Last time we considered two aspects of how Jesus saved His people from their sins: He lived for us and He died for us. This time: He rose for us!

1 Corinthians 15:14, 17 “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is EMPTY and your faith is also EMPTY… And if Christ is not risen, your faith is FUTILE; you are still in your sins!”

When He rose, He fulfilled at least two objectives:

First, by rising from the dead, Jesus proved that He is who He said He is. Jesus is God—the One and only true and living God. That He is the living God means that He has always lived and can never die. That is why for the Son of God to become our Savior, He had to become a man. Only God can save us because only God is without sin. But since God cannot die, the Son of God became a man—not only to live for us to provide us with the righteousness required to enter Heaven, but also in order to die for us.

The Baby was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger so He could live and die for those He came to save. But being the living God means that even when the Son of God became a man, no one or nothing could take His life from Him. Nothing could kill Him. What about the cross? The cross didn’t kill Jesus.

John 10:17-18 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

He rose from the dead to prove that because He is God, death could not hold Him.

Second, by rising from the dead Jesus defeated sin, death and Hell for those He came to save. The most important thing Jesus came to do was to save His people from their sins. The greatest temptation Jesus faced in (the Garden of Gethsemane) was to say “No” to the Father’s will concerning the cross to save His people. The greatest sin Jesus could have committed would have been to say “No” to the cross. By saying “Yes” to the Father, and to the cross, Jesus defeated sin.

Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death…”

The wages or penalty for sin is death. By rising, even though all the sin and guilt of His people was poured out on Him, He defeated death. By rising, Jesus defeated Hell. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Hell is not in the future of those He came to save.

There is another often forgotten and undervalued action Jesus took on behalf of His people. Next time...