Hope Fellowship Blog

R.A.I.S.E.D. Part 2

Earlier I posted the first in our series of posts about the truth of Easter from Acts 2.  Peter speaks  clearly about the resurrection and why it is essential to Christianity. What we learn about the resurrection from Acts 2. To do so, each point will fill out the acronym “R.A.I.S.E.D”

"R" REALLY Dead

"A" ALWAYS the PLAN

I heard a speaker say recently that it was not as if the disciples were sitting around on Saturday night after Jesus died on Friday having a party saying, “I can’t wait until tomorrow!” The disciples, though Jesus had clearly taught of his coming death and resurrection, didn’t “get it” until he appeared to them, but the plan had always been the plan of God.

Look at verse 23 again, “this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”

Jesus’s death was carried out by sinful and lawless men, but under the sovereign direction of God. So, the answer, ultimately to who killed Jesus, is “God did.” God not only knew what was happening-- he planned for sin to be paid for by the death of his son. Men who were fully accountable for their sinful actions, but ultimately if it were not the plan of the triune God and if Jesus did not willingly lay down his life, no man would be able to take it from him.

Listen to what Isaiah 53:5,10 says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one-- to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all...yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.”

The death of Jesus should remind us of the seriousness with which God sees sin- that God the Son must be die to make sin right shows us that God takes sin seriously enough to crush his own Son. We must not think of sin but lightly in light of the real, physical death of Christ. If you want to see the seriousness of sin, look to the death of Christ. If you want to see God’s opinion of His Son-- see the resurrection and glorification of Christ. Both go hand in hand. From eternity past, it was always the plan of God to send his son for the payment for sins and to raise him to life.

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