chained, locked, and cast into outer darkness forever (Rev. 20:10,14).

Happy Easter!