Rom 6:4 (Reason for Resurrection)

I like the way that C. Lincoln comments about baptism, because he makes it the most clear. He says, “Paul has established that all who are baptized into Christ (not in water) are baptized into His death. In the mind of God, the believing sinner has been rendered just as dead as Jesus was on the Cross but has not had to physically die. Paul shared this very thought with the Galatians by writing, ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20).”

I began explaining yesterday about the Perfection of Christ, which is essential to understanding what the resurrection is all about, and how it relates to the receiving believer. I left off with reminding the reader of how His birth was perfect, and His walk, so also was His ministry and life perfect. (I laugh when I think of what a SHOCK it must have been to Mary as a mother when the next child she had was born, because THAT child had a sin nature, which Christ did not…like, WOW, this kid is REALLY BAD!!! That is what I picture. LOL)

Now we also know that at Calvary, Jesus was the perfect Sin Offering. I discussed Levitacal law, minimally, now…I think the next mention should be of Christ’s Righteousness. There needs to be a least some acute understanding about how the Righteousness of Christ might be imputed, “put into us,” as we receive Him by faith, or the reader will not fully grasp the concept of why there had to be a resurrection

What I haven’t covered, but am sure the Lord will soon have me go back to and study in detail, is Romans 1-3. These are the chapters where Paul takes the time to in detail explain our need for Righteousness, which we desperately lack.

Jesus said that He came to FULFILL the law. We all know about the ten commandments, but there are few that truly realize that there was absolutely NO WAY that we could DO them. We have no capacity within ourselves to DO RIGHT, at all, not even on our best possible day. EVER! Ever. I mean, EVER, AT ALL! I cannot stress enough how UNrighteous we actually are. We, as humans don’t want to accept that. Because we are righteous in our own eyes, and the bible says that those that are righteous in their own eyes are evil.

Don’t believe me? Go through one day in your life, and try to do all 10 of the commandments! Look at your life and see if you have kept even 5 of them, maybe even 1! We think that we are ok if we have never killed or stolen, but the truth is, that if we have offended in even one part of the law (which we all have), we are guilty of not keeping THEM ALL. And the penalty for breaking the law is death! But, that is what Christ was saying when He told them that He came to fulfill the law, He meant…”I have kept the law in every way, because you could NOT.”

Bare with me folks, the reason that I explain this, is because there are still some Christians that whole-heartedly believe that they are “good people” and what they need to know is that they deceive themselves, because the bible says that there is none righteous, no not one. Jesus said that there is none good but God, not one! The sooner that we realize this and can accept that there is NO WAY we will be able to do anything that will please God, the better off we are. We will be freed to know that that is why Christ came.

We MUST fully understand and grasp this, or we can’t fully receive what Christ has done and begin to comprehend His ascension and the reason WHY He ascended.

SO, what is the reason WHY He ascended? I actually just told you just three paragraphs up when I told you what the penalty for breaking the law was. The penalty is death. Did Christ ever break the law? No, not even in one point. In all points He kept it. So, He rose again because the grave could not hold Him, legally, He could not STAY dead, because He was PERFECT. He was perfect because He was God and God cannot die. Does that make sense? (I personally had never given it much thought and just thought it was because He was fulfilling scripture, I thought that was it.)

***some of this may bore some people, because they already know this stuff, but for goofball dorks like me, it takes really getting down and digging in the Word for myself to gain true understanding enough so that I could share it with others…I can’t do that just by hearing it alone. What I urge anyone to do if they are reading these writings, sit down in your Word and search it out for yourselves. The bible says to study to show yourself approved unto GOD, (not man, not anyone but HIM), and what He sees in secret, He rewards people openly for.) We should always seek to know Jesus and His Words for ourselves. ☺