New Life Because of the Resurrection of Jesus

Some thoughts from 1 Corinthians 15:1-19-

People believe that Jesus’ death is the reason we have eternal life. That death was the death we should have died because of our sinfulness. However, it's his resurrection that gives us the eternal life we have been promised. Paul is reminding the Corinthian church about this message he had preached- one that they all believed in, and that if they do not hold firmly to it, their faith is all for nothing. Putting faith in Christ and His resurrection is not something to be taken lightly. If the Holy Spirit lives within you, then you really believe that Jesus was and is the redeemer for our sin. This is not something you can take back, and if you think it can be taken back or taken away, then you never had it in the first place. That is why Paul says to hold firmly to it, or els you have not really believed.

Paul gives all the further proof that they and we should need to continue in our faith- that according to all we put our faith in, the Holy Scriptures, Jesus carried out what was written. He then goes on to tell the testimony of those who had seen him after death to give further proof of a resurrection, and through that resurrection of Jesus, we receive new life. Paul also gives a little of his testimony before he followed Christ, and how undeserving he was of God's favor. But, since receiving new life, he worked all that much harder to prove he deserved God's gift.

Those who do not believe in any resurrection and keep Jesus on the cross as a martyr are not preaching a full Gospel message, and if Jesus is really just a dead person and not raised to life, then we are worse off than anyone else- we still live in our sin thinking we are forgiven. Praise God that Jesus came to put an end to spiritual death through His death and resurrection. From that resurrection, we get new life and full connection to God.

So, Jesus raised to new life or not? You cannot believe half the Gospel- that Jesus took our punishment physically but was not raised to life after death. The resurrection is what gives us proof that we have been forgiven through that death. Anyone can give their life to take punishment for someone else. God proved that He has forgiven us through Jesus’ death by raising him from death, and now we have the ability to be raised from spiritual death.

What About The 10 Commandments?

10 simple/basic rules to follow from Exodus 20:1-17:

1. Do not worship any gods other than God. Speaks for itself, the number one and most important of all the commandments. Some people ask or wonder if God is conceited by always talking about Himself. Why not? Isn’t He God? If He elevated anything or anyone over Himself, God would be breaking His own first commandment.
2. Don’t make and worship any images of anything created by God, but love God and obey Him. Idol worship is huge all over Asia. Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism all have idol worship where people bow down to statues of images over bowing before the Creator of those images. We also make images in our hearts- anything we put before God is showing that we love that thing over God, and He tells us to love Him with all of our hearts by obeying Him.
3. Do not misuse God’s name. Using God’s name as a curse word. How easy we do it when we are angry. Even further- don’t use God’s name to profit. So many people over the history of the world have used God’s name to make money, go to war, kill, etc. That is misuse of God’s name, and He says He will punish those who do so.
4. Remember the Sabbath Day. There is a lot of controversy is over this commandment. Work for 6 days, but on the 7th day do no work and rest. God gave us at least one day of rest in the week- a day that we should take and dedicate to God. Many people think it has to be Sunday, which is for church gatherings to dedicate and worship God. Actually, Sunday is the first day of the week, so the seventh day is Saturday (I am not a 7th Day Adventist). Sunday is a day when most people around the world take off from work, so it was the day that was set to worship God and gather in church, and has remained the traditional day to set aside for church gatherings. God only wants us to take a day of rest for our health. God did not need rest- he never needs rest, but He set up a day of rest for us, and with that we should remember our God in our hearts. It doesn’t matter what day, just that one of those 7 days should be set aside for rest and to replenish our spirits by resting in God.
5. Respect your father and mother. Give them the honor that they deserve, but do not honor them over God, and if they break God’s commands and reject Him, still respect them, but follow God in every way. “What if they tell me to not follow God? Do I still respect them and honor them?” God takes precedence over this. We follow His commandment to love Him and no one or thing above Him. There may come a time when we shake the dust off our feet if this relationship interferes with our relationship with God- we honor God first and most, but through that love of God we also love our parents.
6. Do not murder. We make the argument that we are good people because we have not murdered anyone. That’s good, but Jesus takes this commandment further. He says that if we have anger in our hearts toward another person- if we hate them, then we commit murder in our hearts. God is concerned not only by our physical obedience, but our spiritual obedience, and that comes from our heart.
7. Do not commit adultery. Be faithful to your spouse in marriage. Perhaps easy enough, but Jesus takes this one further also. He says when we look at another woman and wanter her or lust after her, we have already committed the act of adultery in our hearts.
8. Do not steal. This means anything. If we don’t rob banks, we think we’re okay. But, if we steal anything, even something very small, which means taking something without paying for it, we are guilty of breaking this commandment. Some controversy has come up from this commandment also. What if someone is starving, and they have to steal to eat? Stealing is bad, and it is in the heart that we conceive the plot to steal. If we confess to follow God, we put our trust in Him to provide EVERYTHING we need, and He will provide. When we steal, we jump over what God plans to bless us with- we go behind His back or around His plan. Wait on the Lord, and He will give you what you need.
9. Don’t tell lies. Be truthful always. When we lie, it does no good. Satan is the father of all lies, and when we start to lie, we wind up in ruins. We can lie to men, but when that lie is told, God knows it and we cannot hide from Him. Annanais and Sapphira learned this rule in Acts 5. We will know it when we face judgment, that God knows all our secrets that we try to hide from men, and those will be judged by God.
10. Don’t want your neighbor’s stuff. Be happy with what you have. If you wallow in pity over not having what someone else has, you will be really unhappy, and you are showing that you are not trusting in God. If you lust after the things that someone else has, you will begin to have evil thoughts, jealousy, anger and greed.

