Forgiveness, the Resurrection of God

“Death could not hold Him down, for He is risen,” we might commonly sing, especially on Resurrection Sunday, when we might also hear, “He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!”

Like for the Cross, 
the Resurrection is once for all time.

Christ defeated death and death remains overcome.  Since Christ defeated death, He defeats it for you and I—though we will pass over the cusp at our appointed time, to enter the glory that He, that is Christ Jesus, prepared in advance for us.

Jesus’ finest work was the Cross.  The Cross summed up His life’s work and His life’s purpose.  But it was merely an antecedent for the work of God in defeating everything that Satan could or would ever hold against us.

The Cross can never be underplayed 
for it is the final transaction needed 
to acquit humankind.

But the Cross alone, 
though it is an eternal victory all itself, 
merely sets up the conditions for the final victory.

The Cross is forgiveness, 
God’s grace manifest mercifully.
The Resurrection is forgiveness, 
God’s grace manifesting life’s abundance.

... with no threat to that abundance.

~

WHEN RESURRECTION IS DESTINY

Resurrection was Jesus’ destiny.  The Old Testament presents the theme of resurrection, in Job, in Psalms, in Hosea, in Isaiah, in Ezekiel, and finally in Daniel.  Victory is foreseen and foretold again and again and again in Scripture.

Resurrection is our destiny, too, when we are IN Jesus.  Jesus, in His final night’s teaching, tells His disciples in John 14, that “My Father’s house has many rooms...”

As it was for the first disciples, 
we are to be at peace.

Death has been put to death, 
even if we must die to live eternally.

And yet, death has been put to death 
in the life-giving force of forgiveness.

Bitterness that leads to hardness of heart is death.
But there is resurrection life in the mercy that forgives.

Forgiveness bears the power of resurrection life.

FORGIVENESS RESURRECTS HOPE, OR LIFE

Either way it is put is true.  Forgiveness resurrects our hope, or our life.  It gives us what we otherwise did not have.  It gives us hope or life we did not previously have access to.

When we cannot forgive, we render to that relationship death in terms of its hopes for another chance.  But when forgiveness comes into view, all hopes, and all life, are restored.  The ledger is balanced.  The scales, as in the balance of justice, are restored.  This is because it is as if injustice has been righted.

In forgiveness, we transfer debts to the rightful Judge. 
We get out of God’s way.

There is wisdom in forgiveness, 
a wisdom we cannot fully know, 
until we “live again.”

When we consider what has taken place at the Cross and through the Resurrection, we are rightfully astonished as to this grace that saves us.  When we consider it is done once for all time without any need of any recompense—knowing our need is of constant saving—we may well fall to the floor.

Our falling is for two reasons.  1) because we know how far from God we are, and 2) because our breath is taken away by the breathtaking nature of a grace we can never truly understand.

Our forgiveness is inspired by God’s forgiveness, 
just as “we love because He first loved us.”
(—1 John 4:19)

As God’s forgiveness resurrects 
our hope, and gives us life, 
our forgiveness resurrects others’ hopes, 
and it gives them and us life.

We know this is true through experience.
Every time we extend mercy we, 
ourselves, are given life.

~

WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS

The old hymn is instructive.  It is as if the ancients have always known what we have only come into five minutes ago.  We are late to the party, but so will those be one-hundred years from now. 

The eternal sweep of God’s grace in holy and eternal forgiveness—in cosmic understanding of our need and His capacity—breaks forth in the Cross that does the work and the Resurrection that delivers the final victory and power for hope and life.

Everything is sorted, as 
everything was always sorted.

There is nothing left to do 
other than follow the lead 
of the One who was, 
who is, and who is to come.

We have a friend in Jesus 
that we have EVER needed.

That friendship paves the way for us.
As we live in the light of His grace,
as we long to seek His face,
He will give us our ability to bear our cross,
and what will arrive with it is power.

To forgive is that power:
to raise hopes to life; 
hopes of reconciliation, 
hopes of justice, 
hope eternal.

Our forgiveness is honoured in eternity.

God makes everything right 
and everything new.

Our example is set in Jesus:
the Resurrection comes because of the Cross.

When we submit to be humble, 
we live the death of Jesus 
so others will experience His life.
(—2 Corinthians 4:10)

That, my friends, IS resurrection 
in this life, the resurrection of God 
that forgiveness affords.