Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

If the cross is the answer to our sin, then the resurrection of Jesus is the answer to our death.

Easter is about Christ meeting death head-on in its own territory—a tomb—and He won. He conquered death and offers life, as He does forgiveness, as a gift.

There are many bondages from which men and women have had hope for escape. But death is one bondage from which there has been no hope. There are prisons, many from which we can go free, but there is one prison from which we can never go free by our own efforts: the prison of death. Our feeble hands cannot tear away the bars. Frantically, we beat our heads upon those bars, but to no avail. Only one Person has been able to enter that prison and lift the bars away—Jesus Christ, and He did it on Easter.

Easter morning is different from all other mornings. It flooded our world with a strange new light, and all the darkness of the universe cannot put it out. It is light that has imperishable life.

I read the story of Pastor Joseph R. Sizoo who preached a sermon in 1941 at a church in New York City. It was an evening service, and not many people were present. The church was depressed as it was about to be torn down to make way for more “progressive” development. Yet Sizoo spoke with hope that night. It was as if he had an easel in the pulpit with him. He was an artist painting a dawn, and what a dawn it was! As he came near the end of the sermon, he was recorded as saying: “Once the dawn has started, nothing can stop it.”

Easter was a burst of light, a dawn, a daybreak, and nothing can ever put out its light.

It is little wonder you find an invincibility in the New Testament. It says such radical and exciting things: “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8). “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Revelation 11:15). All these bold declarations were made after Easter.

Easter has changed the human landscape, bringing hope, life, and light into the shadows. The new order of life has been thrust into the old order of death.

It should be said that the cross and the resurrection must be held together. Historically, they are only three days apart, but in terms of faith they are much closer. It is as if they are two sides of the same event. They are like the palm and back of my hand which cannot be separated without destroying my hand. Without the resurrection of Jesus, His death would be sheer tragedy. Without His death, we cannot be sure that the resurrection is anything more than brute power. But holding them together, we can be sure that we meet the same kind of power in both, the mighty love of God. We can trust that love as eternal!

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.