To Live is Death, to Die is Life

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Comment by Colby Chase on May 30, 2011 at 4:23pm

Don't be surprised if someone's first reaction to the title of your blog is, Whhhhaaaat?!

 

You see, a great many people will find it hard to wrap themselves around the idea that there is life in death; that "to die is life."  This really goes against the grain. It's the "foolishness of the cross" to many.

 

Yet, as we know, the agonizingly slow and excruciatingly painful death of Jesus, beaten and nailed to  the cross, wearing a "crown" of bloodied thorns, isn't the end.  On the third day, Jesus defeated death, having been resurrected by the power of God the Father.

 

"... our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10).

 

 

Comment by Colby Chase on May 29, 2011 at 1:11pm

None of us can comprehend who Jesus is and know Him in a personal way Without seeing the suffering Jesus on the hard wood of the cross.

We see the crown of thorns pressed into His brow in ridicule of the kingdom of God among us humans; in rejection of God’s authority in our lives and in the world.  Seeing Jesus, beaten and bruised, skin torn away from His body by the lashing of the whip. We see His hands, we see His feet pierced by the nails driven there to hold Him to the hard wood of the cross.

 

We see Jesus in a new light. On the cross, He offers His life to take on our sins and the sins of the whole world.  We see His precious blood washing us clean of our multitude of sins.  We see Jesus as He opens the way for us to be made right with God the Father and to have eternal life.

Comment by Colby Chase on May 28, 2011 at 10:03pm

Very well said, Kristen. This same man, "beaten bloody, beyond recognition," his body nailed to a cross enduring a slow and painful death, had unimaginable power. He could have called down fire upon the Samaritan town that rejected him (Luke 9:54); he could have asked his Father to send twelve legions of angels to spare him from crucifixion (Matthew 26:53). He is powerful, indeed – powerful enough to make the blind see and the crippled to walk, to cast out demons, to bring the dead back to life, to bring those dead in sin to conversion, and to rise from the dead never to die again. And he will come again in glory, that the faithful may share in this risen life.