Matthew 28

The phrase, “He is not here, for he has risen…,” is the key to what Christianity is, and as to why we believe in God, rather than any other religion or belief system.

It is so vital that this statement be made because without this, Christianity would all be a hoax and Jesus would have not been who He said He was, God.

Jesus died for the truth. In a sense, He died for His faith in the God the Father. He was ridiculed and blasphemed as if He were not God, as He claimed to be. And He showed Himself to be God by doing just what He said He would do, rebuild the temple three days later.

Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ what do we have? We have the body of a man who claimed to God, a belief system that revealed itself as a lie, and many upset people who had followed His every move. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, He would have just been a martyr (someone who dies for their faith). But such is not the case. That is NOT what we have here. What do we have?

W have a risen Savior in Jesus Christ. We have a man who claimed to be equal with God, and revealed to the world that He is by rising again from the dead. We have a man who took upon Himself the sins of the world and washed our sins away, and we have a man who bore the wrath of God to fulfill the Father’s will.

Without all of that, we would still be condemned to hell, our sins are still not forgiven, and we, ourself, would have to bear the wrath of God. But all was done for us, in LOVE. 1st John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” It was His love that was demonstrated upon the cross, it was the will of the Father to accomplish such a task, only one person in all of the world, in all of history could do so, and it was the man, Christ Jesus! Thank you Lord for that!

God saw fit for Him to send His only Son into the world to die for the world. Jesus, being fully God and fully man, was capable of doing such a great thing as dying for us, but an even greater thing to rise again from the dead, just as He said He would.

That is what separates Christianity from all other religions. Other religions say, “What can I do for my god?”, when Christianity says, “It has already been done.”

“It is finished!”

“Dying for us was the most He could do, living for Him is the least we can do.”