The Resurrection

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Fellow Israelites, listen carefully to these words:  Jesus the Nazarene, a man thoroughly accredited by God to you — the miracles and wonders and signs that God did through him are common knowledge — this Jesus, following the deliberate and well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you.  And you pinned him to a cross and killed him.  But God untied the death ropes and raised him up.  Death was no match for him.  Acts 2:22-24

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The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, the One you killed by hanging him on a cross.  God set him on high at his side, Prince and Savior, to give Israel the gift of a changed life and sins forgiven.  Acts 5:30-31

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And we saw it, saw it all, everything he did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem where they killed him, hung him from a cross.  But in three days God had him up, alive, and out where he could be seen.  Acts 10:39-40

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Could it be any clearer?  Our old way of life was nailed to the Cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life — no longer at sin’s every beck and call!  What we believe is this:  If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection.  Romans 6:7-8

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He was sheer weakness and humiliation when he was killed on the Cross, but oh, he’s alive now — in the mighty power of God!  2 Corinthians 13:14a

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He was supreme in the beginning and — leading the resurrection parade — he is supreme in the end.  From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone.  So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding.  Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe — people and things, animals and atoms — get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross.  You yourselves are a case study of what he does.  At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got.  But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence.  Colossians 1:18b-22

The Cross

I really love to read familiar scriptures in The Message

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Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself.  Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree?”  That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the Cross:  He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse.  And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too.  We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing — just the way Abraham received it.  Galatians 3:13-14

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For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ.  Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate.  Can’t you see the central issue in all this?  It is not what you and I do — submit to circumcision, reject circumcision.  It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!  Galatians 6:14-15

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Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people — free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds.  And not just barely free, either.  Abundantly free!  Ephesians 1:7

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When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God.  God brought you alive — right along with Christ!  Think of it!  All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s Cross.  He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.  Colossians 2:13-15

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He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way.  His wounds became your healing.  1 Peter 2:24