The 10 Commandments are not just a guideline, they are commands given to us by the One True God of the universe. We are to keep them in our hearts so that when difficult temptations come, we can remember God’s commands and obey them, which is a way that we show Him our love.

Total Forgiveness- Because of Jesus

In Philippians 2:3-11, Paul goes into more detail about who Jesus is, and how we should imitate him and why. The “Golden Rule” of treat others as you want to be treated is good, but Paul takes it a step further- treat others as better than yourself, and by doing this you follow Jesus’ example. This is the unconditional love that God gave us through Jesus, and that we are unable to love anyone or consider others better than ourselves without feeling and accepting the unconditional love of God.

Jesus was around at the beginning- the human likeness of God, and everything was made through him and for his glory. Paul says, however, that he gave up his high position and in humility became like one of us. He was born like us, he died a horrible and painful death even though he didn’t have to, and because of this Jesus has been given a name that is above all other names.

And at the name of Jesus, EVERY person will bow down both in heaven, on earth and under the earth. That means everyone, even those who are doomed to eternal punishment. This does not mean that those under eternal punishment will then get a pardon, but at the judgment, they will acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Those that have rejected Jesus on this earth while alive will realize too late that they should have bowed during their life. So every person who has ever lived will bow to Jesus one day and openly confess that Jesus is Lord.

Those that have not confessed Jesus is Lord have one chance to get right with God, and it is while they are here on earth and they still have a voice to confess with. In a conversation with Wut (pronounced Woot) one of my Buddhist Thai friends, who has been asking many questions about Jesus and God, I explained about the Judgment and why we need Jesus. I tried to explain that while we are here on earth, we must accept the punishment that Jesus took for us, and confess that Jesus is Lord to be connected with God and live in eternity in heaven. He asked if it was okay to ask forgiveness and accept Jesus at the Judgment. Tough question to answer, but I told him no- we are to confess Jesus is Lord before we face judgment in order to be eternally forgiven. He asked if he could just ask forgiveness on his death bed. That question was answered with a question of “Do you know when you are going to die?” We could be taken any time, and if we have not confessed before we sit before God in judgment, we will remain eternally separated from God.

God has made it easy for us- confess our sins and believe that Christ was raised from the dead because he died for us. We've been given the gift of our sins being paid for in total forgiveness. We can remember what we were, but we celebrate who we are because of Christ and his sacrifice to glorify God and bring us back into connection and community with the Father.

Again, Who Is Jesus?

In Philippians 2:3-11, Paul goes into more detail about who Jesus is, and how we should imitate him and why. The “Golden Rule” of treat others as you want to be treated is good, but Paul takes it a giant step further- treat others as better than yourself, and by doing this you follow Jesus’ example. This is the unconditional love that God gave us through Jesus, and that we are unable to love anyone or consider others better than ourselves without feeling and accepting the unconditional love of God.

