"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1Peter 1:3
March question: Is it important whether Jesus Christ was spiritually raised to life or completely and physically?
The “bones of Jesus” has revived once again the question of Jesus’ actual resurrection from the dead, grats to Discovery Channel and that movie director guy. The claims do not warrant time nor space here but because of it, I had the above question posed to me. Had I not been studying the Tabernacle Bible Study, I would have still been confused by the importance of ANY resurrection of Jesus. Christian teaching emphasizes the cross and the blood being crucial to our salvation. To read scholars’ idea that without the RESURRECTION, we are doomed to experience the merciless wrath of God, I was stymied. WHY the resurrection? Any past conclusion was contrived, not Bible-based. I figured it was the fame factor—how long would Jesus have endured the masking of time and twisting of truth if history had not revealed His last and greatest miracle? Had Christ remained dead, our collective memory would have distorted (even worse than it has) and perhaps completely forgot His incredible life and teachings. How MORE likely is it that we would have obliterated our salvation by His blood? As one author writes, “If Jesus Christ had not clearly—and unequivocally—been raised bodily as the permanent conqueror of death on behalf of the human race, we would never have heard of Him.”
Though this might be true, the picture I now have of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, has revealed so much more than reasonable-ness. I said, “more than reason”. The supernatural power of God’s teaching and revelation does not remove our ability to think and piece God’s Truth into our reality which is His Creation! I often review the necessity to take ALL of God’s Word as reliable truth at Christianity Is Jewish, the other blog. Therefore, the first reason to accept the bodily resurrection of our Savior is because God has said so, repeatedly, in His Holy Word. Thomas was allowed to touch Jesus’ resurrected body. John and two others ate food with Jesus. The tomb was EMPTY with the grave clothes left in the position they had been worn. Jesus walked and talked with believers on the road to Emmaus. They did NOT recognize Him and assuredly, there was nothing unusual about his appearance. He was NOT a ghost! As soon as we reject any one of these events, we are taking god’s Truth into our own hands, raising ourselves above God and shredding His Word for our convenience, to fit our small, pathetic minds.
The shock portrayed when the empty tomb was found had nothing to do with Jesus’ resurrection. Mary wanted to know what “they” had done with the body! The disciples believed Jesus’ lifeless body had been stolen. They were not convinced of His living body, the First Fruit of the coming harvest, because such a preposterous idea had never entered their heads, EVEN THOUGH JESUS TOLD THEM HE WOULD LIVE AFTER HIS OWN CRUCIFIXION. Their minds could not conceive the thought. Seeing was believing. Not a ghost, Christ was risen in the flesh, regenerated.
The toying with the generation of life in Genesis to a smaller, more palatable miracle called evolution—creation over billions of years, is very much the same as the meltdown of this true resurrection miracle. If faith shrinks down to fit the creation story into natural form, it is inevitable that faith will not be satisfied by the limiting of Christ’s power to re-create Himself, in Spirit, Mind, and Body. It truly is the foundation for the hope of Heaven…the New Earth…a physical existence. The argument could be made that just spirit resurrection is still a supernatural belief. So it is. Left with only two choices if you are going to believe the Easter story to be true, many will choose spirit resurrection. After all, it is “easier”. Or is it? I have never seen a ghost or a resurrected body!
“Therefore My heart is glad and My tongue rejoices; My body also will rest secure, because You will not abandon Me to the grave, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.” ~Psalm 16:9-10
March question: Is it important whether Jesus Christ was spiritually raised to life or completely and physically?
The “bones of Jesus” has revived once again the question of Jesus’ actual resurrection from the dead, grats to Discovery Channel and that movie director guy. The claims do not warrant time nor space here but because of it, I had the above question posed to me. Had I not been studying the Tabernacle Bible Study, I would have still been confused by the importance of ANY resurrection of Jesus. Christian teaching emphasizes the cross and the blood being crucial to our salvation. To read scholars’ idea that without the RESURRECTION, we are doomed to experience the merciless wrath of God, I was stymied. WHY the resurrection? Any past conclusion was contrived, not Bible-based. I figured it was the fame factor—how long would Jesus have endured the masking of time and twisting of truth if history had not revealed His last and greatest miracle? Had Christ remained dead, our collective memory would have distorted (even worse than it has) and perhaps completely forgot His incredible life and teachings. How MORE likely is it that we would have obliterated our salvation by His blood? As one author writes, “If Jesus Christ had not clearly—and unequivocally—been raised bodily as the permanent conqueror of death on behalf of the human race, we would never have heard of Him.”
Though this might be true, the picture I now have of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, has revealed so much more than reasonable-ness. I said, “more than reason”. The supernatural power of God’s teaching and revelation does not remove our ability to think and piece God’s Truth into our reality which is His Creation! I often review the necessity to take ALL of God’s Word as reliable truth at Christianity Is Jewish, the other blog. Therefore, the first reason to accept the bodily resurrection of our Savior is because God has said so, repeatedly, in His Holy Word. Thomas was allowed to touch Jesus’ resurrected body. John and two others ate food with Jesus. The tomb was EMPTY with the grave clothes left in the position they had been worn. Jesus walked and talked with believers on the road to Emmaus. They did NOT recognize Him and assuredly, there was nothing unusual about his appearance. He was NOT a ghost! As soon as we reject any one of these events, we are taking god’s Truth into our own hands, raising ourselves above God and shredding His Word for our convenience, to fit our small, pathetic minds.
The shock portrayed when the empty tomb was found had nothing to do with Jesus’ resurrection. Mary wanted to know what “they” had done with the body! The disciples believed Jesus’ lifeless body had been stolen. They were not convinced of His living body, the First Fruit of the coming harvest, because such a preposterous idea had never entered their heads, EVEN THOUGH JESUS TOLD THEM HE WOULD LIVE AFTER HIS OWN CRUCIFIXION. Their minds could not conceive the thought. Seeing was believing. Not a ghost, Christ was risen in the flesh, regenerated.
The toying with the generation of life in Genesis to a smaller, more palatable miracle called evolution—creation over billions of years, is very much the same as the meltdown of this true resurrection miracle. If faith shrinks down to fit the creation story into natural form, it is inevitable that faith will not be satisfied by the limiting of Christ’s power to re-create Himself, in Spirit, Mind, and Body. It truly is the foundation for the hope of Heaven…the New Earth…a physical existence. The argument could be made that just spirit resurrection is still a supernatural belief. So it is. Left with only two choices if you are going to believe the Easter story to be true, many will choose spirit resurrection. After all, it is “easier”. Or is it? I have never seen a ghost or a resurrected body!
“Therefore My heart is glad and My tongue rejoices; My body also will rest secure, because You will not abandon Me to the grave, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.” ~Psalm 16:9-10
No comments:
Post a Comment