Oh Grave, Where is Thy Victory?
“...behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
I don't know about you but I laughed when I read the angel of the Lord sat upon the rolled away stone much like a triumphant conqueror sits on a defeated king’s throne. With power and authority he testified Jesus was indeed alive just as Jesus said He would be! I could go on and write about the resurrection story that many of you know as Easter. It is not only a beautiful and wondrous story but the whole of Christianity rests on that one pivotal piece of history. Without the resurrection there would be no hope, God would be a liar and Christians of all people would be the most pitied. But today I'm going to take Easter in a different direction. Did you know since that first Easter, resurrections happen all the time?
Every time someone is saved a resurrection occurs. The grave clothes of sin fall off, the heart once dead in trespasses takes a breath and the stone of death that sealed their fate is rolled aside as if it were made of paper. They are free to run out of the grave and into the marvelous light of truth!
Sadly many don't, which is why you probably were as unaware of all the resurrections as I once was.
Think about it, when was the last time you were utterly astonished and in awe of the transformation of salvation in someone?
Exactly.
Hardly any of us.
Why?
There are many who come to believe in Jesus and are saved but like the disciples, return to the grave looking for what isn't there anymore. They forget (or never accepted and understood) the testimony of life Jesus has spoken over them at their resurrection. They seek answers in the shadow of their tombs thinking they must revisit and sort through the finished work as if it were still undone. They don't rejoice in the truth of who they are now because of what Jesus did then. If they only understood, how confidently they would live in the resurrection power pumping through their veins!
There were times I did the same thing. My testimony wasn't enough to keep the truth that I'm risen with Christ alive so I would go running back to the tomb of my old self to rummage through the grave clothes as if something was forgotten somewhere in the layers and perhaps, just maybe I deserved to still be there.
Did you catch the problem? It was MY testimony I was weighing the truth of salvation on. I was like the disciples who weighed what they saw and were told post resurrection on their own interpretation versus what Jesus himself had said. But something still stirred in them. Though they were slow to believe and quick to doubt they were compelled to see the truth. Though it took way longer than it should have (haven't we all been this slow lol!) disbelief quickly melted into belief. It wasn't until they realized the absolute authority and power of Jesus' testimony that they had their gut wrenching conviction moment and knew beyond all doubt from that point on not only who Jesus is, but who they were in Him!
I now carry that same conviction in me! From a young girl I believed but now I KNOW my life as a new creature in Christ was carefully engraved by HIS hand. My testimony is actually HIS testimony He has written in my DNA. Every time I run back to the grave to peek at my mistakes or to wrestle with the grave clothes of my past there is truth, sitting gloriously victorious on the rolled away stone of death reminding that what I seek isn’t there anymore.
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
“And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”