Resurrection 6 Resurrection and Reality (cont.)

[HKHaugan]

The eighteen realities we have covered describe the human condition, the fragmented confusion resulting from our spiritual separation from God. The only One who understands all of this is God and He has sent His Son to reveal everything necessary to overcome the complicated conditions in which we find ourselves. The realities that have been described above are the realities Jesus took upon Himself. The Father sent His Son into the aloneness we all experience from birth by being born into the flesh, into a family, into a world where everyman is literally an island unto himself. He embraced the total human condition, died on a Cross and was resurrected. His life is the means of restoration and recovery, which is what salvation, being saved, is all about. The risen Jesus actually moves into the heart of each person. This is the work of the Holy Spirit---to bring Jesus into the heart. That is exactly why the bottom line in Scripture is Jesus.

But the picture of Jesus on the Cross dying for our sins, taking our place, absorbing the punishment due us, being a perfect sacrifice, a right sacrifice, the only possible sacrifice to atone for the lostness of every person, must be viewed with a question. Just what was the purpose of all this pain for us? Three things. First, He must really think we are worth recovering. Second, we He must really love us. Third, He must see us as part of something essential to His overall plan that is larger than any of us can grasp in our fallen state. The essence is personal, interpersonal and spiritual. God is extending His mind, heart and being.

He has shown in Jesus the means to accomplish His will. It is the ultimate connection that restores intimacy to, spiritual closeness with and openness for, God’s presence. That connection is faith. Jesus’ faith was a perfect faith, a perfect example of faith’s eternal quality and His gift to fallen sinners. Faith opens us to perfect love as God loves, perfect grace that initiates God’s restoring us to Him, perfect forgiveness for hearts yearning to be right with God and others, perfect mercy that waits on our will to accept Him and perfect compassion that brings His mercy, love and forgiveness through a perfect suffering on the Cross. The foundation for Jesus’ life, death and Resurrection was faith, faith illustrating one magnificent truth, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1Cor.3:11)

When that word ‘foundation’ is used it covers every aspect of life from what we can to what we can’t see. It covers our mind, heart and spirit. Jesus provides a new intellectual foundation, a new attitudinal foundation and, most importantly, a new spiritual foundation.

Jesus believed His Father’s promises as they were given in the Word. He believed for us, trusted for us and had faith for us when we were incapable of these for ourselves. He believed, had faith, trusted His Father through the Word and was in fact the living Word, the Word come alive. It is by God’s overall attitude, grace, that His caring acceptance and desire to restore us enabled us to be saved through faith. Faith is that specific quality of God that recovers us, defines us and makes us whole. It opens the door to His love, His mercy, His forgiveness and all the fullness of Him living in our hearts.

Next we are going to look at what the Resurrection did for our minds, hearts and spirits. So stay tuned…………