Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. It’s the most powerful evidence that Jesus is who He said He was...the Messiah, the Savior of the world.
But in order to fully grasp the power of the resurrection, we must first go back and understand why He had to die. With out His death there is no resurrection. And in order to have a complete understanding of why Jesus had to die, we will have to look into the reason He came to live among us. Let’s go all the way back to where the story begins.
It does not begin with the Christmas story of Jesus being born. It begins all the way back in Genesis with the the first man God created, Adam. God placed Adam in the garden of Eden and gave him authority as God’s manager over the earth. God told him there was only one thing he wasn’t allowed to do.
Genesis 2:15-17 “15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Now, this seems like a very short list of instructions. All Adam had to do is not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But of course, it didn’t take long for Adam to rebel against God. He decided to break away from God’s kingdom and issued his declaration of independence.
He did this by disobeying God’s command and doing the one thing that God said not to do. He ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This act of rebellion triggered something that God warned Adam about, and this morning we will look into what that was.
Genesis 2:17 “17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
The Hebrew word for rebellion is “sin.” Based on the verse we just read, what did God said would happen if Adam sinned? He would die. Did Adam know what it meant to die? No, death had not been activated in the earth. Death was there, but was powerless to do anything. Death was waiting in the wings to begin its work. And it didn’t have to wait long. By the third chapter of Genesis, Adam admits that he has done the one thing God told him not to do.
Genesis 3:12 “12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Adam and Eve eat from the tree, and in their act of rebellion from the kingdom, they have now activated death. It is released to do its work, which was to separate them from God. You see, the work of death is not just to kill mankind physically, but to hold us in order to keep us separated from God. This is the second or spiritual death.
Romans 5:12 “12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”
Now all mankind has a problem, we are all guilty of sin through our bloodline going back, all the way to Adam. Sin has brought
death to everyone. Every human is born with the blood disease called sin.
So here’s the big question everyone asks: Why couldn’t God just decide to ignore the sin problem of mankind? Or just declare everyone is now innocent of sin?
The easiest way to understand the answer, is to say that God is not only a God of love, but also a God of justice, and justice demands that sin must be punished.
God Himself established the punishment for sin as being death when He told Adam he would die if he ate the fruit. God cannot go back on His word, that’s why the bible says again in Romans 6:23 that the “wages” of sin is death.” Sin and death are eternally tied together. We’ve all earned death through our sinful bloodline from Adam.
But look at what Adam and Eve do to try to cover their sin.
Genesis 3:7 “7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”
Adam and Eve used fig leaves to make clothes. But this was not an acceptable sacrifice for covering sin. Blood is required to cover sin. Look at what God does.
Genesis 3:21 “21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”
Something had to die in order to cover their sin. The blood of an animal had to be shed. So God killed animals and covered Adam and Eve’s nakedness with the skins..and their sin with the blood.
Leviticus17:11 “11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”
Hebrews 9:22 “22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Blood is required to forgive the sin of mankind. But it cannot be the diseased blood that was passed down from Adam. It has to be perfect innocent blood.
Here’s the thing about blood...life is in the blood. And without it, death is imminent. Clinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation.
Everything you need to live is supplied by the blood. All the nutrients, all the oxygen, all the immunity from viruses. As a matter of fact, All the major organs exist to serve the blood. Without blood there is no life.
When ur heart stops beating they declare u dead, but it’s not the heart that has the life in it. It’s the blood. You can survive with out your heart functioning, but u can’t survive without having access to what the heart does. The heart moves the blood around the body. During a heart transplant surgeons use a machine to do the heart’s job.
If you are shot, it’s not the bullet that kills you, it’s the hole that allows the blood to drain from you. If you are stabbed, it is not the knife that kills you, it’s the hole that allows the blood to drain from you.
The blood carries life, but it can also carry death. When your blood is poisoned, you have a problem. Cancer is a disease of
the blood. Diabetes is a disease of the blood. Kidney disease is a problem because the kidneys clean the blood and without them, toxins build up in the blood..and those toxins are sent around the body through the blood. Healthy blood is vital to humans.
Sin is a blood disease passed down to all humans from Adam.
We need a spiritual blood transfusion because of our blood disease. But it can’t be from another person who has the same disease. It has to be from someone who doesn’t have the disease.
So let’s recap for just a second. Death was activated by sin, so as long as you have sin, you are under the authority of death.
In order to release you from the authority of death you have to deal with what gives death its power. And that is sin.
The sin problem can only be dealt with by the shedding of innocent blood.
But God loved us so much that He didn’t want to kill us over our sin. But sin still demands the justice of death.
This is really the main thing we have to deal with. If we had a way to get rid of our sin problem, we would no longer have a death problem. The answer is found in the second half of this verse.
Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Jesus has provided the way to overcome this death problem.
But how was He able to do this? He became a man born of the
Holy Spirit, with innocent blood that could be sacrificed to forgive sins.
Hebrews 2:14-15 “14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things,that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
The fear of death is the one thing that keeps us in bondage. So Jesus used death to defeat the devil and release us from the fear of death. Now we can be free.
Romans 5:17-19 “17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
Jesus came to fix the sin and death problem that Adam created, by dying in our place. Well that sounds just great. But there’s a snag that most of us never consider. Remember earlier when we talked about what activated death? It was sin. You see, without sin, death can’t take you. And according to 1 Peter Jesus didn’t have any sin.
1 Peter 2:22 “22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.”
So Jesus needs to die so He can shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins, but death can’t take Him because He has no sin. It seems we are at a stalemate. Death wants to kill Jesus, but it has no power over Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus said, I know where I can get some sin. Mankind has plenty of it, so I’ll take it off of them and put it on myself. And then death can take me.
1 Peter 1:18-19 “18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
Innocent blood has now been shed for the sins of mankind. The sin problem has been removed from us...so now death has no power over us!
But that’s not the end of the story. Look what happens when Jesus dies.
Matthew 27:50-53 “50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep wereraised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”
The saints who had died were being held by death because their sin had not been removed and death still had power over them.
But Jesus set the captives free when he died because he took away the power of death to hold them...it was sin. Once their sin was gone, death had no authority over them.
Isaiah 61:1 ”The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, becausethe Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound”
The prison gates were opened when Jesus died, because He took away sin which is the controlling power which allows death to hold. Jesus has the keys of death, hell and the grave, and used them to unlock the hold that death had on the righteous... and that’s why they came out of the grave..when Jesus did.
Romans 6:9-10 “9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.”
Acts 2:24 “24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”
And it’s the same for you! Once you have trusted in Jesus for salvation and he takes away your sin, death has no authority over you.
Description of Jesus: Revelation 1:5-6 “5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Jesus, through the shedding of His blood, has satisfied the punishment for our sin that justice demanded. And when He rose again, the power of death was defeated forever.
God established the price that our rebellion cost, and then He paid it Himself. It’s paid for, but it’s up to us to accept His payment. God doesn’t force anyone to accept His gift of salvation through the blood of Jesus.
But if you would like to have His blood erase your sins, so that death will not have a hold on you...you must believe and confess.
Romans 10:9-10 “9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
All you have to do is believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and confess Him as your Lord...and you will be saved.
If you would like to accept this gift of salvation, the first step is to decide you will put your faith in the work that Jesus did for you. If you are ready then pray this:
Father God, / I believe Jesus died / as the one and only perfect sacrifice for my sins. / And I believe You raised Him, from the dead. / I surrender my life completely to Your will, / and from this point on, / I confess that Jesus is my Lord. / I believe You have released me from the power of death, / and I will live with You / and for You / forever. / Amen.
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