Grace For The Journey

  Yesterday was Resurrection Sunday!  Our church family joined with other Christians around the world and celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  What a glorious day that was; what a marvelous thing to celebrate!

What the world fails to realize is that for the Christian,

This is something we get to celebrate every Sunday

When we gather to worship the risen Savior and King!

It is something that the Christian also celebrates every day!

The resurrection is the mark of the incredible success of Jesus’ life and ministry upon this earth.  His resurrection conquered not only death but the curse of sin in our lives.

The Bible says in Revelation 21:4 and 22:3, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things have passed away” . . .  “And there will be no more curse . . .”

What a word of encouragement these verses provide for us today!

There is a time coming when there will no longer be any curse, for the old order of things – a world filled with sin, disease, death, and despair – will have passed away.  But even before that great and glorious day, when Jesus returns and consummates His Kingdom completely, He is already reversing the curse inside of each one of us.  That work began in us on the day that we accepted Christ as our Savior and Lord, and God, by grace through faith, raised us from death to life and we surrendered control of our lives to Him.

The curse was a result of Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden.  God gave paradise to our first parents with only one prohibition – just one – but, they did what they were told not to do and plunged all of creation into a terrible sinful condition.  The initial consequence of man’s disobedience began without any further pronounce of judgment from God.  Spiritual death had occurred, as evidenced from Adam and Eve fearing and hiding from God.  Physical death would occur in time.  But God also further pronounced His judgment upon this sin to Satan for deceiving the woman and tempting her to turn away from God; God then pronounced judgment upon Eve, increasing her suffering in childbirth; and finally, He pronounced judgment upon Adam, who would live a life of toil and a constant battle with weeds!

The results were devastating – It was a paradise lost.

But God also made a promise of blessing:

He promised that the Seed of the woman

Would come to crush the serpent’s head.

Jesus is the fulfillment of that divine promise.

He came to reverse the curse.

His sinless life, sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection of Jesus Christ destroyed the works of the devil.

Jesus ultimately became the death of death.

Jesus made a way for us to get back into a right relationship with God.

When we transfer our trust to Christ,

We are given the first-fruit of the reversed curse:

Our justification – peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This was the first thing Adam and Eve lost when they sinned.  They were in fear of God and ran from Him, hiding in the bushes.

But Jesus has reversed this curse for every Christian.

The Christian may approach God with “freedom and confidence” (Ephesians 3:12;Hebrews 4:16; 10:19).  Yet that divine reversal will not be totally complete until we get to the other side of the grave . . . or until the day Jesus returns on the clouds of heaven.

So how should this truth impact our lives?

We must remember that, although the curse was reversed

When Jesus conquered the grave,

We will continue to experience the curse on our way into glory.

We are still broken people living in a broken world, and things don’t always go the way we hope or expect them to.  When we find ourselves experiencing a bit of the curse in some area of our life, we must remember that the day is coming when there will no longer be any curse, for the old order of things will pass away.

May that promise empower you to rise above the challenges of daily living, knowing that Jesus is alive, that He redeemed us from the curse of sin, and that He who began a good work in you will one day bring it to completion!

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey

… Rest And Rejoice In The Wonderful Truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”