The Cross is Not Enough

               What a provocative title, especially coming from me.  I really debated whether I should use that title.  It seems like I am saying that the Cross of Christ does not draw me deeper and fuller into the love of the Father.  By claiming that the cross is not enough, I am not saying that the cross is not the power of God to overcome what is so wrong with the whole world.  The cross is indeed my salvation and my hope.  Without the cross my sins could never be atoned, and I would be cut off from God forever.  Silver or gold cannot even compare to the cross as the inestimable value of the cross.  The cross and the cross alone held the only power to defeat not just my own, but mankind’s sin problem. As Isaac Watts concludes in my favorite hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.  Have no doubt that I magnify the cross of Christ and will continue to do so all my life.

               However, what I said is true.  The cross was not enough to restore us to relationship with God our Father.  The cross was the payment for our sin, but the resurrection is what overcame death.  Resurrection Sunday reveals that not only has our sin been paid, but that the consequences of death have been overcome.

Why is the Resurrection important?  It could not have happened without the cross.  Romans 4:25 tells us:  He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. The cross without the Resurrection would not have been enough to fix what is so wrong with us.  Jesus’ death was not enough;, it was His victory over sin and death that bound us to eternal damnation and no hope of justification.  He was raised to life for our justification!

1 Corinthians 15:17: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Our faith is in the power of the cross and our salvation that was completed on the day of Resurrection. Christianity hinges on what happened on Easter Sunday when the risen Christ revealed God’s holy plan from the beginning of time.  The Resurrection was the event God warned Satan about in the garden of Eden regarding the offspring of the woman in Genesis 3:5: He [Jesus] will crush your head and you [Satan] will strike his heel.  On the ross Satan struck Jesus’ heel.  But by the empty tomb Jesus crushed Satan’s head.

 Jesus is clear to reveal that He is alive.  In Revelation 1:18: I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. We need a living Lord to unlock the keys of death and Hades.  Our eternal life and freedom from the suffering of this world is mandatory through our personal relationship with our living Christ.

The empty tomb sealed our salvation and our justification!  The cross was mandatory and Jesus knew there was not another way save the cross to pay the debt of sin.  Jesus’ resurrection was the victory over death.  Jesus destroyed death by death.

The cross is glorified by the facts of the resurrection!

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