Victory in Jesus

As the world readies to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter, we join in the celebration. Everybody loves a winner. We can celebrate that "God wins". The cross marks the victory of God's triumph over evil. But, a true perspective of faith is the realization that God's victory came at a tremendous price. The real tragedy of the cross was not even in the physical suffering that Jesus endured. Nor was the victory the resurrection on the third day.

Since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, mankind and God have been alienated by sin. That sin was the frustration of God's love for the mankind whom He created to share His love. The tragedy of the cross was the sin that made it necessary. "For God so loved the world that He gave His.....Son."

The resurrection is the authentication of the message of the cross. It is what proves that it is true. The victory was in the blood that was shed that frees those who accept it by faith. That acceptance is not a passive intellectual acknowledgment. It is a confession of belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior upon which one bets everything in the physical world. That faith is in the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross for our salvation. It is accepted only by hearing the proclamation which takes root in a person's soul. It leads every believer to a confession of faith that is acted upon by a compulsion to do anything that God commands. It will even lead one to stand in water to be joined, in baptism, with Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit in His death, burial and resurrection as God's Messiah.

Some believe that Satan is like God having powers to know all things past, present and future. The Bible suggests that this is not the case. If Satan had known what the cross was going to do to his powers, he would have done everything in his power to have prevented it. He certainly would not have sent Judas on a mission of betrayal.

Romans 6 tells us that since the time of the Fall, all mankind was a prisoner of sin. Satan ruled unchained, for all who sinned were his slaves. (Romans 6:6). The cross was what broke the power of sin to grant to us the freedom to walk, once again, with the Father in the Garden. The story of the Bible is that of Paradise lost; and, Paradise regained. The cross removes the sword at the edge of Eden, and nullifies the lie that trapped Adam and Eve and every one of their descendants. The cross opens the door of escape from a life of compulsion and misery, into a house with many rooms where Jesus waits upon us to join Him. That spiritual existence is ratified by love, peace and joy which we begin to experience, even in this life, as we look forward to eternity. The bridegroom waits for all who will enter within.

The resurrection is the proof that the message of the cross is real. But, in spite of the terrible suffering, it is the death of the Messiah, in accordance with the scriptures, that is the real victory. It is the victory over eternal death, the penalty of which was sin.

As we stand in awe before the cross, we can regret the pain; but, we should shed tears of joy for the gift. It is the only hope that the we have in this world.