Jesus was around at the beginning- the human likeness of God, and everything was made through him and for his glory. Paul says, however, that he gave up his high position and in humility became like one of us. He was born like us, he died a horrible and painful death even though he didn’t have to, and because of this Jesus has been given a name that is above all other names.

And at the name of Jesus, EVERY person will bow down both in heaven, on earth and under the earth. That means everyone, even those who are doomed to eternal punishment. This does not mean that those under eternal punishment will then get a pardon, but at the judgment, they will acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Those that have rejected Jesus on this earth while alive will realize too late that they should have bowed during their life. So every person who has ever lived will bow to Jesus one day and openly confess that Jesus is Lord.

Those that have not confessed Jesus is Lord have one chance to get right with God, and it is while they are here on earth and they still have a voice to confess with. In a conversation with Wut (pronounced Woot) one of my Buddhist Thai friends, who has been asking many questions about Jesus and God, I explained about the Judgment and why we need Jesus. I tried to explain that while we are here on earth, we must accept the punishment that Jesus took for us, and confess that Jesus is Lord to be connected with God and live in eternity in heaven. He asked if it was okay to ask forgiveness and accept Jesus at the Judgment. Tough question to answer, but I told him no- we are to confess Jesus is Lord before we face judgment in order to be eternally forgiven. He asked if he could just ask forgiveness on his death bed. That question was answered with a question of “Do you know when you are going to die?” We could be taken any time, and if we have not confessed before we sit before God in judgment, we will remain eternally separated from God.

Who Is Jesus & Why Do We Need Him?

If there is any question or doubt about who Jesus is, Paul writes about it in Colossians 1:13-23 and gives us clear teaching on the supremacy of Christ.

God has brought us into His kingdom through the redemption of our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus, who, as Paul says is the exact image of the invisible God. Jesus looks exactly like God. Not only does Jesus look like God, He is in every way exactly like God. Jesus is not just another God separate from the Father, but the image of the invisible God. All things were created by Jesus and for Jesus, which means Jesus existed in the beginning, but came to earth at the specific time to carry out the plan of redemption for mankind. Everything is held together by Christ, who is said to be the head of the body, which is the church. He leads the church, and we make up the parts of the church body. No one but Jesus leads the church, and therefore no one is said to be the head of the body except for Jesus.

The passage says in verse 18 that Jesus was the first to be raised from the dead. This statement is confusing to many, because wasn't Lazarus was raised from the dead (John 11) as was a young boy at a funeral (Luke 7), and a young girl (Matthew 9)? Why does it say here that Jesus was the first to be raised from the dead if those others were said to be raised first? The others who were raised still died physically. They were brought back to life, but not to eternal living status. Jesus, when he was raised from the dead, is still living today, and through that resurrection we also have eternal life. Anyone can take punishment for someone else. What Jesus did was to take punishment for all mankind, and to make it legitimate, God raised Jesus to solidify that the punishment was enough. It is the proof that everyone’s sins were paid for through the punishment Jesus took on the cross. We could not have eternal life without the death and resurrection of Christ.

Paul also says that God made peace with us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The only way we have peace in ourselves is through our peace with God, so Jesus came to live on earth and die to bring us into peace with God. We may look for peace in many things, but God is the only one who can give everlasting peace. “I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give. It isn’t like the peace this world can give. So don’t be worried or afraid.” -John 14:27(CEV).

Because of this peace through Jesus, God allows us to stand in His presence without blame and free from accusation of sin. Jesus paid the penalty that we deserve. For this love that God showed us, Paul tells us to remain firm in our faith. The gospel is still our best hope for an eternal connection to God.

Tough words to follow sometimes, but very true. If Jesus is who every follower of Christ says he is, we can point here in Colossians for the concrete description of who Jesus is and why we need him. Jesus is the mediator between us and God (1Timothy 2:5). Just like someone who mediates between two enemies and brings peace, Jesus mediates between us and God to bring us into God’s peace. Jesus also says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. Without me, no one can go to the Father.” (John 14:6) It's pretty clear that Jesus is the only way to connect with God, that by accepting Jesus' sacrifice for us, we can be connected to God and have God’s peace and forgiveness, which give us access to Him, and He therefore sends us the Holy Spirit to help us follow Him. God loves us, and came to us in the person of Jesus so that we could live in community with God again.