He is alive!

History has lists of great men and women- conquerors, rulers, inventors, philosophers, leaders, teachers and so on. All of them lived and died. Their final resting places are visited by tourists and pilgrims. But there is only one person, in the entire human history, who lived, died and came back to life. Even today His tomb is lying open as a proof of His resurrection.

The empty tomb is the sign of victory over death, death that is the outcome of God’s justice. God is holy, righteous and just and His justice demands the death of a sinner (Rom.6:23).

God created mankind in His own image with the freedom of choice or free will. He told them the consequences of both aligning with His will as well as going against it, and expected them to honour Him with their choices. Missing this mark was called sin. Mankind failed miserably and inherited suffering and death as its consequences. However, knowing human helplessness God in His infinite love and mercy made a plan to overcome death. So before expelling Adam and Eve from the garden God made a covering for their guilt and shame which was the foreshadow of a later event that would remove sin’s guilt and shame. There began a long drawn enmity between Satan and mankind. Then a promise was made that the son of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. This was again the promise of the ultimate victory of Jesus over sin, death and Satan.

All through history people made wrong choices and aligned themselves with Satan. The Bible makes it clear that all have misused their free will and missed the mark. So the consequences were terrible and ultimately it would lead us to eternal destruction. We are dead in sin and liable to face the justice of the holy God. But God knew that we would never be able to face it. That’s why He promised to crush Satan’s head by sending the Son of the woman.

It happened thousands of years later when God incarnated as the Son of a woman. He lived a sinless life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice fulfilling the justice of God. Now we don’t have to try fulfilling the justice of God, but instead in God’s mercy He is accepting the sacrifice of Jesus as our death. When we personally accept this and surrender to His Lordship, God is giving us the garment of righteousness removing the guilt of sin and shame. Satan tried to crush Jesus’s heel on the cross but Jesus crushed Satan’s head by His resurrection. When He declared from the cross “it is finished”, justice was done and the sins of mankind were atoned for. When He rose from the grave victory was established. Now all those who put their trust in this victory can pass from death to Eternal Life!

So if you want to celebrate victory over sin and death and move on to Eternal Life, come unto Jesus! He is Alive and Able to Save!