Jesus was obedient in His resurrection. He had promised His people He would rise again, and had He failed to rise again, His promises would be broken, and His sacrifice polluted by lies and sin.
But what if Jesus had never promised to rise again, and not been obligated to do so? We have spent many weeks examining the many promises that could not have been made, and how the hope and rejoicing of the saints would have been crushed.
Had Jesus not risen, we could not have been united with Him in new life. Without new life in the risen Christ, what would become of our sanctification? Paul's preaching on our freedom from the bondage of sin in the risen Christ would have never taken place.
Had Jesus never risen, we would have no man to intercede for us, no High Priest to come between us poor and helpless creatures and the Almighty, no strong deliverer to stand for us in the judgment.
Had He never arose, how could we rely upon His promises to raise us up? How much hope can we, in our feebleness, place in a dead man to deliver us from death?
It is a horrible thought, but what if Jesus had decided that, with His death as God's Lamb, He had accomplished enough to save us. What if He had desired to return to His spiritual glory with the Father and the Spirit, and abandon the incarnation in the grave?
To ask the question is to answer it: our Savior's love for us was not finished at Calvary! He intends to secure ALL the blessings of His resurrection for us!
Jesus will never abandon the incarnation. He loves His people too much, and ALL our hope and joy He is determined to accomplish in His risen body.
Jesus is in His humanity with us, for the long haul!
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Great Sermon! What a wonderful message on the necessity of the incarnation and the necessity of the resurrection. This gifted pastor made those things so clear and easy to understand. Anyone who wants to understand these mysteries better should listen to this sermon.
John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...